Purple Candied Yams



For the past two years Matt and I have grown purple sweet potatoes. Every year we harvest them within the first week of December because that is usually when the first frost occurs.

Last year year the first frost was a blistery and sunny 32 degrees, barely, and it briefly froze the ground. However, it was still enough to force to harvest within a few days.  We ended up harvesting a 9 pound monster we dubbed "Purple Urkle".

The reason for harvesting  around the first frost is because the potatoes can begin to rot if the ground freezes and harvesting rotten potatoes would be sort of pointless and pretty gross. 
Since the harvest occurs in December that means we have sweet potatoes right in time Christmas dinner and baking.

This year, we had 24 hours to make the harvest due to a little Southern Snow Surprise. 

The little snow covered bush at the bottom of this photo was our sweet potato box. What you see are the slips/roots. 
Luckily, this snow happened overnight between Thursday and Friday so that meant I would have the weekend to get it done asap. This year we only grew purple sweet potatoes because we prefer their texture and taste to the yellow sweet potatoes PLUS the deep purple colour is absolutely beautiful.

I ended up waiting until Saturday morning so the dirt could warm up a bit. It was still so very cold out when I started the harvest and only got colder when I had to start rinsing everything.
This year we ended up with 14(ish) pounds of purple sweet potatoes. We also ended up with relatively similar sizes and shapes, which was actually nice. Even though harvesting the monster the year before was entertaining and gave us a great story to tell; however it was way too hard to find use for something so big.

I could drone on about the harvesting process and plans for your next crop, but I will save that for a different day and get straight to why you are here. The candied yams! 



Ingredients
Hardware
"Filling"
3 1/2 pounds purple sweet potatoes
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup marshmallows
1/4 cup butter
"Crust"
1 cup walnuts
1/4 cup butter
"Topping"
2 cups marshmallows
Pot with lid
Mixer
Measuring utensils
Baking dish
Peeler
Knife
Cutting Board

Time to get cooking



  • Peel, cube, and boil sweet potatoes until a fork goes in easily. 
  • Drain for 10 minutes. You want them on the drier side.
  • Put the walnuts into a bag and crush them into small pieces. 
  • Melt butter and mix walnuts together
  • Press into bottom of baking dish
  • In stand mixer mash the sweet potatoes and melted butter together
  • Pour in the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt
  • Mix together for 2 minutes
  • Pour in 1/2 cup marshmallows and mix until desired mix.
  • Drop half the mashed potatoes into the Walnut lined baking dish. Spread gently adding more when needed. Be care when spreading as the walnuts will move if you press to hard. 
  • Heat oven the 350.
  • Layer 1 to 1 1/2 cups marshmallows on top
  • Bake for 20 minutes or until marshmallows are at desired gooeyness. 






These ended up being a massive hit. I made two batches and took one to Christmas Adam and one to Christmas Day Dinner. My MIL raved about them at Christmas Adam and asked if I would be making them for Christmas Dinner. At both occasions she became a salesperson for the dish. At Christmas dinner her sister was bombarding me with questions about the recipe itself as well as how to grow purple sweet potatoes and where you get them from (hint: ME! once the slips get going in February of course.) So you could basically say this recipe now has a cult following.

Nutrition Info for Macro Counters



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