These candied yams are sweet potatoes coated in brown sugar, butter, honey, and cinnamon, then baked to perfection.
This classic holiday side dish goes perfectly with loaded mac and cheese, honey jalapeno cheddar cornbread, and baked ham with brown sugar glaze.
Why I Love These Baked Candied Yams
These candied yams are definitely a comfort dish and an excellent source of Potassium and Vitamin C.
These yams will make your house smell incredible!
Rich, decadent, and super easy to make.
Ingredient Notes
Yams – Feel free to use any red or orange flesh sweet potatoes for this recipe.
Orange Zest – It adds flavor and balances the sweetness. I highly recommend adding it.
Top Tips
This recipe is super versatile and very forgiving. Feel free to add a pinch of pumpkin pie spice or any spice you like.
Place any leftovers in an air-tight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Add some walnuts or pecans for some crunch!
What Should I Do If My Glaze Is Too Runny?
You may add some cornstarch and water to thicken up the glaze. I recommend mixing 2 tspcornstarch and 2 tspwater and then stirring it into the glaze. After you add the cornstarch and water let the glaze cook for an additional 10 minutes or until it’s nicely thickened. Although, if you cook the yams uncovered in the oven, the glaze should thicken nicely without cornstarch.
Should I Add Marshmallows?
I personally don’t like adding miniature marshmallows on top of my candied yams because I find them sweet enough without the marshmallows.
More Side Dishes You’ll Probably Enjoy
Creamy Garlic Butter Mushrooms
Slow Cooker Creamed Corn
Air Fryer Sweet Potatoes
Honey Roasted Carrots
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These baked candied yams are the ultimate Thanksgiving side dish. The candy glaze will coat the yams perfectly. Your entire family will be begging you for more.
Ingredients
6sweet potatoespeeled and sliced into 1-inch slices
1/4cupwhite sugar
1cupbrown sugar
3tbsphoney
4tbspunsalted butter
1tspcinnamon
2tspvanilla extract
1/4tspnutmeg
salt to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Scrub the yams clean, peel, and cut into 1-2 inch slices.
Place the sliced yams in a baking dish and set aside.
To make the glaze, place the butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, white sugar, brown sugar, honey, and salt in a saucepan and cook over medium-highheat.
When the mixture thickens and starts to bubble, turn the heat off.
Stir in the vanilla extract.
Pour the glaze all over the yams.
Cover and cook for 40 minutes.
Uncover and baste the yams with the glaze. Cook for an additional 45minutes uncovered. Once the 45 minutes are up, baste the yams with the glaze and cook for an additional 30 minutes or until the yams are nice and tender.
Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Cooking time depends on how thick or thin you cut the sweet potatoes.
Hi Julie, I was almost in despair. I had used your recipe last month and made THE BEST candied yams I ever ate. I don’t like the marshmallows. But low and behold I couldn’t find your recipe. Thank the good Lord for HISTORY!!! LOL Love them baked like this. Much better than boiling them. Thank you!!
Reply
Brunosays
Looks really delicious! Definitely going to make this for the next family get-together. Thanks for sharing the recipe, keep up the good work!
Yams and sweet potatoes differ in flavor and appearance, and they are not related. Sweet potatoes are in the morning glory family, while yams belong to the lily family. Yams aren't as sweet as sweet potatoes, and they are starchier and drier. Their texture and flavor are more similar to potatoes or yuca.
Do you boil yams before baking? Boiling yams before baking help reduce the baking time. You can certainly boil them before cooking but I love yams that have been slowly roasted in the oven.
Drain the syrup: This is a key move so your candied yams don't turn out runny due to too much liquid in the baking dish. Place the drained yams into a medium baking dish.
Secondly, they're already cooked by the time you get them in the can- all you need to do if you want them hot rather than cold is heat them up, whether in the microwave, or in the oven with the rest of your meal. If you want to add marshmallows or other sweet stuff, just heat until they're at the temperature you want.
Although both veggies are very close in fiber, protein, vitamin C, and magnesium, sweet potatoes are the healthier option because they are lower in overall calories, lower in carbohydrates, and higher in beta carotene (vitamin A).
If you're able to find true yams in your supermarket, they can be prepared just like your favorite potato recipes—boiled, roasted, baked, or fried. But if sweet, candied recipes are what you're after, you probably want to stick to using sweet potatoes.
Baking sweet potatoes caramelizes their natural sugars, especially when done whole. It intensifies their flavor and creates a richer taste compared to boiling, which can result in a watered-down, bland flavor.
If you'd like a more precise indicator, insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the sweet potato. The internal temperature of a cooked sweet potato should read between 205- and 212-degrees Fahrenheit.
Boiling sweet potatoes retains more beta-carotene and makes the nutrient more absorbable than other cooking methods such as baking or frying. Up to 92% of the nutrient can be retained by limiting the cook time, such as boiling in a pot with a tightly covered lid for 20 minutes.
Despite what your grandmother says, this cloying side dish didn't originate as a family recipe. It was concocted by Big Marshmallow as a way to push the candy on Americans. Though the tubers are high in sugar to begin with, there's historical precedent for treating sweet potatoes like dessert.
The ooze is actually referred to as "sap." It is made up of sugar and starch combined with the moisture found in the vegetable, and it escapes out of the damage made from the knife. The sap really equals the sweetness. If it's pouring out of your potato, that means it's a sweet and delicious vegetable.
Rinsing sweet potatoes of any leftover sugary film will uphold their integrity, giving you the most authentic sweet potato taste and texture. Most sweet potato recipes value the natural taste and texture of the yam first and foremost, adding sugar or seasonings separately instead of incorporating the canning liquid.
Empty the contents of the canned yams into a colander and give them a good rinse under cold water. This will help remove any excess syrup and reduce the sweetness of the dish.
The best canned yams (aka canned sweet potatoes) are sweet, tender, and taste as good as fresh yams when you use them to make candied yams or a sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving.
In the 1930s, a new orange version was cultivated, and to differentiate it from the white sweet potatoes, farmers borrowed the slang phrase "yams" that slaves from West Africa had used to describe them. Sweet potatoes reminded them of an African vegetable called nyami (watch Alton Brown's segment on this here).
Sweet potatoes tend to have a more tapered shape and may be firm or soft with thinner skin. Generally, sweet potatoes taste sweeter than yams. You will more readily encounter sweet potatoes during your regular grocery run, but if you spot a yam, which may be labeled "sweet potato," you'll know the truth.
Yams are starchy and have a rough, brown exterior. They can grow up to 45 feet long and are eaten in parts of Latin America, West Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia. Sweet potatoes are a New World root vegetable and have a softer, reddish skin and a creamier, often darker interior.
What is another name for candied yams? Because candied yams are actually made with sweet potatoes, this dish may also be called candied sweet potatoes.
Introduction: My name is Carlyn Walter, I am a lively, glamorous, healthy, clean, powerful, calm, combative person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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