Description
A classic Southern soul food recipe for Southern Candied Yams featuring tender sweet potatoes baked in a rich, buttery, spiced sugar syrup. This comforting side dish is perfect for holidays or everyday meals, delivering warm flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla with a luscious syrupy finish.
Ingredients
Scale
Sweet Potatoes
- 3 lbs sweet potatoes – about 5 medium sweet potatoes
Syrup
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter – sliced into squares, plus more for greasing the baking dish
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup dark brown sugar – packed
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat and prepare dish: Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter a 9 x 13-inch baking dish generously and set it aside.
- Prepare sweet potatoes: Thoroughly wash, peel, and slice the sweet potatoes into ½-inch thick rounds. Arrange the slices evenly in the buttered baking dish and set aside.
- Make the syrup: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Heat until the butter melts and ingredients blend, stirring occasionally. Stir in the vanilla extract and remove from heat. The syrup will be thick and sugar granules won’t be fully dissolved.
- Coat sweet potatoes: Pour the warm butter and sugar mixture evenly over the sweet potatoes. Using a wooden spoon or your hands, gently mix the sweet potato slices in the syrup to ensure each piece is well coated, avoiding dry spots or clumps.
- Bake covered: Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes to begin softening the yams.
- Toss and bake uncovered: Remove the foil carefully, gently toss and rotate the sweet potatoes to evenly absorb the cooking liquid. Continue baking uncovered for an additional 40 minutes until the yams are very tender but not breaking apart and the syrup is glossy and thickened.
- Cool and serve: Let the candied yams cool about 10 minutes in the pan to thicken the syrup further. Serve warm with a slotted spoon, drizzling extra syrup on top for added flavor.
Notes
- Slice sweet potatoes as evenly as possible for uniform cooking; longer, thinner yams are easier to chop.
- The syrup should remain thick and not fully dissolve sugar to avoid hard candy-like texture.
- Adjust sugar quantities based on your preferred sweetness.
- This recipe can be made 1-2 days in advance; reheat in oven before serving or refrigerate uncooked and bake on serving day.
- Test doneness by piercing a sweet potato with a fork; it should be very tender and easy to bite.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container refrigerated for up to 5 days; reheat in microwave or oven.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 280 kcal
- Sugar: 30 g
- Sodium: 200 mg
- Fat: 12 g
- Saturated Fat: 7 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 42 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 30 mg
