Your Oven Isn't Actually The Best Method For Baking Sweet Potatoes

When folks opt for sweet potatoes over their less saccharine cousins, they're hoping for a toothsome experience in every bite. Whether you're using them to add a boost of flavor to chili or making them into an appetizing holiday casserole, the whole point is to make the taste buds do a happy dance as those sugary notes hit the tongue. Baking them in the oven is a go-to method of preparing them for many home cooks, but Stephanie Loaiza from Six Sisters' Stuff insists that teasing out the ultimate sweetness requires a slower approach.

Loaiza argued that people who aren't using a slow cooker to tenderize these tubers are doing themselves a flavor injustice. "To get the sweetest sweet potatoes, you will need to cook them low and slow," she said. "The starchiness in sweet potatoes will break down, resulting in a sweeter taste when it is cooked at a lower temperature range for longer periods of time."

Of course, using a slow cooker won't work for every dish. Baking would still be the preferred method if you're making crispy sweet potato chips, for example. Yet, when a crisp texture isn't the goal, you'll get a more flavorful result with patience. "A slow cooker will keep the heat steady during the long period of time required to sweeten the potatoes," Loaiza said.

Some sweet potato dishes call for baking them in the oven to melt something on top, but that doesn't mean they need to start there. Loaiza contended that giving them the low and slow treatment beforehand to optimize the sweet factor also allows them to cook more predictably. "With the lower, stable temperature and with more moisture trapped as it is cooked with a lid, the slow cooker is a gentler method of cooking," she said. "An oven can be more unpredictable, and the burner could cycle on and off (depending on the type and model)."

For those who have never tried slow cooking sweet potatoes in a slow cooker, it isn't any different than how you would typically use the appliance to make regular spuds (although a little extra time wouldn't hurt). "All you need to do is wash and dry the potatoes, place them in the bottom of the slow cooker, and cook on low for six to eight hours (the longer the better) and you'll have perfectly cooked sweet potatoes," Loaiza said. If you're worried about them becoming too soggy, keep the sweet potatoes a bit drier by placing a towel under the lid to allow some moisture to escape.