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Glazed Sweet Potatoes
6 sweet potatoes Salt and pepper Butter 1 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup water Boil the potatoes without paring them, and, when tender, drain and strip off the skins. Make a thick sirup of the sugar and water. Cut each potato in half, dip it in the sirup, lay in a baking-dish, season each piece with salt and pepper, a bit of butter. Bake in a quick oven until the potatoes are brown. They will brown quickly.
A simple two-stage method: the potatoes are boiled in their skins first, then finished in a hot oven with a brown-sugar syrup. The hinge is the oven heat — the sugar is already cooked, so the pan only needs long enough to caramelize and blister.
- A quick ovenRoughly 400-450F. At that heat the glazed halves should colour in about 15-20 minutes; the recipe's warning that "they will brown quickly" is literal, since sugar syrup can scorch quickly once it starts to darken.
- Boiling in the skinsLeaving the peel on keeps the flesh from waterlogging and makes the skins slip off easily. Medium potatoes take 25–35 minutes in simmering water; test with a skewer rather than by the clock, as sizes vary widely.
- A thick sirupOne cup brown sugar to a quarter cup water is a heavy syrup. Bring it to a boil and let it bubble two or three minutes until it coats a spoon — no candy thermometer needed, and do not take it past a light thread stage or it will set hard on the potatoes.
- Butter quantityNo amount is given. About a teaspoon per half, or roughly 4 tablespoons dotted over the whole dish, is in keeping.
- Salt and pepperSeasoning the sweetened potatoes is deliberate and worth keeping; black pepper against brown sugar is what separates this from a dessert.
- Baking-dishUse a shallow dish or a rimmed sheet pan large enough to hold the halves in one layer, cut side up. Crowded pieces steam instead of glazing. Pour any leftover syrup over them partway through.
- YieldTwelve halves — six servings as a side dish, or four generous ones.