Southern Candied Sweet Potatoes

Wonderful side dish! These are so much like what I enjoyed at holiday time when I was a kid in south Ga. My recommendations are: 1)Yams and sweet potatoes are NOT the same thing. Use sweet potatoes if you can find them. However ,if only yams are available, substitute and make this dish anyway, because although the taste is not the same, the result is still very very good. 2)Even though this recipe is designed to create a very sweet dish, it calls for more sugar than is necessary. I start with HALF of the sugar and ALL of the spices. As the sweet potatoes cook, I taste and add more sugar as needed, and I usually only add a tablespoon or two. 3) Make sure to turn the sweet potatoes about every fifteen minutes, to coat them well on both sides. As they cook, they become very tender, so be careful in turning them because they will easily fall apart. This does not affect the taste, but it does affect the presentation. This is also a good reason to cut the sweet potatoes at least 1/3" thick-- the thinner they are, the more likely they are to break. 4) Try to remember to add the vanilla at the end. I forget so often, and the dish is still very nice, but the vanilla adds alot. I've dealt with my forgetfulness by leaving one vanilla bean out on the counter, and I'll throw it in the pan sometime during the last 10-30 minutes of cooking.

I saw another reviewer say that after it was done...didn't want to make again because of the work. I had the complete opposite reaction. We liked these so much that I would definately do these again. Don't get me wrong, it is time consuming...but we believe they are totally worth it. Do be careful because they can burn. We found french vanilla cool whip and ate this as a dessert the next day (yum leftovers). Thanks for a great recipe.

Im orgionaly from Texas and this has been in the family for generations. Try adding 1tblspoon of Brown sugar for every 3 sweetpotatoes used.. it adds a nice warmness to the dish.

This was a really nice recipe. I forgot to put the vanilla in at the end and also put just 3/4 the amount of sugar (half white and half brown) as some of the previous reviews said the recipe might be too sweet. I served this to a bunch of brits that had never had Sweet Potatoes like this and it was a hit!! Oh yes, I also cooked this in the oven in a heavy cast baking pan with foil on top rather than a skillet. I cooked for about 35 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. I would make this again.

Excellent recipe! Much easier than the way I made them in the past. I needed a large dutch oven sized pot to cook six sweet potatoes though. I left them in large chunks so they wouldn't disintigrate while cooking. The addition of vanilla is awesome but my family doesn't care for cinnamon and nutmeg in their candied sweet potatoes, so I added the zest of one small orange which added a nice flavor. I've made this twice now, once with the yellow "sweet potatoes" and once with the orange "yams" (though I guess they are all technically yams, my mom swears there is difference and only buys the "sweet potatoes"). The yellow ones came out firmer, the orange yams got mushy.

This was absolutely delicious and so easy. I've been trying different recipies for 25 years., this is the winner. I used 1 1/2 cups white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar. My kitchen smells wonderful.

This one is a winner everytime. My 4 year old requests it on a regular basis. I normally end up serving this as a dessert. Everyone praises this dish and say they never knew sweet potatoes could taste so good. Definitely 5 stars all the way for this dish.

These sweet potatoes were, by far, the best I ever had! They were extremely easy to make and everyone loved them! My mother-in-law was even impressed! She actually suggested not having them for Thanksgiving because she said nobody ever ate them...well, guess what, everyone ate mine!!! I did sub 1/4 of the sugar with brown sugar, but other than that followed to scale! YUM YUM YUM! Thanks!!!!!

First time I ever made sweet potatoes, and everyone thought they were delicious. I found, though, that at the end of my hour, the sauce was not carmelized but very liquid, so I removed the potatoes, as they were fully cooked, and simmered the remaining liquid with the cover removed til it carmelized and then poured it back over my potatoes.

This recipe is EXCELLENT!! I made it for Thanksgiving this year and everyone loved it. I cooked it in a crockpot to save space on the stove and it worked out great.