Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Twice baked sweet potato recipe: The perfect fall side that’s super easy to make

This is one of our favorite sweet potato recipes

Lindsay Parrill
By
Twice baked sweet potatoes
Lindsay Parrill/The Manual

Twice-baked potatoes are one of those indulgently satisfying, comforting, cheesy sides that warm to the absolute core. But when you twice-bake a sweet potato, all of those comforting feelings get a savory autumn upgrade that’s unparalleled in both taste and coziness. Twice-baked sweet potatoes are the perfect fall dish. They’re simple enough to enjoy as dinner itself, sitting on the sofa under a big quilt, or as an impressive side dish on a holiday as special as Thanksgiving.

Of course, sweet potato recipes are abundant this time of year, but this one, in our opinion, takes the cake. Baking sweet potatoes is exactly like baking regular potatoes. Simply wash, pierce with a fork, rub a little oil for crispy skin, and bake. Once cooked through, that beautifully orange filling is scooped out and mixed with just about anything you like, from cream cheese to butter and herbs to marshmallow fluff. This is a great recipe to experiment with all of your favorite fall flavors.

Twice baked sweet potato
Lindsay Parrill/The Manual

Twice-baked sweet potato recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 sweet potatoes, cleaned and pierced with a fork
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 stick butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream, warmed
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Toasted pecan pieces (optional garnish)
  • Gruyere cheese, finely grated (optional garnish)
Recommended Videos

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 425F.
  2. Rub sweet potatoes with olive oil and place directly on oven racks.
  3. Bake sweet potatoes in the oven until completely cooked through, about 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of the sweet potatoes.
  4. Cool cooked potatoes until they are easy to handle, then cut a wide slit in the top of each, scooping out most of the flesh inside, and transfer to a mixing bowl.
  5. Using a potato masher, mash together sweet potato filling, butter, cream, garlic, maple syrup, thyme, salt and pepper until smooth.
  6. Using a spoon, carefully fill the hollow potato skins with the prepared filling and top with cheese, if desired.
  7. Broil on high for 2-3 minutes until warmed through and the top is starting to brown.
  8. Garnish with additional gruyere and pecan pieces, if desired.
  9. Serve immediately.

Twice baked sweet potato

Twice-baked sweet potato tips and tricks

  1. Pricking potatoes (regular or sweet) with a fork before baking is an important step that shouldn’t be skipped. It allows steam to escape so that the spuds don’t explode in the oven. This doesn’t happen all the time, but why risk it?
  2. How long to bake sweet potatoes really depends on their size. Start checking them at around 40 minutes. When you pierce them with a fork, it should slide with no resistance.
  3. When scooping out the sweet potato filling, be careful to leave a bit of flesh inside the skin. If all of the flesh inside is removed, the skin may tear and will be difficult to handle.
  4. We love the added sweetness of maple syrup in this recipe, but if you prefer your sweet potatoes more on the savory side, feel free to leave it out. Alternatively, you could add a little sweetness with honey or agave nectar.
  5. If you do like a lot of sweetness, you can always add more with your topping choices. Marshmallows are delicious on twice-baked sweet potatoes. Simply press a few onto the top of the filling before broiling for a sinfully sticky and delicious addition. You could also use candied pecans instead of toasted ones for a sugary crunch.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lindsay Parrill
Lindsay Parrill
Contributor
Lindsay is a graduate of California Culinary Academy, Le Cordon Bleu, San Francisco, from where she holds a degree in…
These amazing Halloween cocktails are super easy to make
Find your favorite Halloween drink on this list
The Nightmare on 27th Street drink

Halloween is upon us, which means haunted houses, slasher flicks, and tasty Halloween cocktails. So, even if you're planning on staying in and watching Halloween movies, or if you're planning on putting on your best wigs and looking for a reason to celebrate, we've got the Halloween cocktail recipes for any occasion.

There are two routes one can take when it comes to hyper-festive holiday cocktails. You can go the corny route (looking at you, St. Patrick's Day green beer), or you can embrace the day with a proper cocktail drink that's as good as it is reflective of its spooky context. We're not above a cocktail made with Freddy Kruger's blades or garnished with a witch hat and broom. But you can still have fun without having to hunt down all of the related kitsch. Here are some of the best cocktails to whip up this Halloween.

Read more
How to make butterscotch sauce for all of your favorite fall desserts
Butterscotch sauce can be a delightful topping for so many things
Homemade butterscotch cupcakes with caramel syrup and cream cheese frosting

Depending on a few factors - mainly your age - butterscotch is one of those flavors that's automatically associated with one of two things. Either warm and spiced comforting fall treats, enjoyed by the fire after an afternoon of jumping in crisp leaves. Or, linty gold-wrapped candies stuck to old coins in the bottom of our grandmothers' handbags. Unfortunately, the latter - somehow always loudly and lengthily unwrapped during a reverently hushed church service - is too often how we think of this beautiful fall flavor. It's time to change that.
What is butterscotch?
There's often a bit of confusion as to the difference between butterscotch and its more popular cousin, caramel. While there are a number of factors that can be discussed here, from flavor additions to texture, the core difference is in the sugar. Caramel is made from granulated (white) sugar, while butterscotch is made from brown sugar. Both confections are made by cooking sugar down and adding cream, but butterscotch has a characteristic spiced flavor that caramel doesn't. That flavor comes from the molasses in brown sugar, and makes butterscotch far richer and more complex on its own. Unlike caramel, whose subtle flavor pairs more easily with a wide array of ingredients.
How to make butterscotch
The beauty behind butterscotch (and caramel, for that matter) is also what can make it a bit intimidating or confusing to the home cook. Just a few simple ingredients can magically transform into anything from a light, sugared sauce to a chewy soft candy with only the difference in cooking time and temperature. Admittedly, it can be a finicky process, but if you know what to look for, making your own butterscotch is a relatively simple process.

Perhaps the most simple (and delicious) butterscotch treat is that of this perfectly balanced, sweet and salty, gifted-from-the-gods butterscotch sauce. While not as mainstream as her rival, chocolate sauce, butterscotch sauce is our favorite this time of year for any number of treats. Give your favorite ice cream a generous pour, mix it into all of your favorite fall-themed coffee drinks and cocktails, or simply eat it with a spoon. It's that good. We won't judge.

Read more
5 easy fall dinner ideas that have nothing to do with pumpkin spice
Fall is more than just pumpkin spice season, you know
Carrot soup

Look, we all love pumpkin spice. Whether we care to admit it or not, it's delicious, and there's just no getting around it. But, as with everything in life, there can be too much of a good thing. This time of year, greedy pumpkin spice is hard to avoid. It even came for Spam, for God's sake.
The thing is, though, fall flavors aren't just about pumpkin spice - no matter what almost every product on the shelf is trying to tell us right now. Fall dinner recipes should include all of the warm and comforting, cozy and homey spicy sweet flavors that make us want to cuddle up by the fire or gleefully purchase yet another flannel shirt.
And while those flavors can be eclipsed by the big round gourd that has the world under its spell this time of year, it's important to remember the equally delicious fall ingredients, like maple and hazelnut, chai, and ginger.
So if you, like us, have been looking for fall dinner ideas, but trying to dodge the annoyingly popular pumpkin spice - even just temporarily - until the crazy dies down, these are some great recipes to try that still feel like fall.

Maple glazed chicken thighs recipe
Ingredients:

Read more