Meltingly soft, deliciously tasty! It’s easy to make simple baked sweet potatoes extra-special with this spiced butter topping. A gorgeous side dish.
It’s astonishing what you can do with just three simple ingredients. These baked sweet potatoes are a perfect, virtually-no-effort Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year) side dish, and they are SO simple to make!
You could also serve these baked sweet potatoes as a light lunch or supper, with nothing more than a lovely green salad. Meltingly soft, sweet, and deliciously tasty. You won’t regret the two and half minutes of input required to make these!
Of course you can tell everyone how much trouble you went to, but probably no-one will believe you. Better instead to remind the diners how the simplest things in life are often the best, as demonstrated by these fabulous baked sweet potatoes.
My daughter Kipper is a big fan of the sweet potato generally and scoffed loads. DH claimed they were, “too buttery.” Can anything really be too buttery? I don’t think so. You can always let people add their own butter if you think they’re likely to be fussy about it.
If you are planning to serve these as part of a Rosh Hashanah menu, you might also like to drizzle a little honey over your spice-buttered baked sweet potato. I was all for this, but DH, who is diabetic and scorns anything with added sugar, was extremely disapproving. It is gilding the lily a little bit, as the potatoes are pretty sweet to start with. I leave the suggestion with you – do with it what you will.
Finally, I beat the butter in my mini-chopper, which meant that even that minimal effort was taken care of by a gadget. If you do beat the butter by hand, let it come to room temperature first. Much easier to do if your butter is soft to start with.
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Baked sweet potatoes with spiced butter
Ingredients
- 800 g sweet potatoes (about 8 small ones) (approx. 28 oz)
- 60 g butter (approx. ¼ cup)
- ½-1 teaspoon mixed spice
- 1-2 tablespoon honey - optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Wash the sweet potatoes and prick each one several times with a fork. Arrange the potatoes on the baking sheet so they are not touching one another.
- Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 45 minutes - 1 hour, until soft and cooked through.
- Meanwhile, beat the butter and mixed spice together. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate.
- When the sweet potatoes are cooked, cut a slit in each one and insert a knob of the spiced butter. Drizzle over some honey if desired, and serve straightaway.
Notes
Nutrition
If you’re after more Rosh Hashanah recipes, check out this epic list of over 80 recipes using traditional ingredients.
David
So what is the “mixed spice”?
Helen
Hi David. Mixed spice is a traditional British spice blend that’s popular in baking and desserts. It’s very similar to pumpkin pie spice in the USA, and you can substitute that if you have it. Alternatively you can mix together cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and cloves to achieve something similar.