Sweet potatoes are like chicken. You can NEVER have too many recipes for them!
We sweet potato lovers comb cookbooks and the electronic airwaves in search of the next best thing. Sure, we have our fall-back favorite recipes, but we’re like sharks, always moving forward, seeking new prey.
And so when I stumbled upon this elegant formula for a baked sweet potato skin, I knew it was going to have a starring role in my upcoming holiday dinners.
How wonderful would these be beside slices of turkey for Thanksgiving dinner or the day after bird-day, or with a roast chicken dinner, or pork chops? Can you see them on the plate with roast beef for Christmas? I can!
Elegant appetizer, side dish for poultry or roasted meet, or even a main dish. Sweet potato meets crunchy, tangy and sweet for a perfect mélange.
Ingredients
- 2 Stokes purple sweet potatoes
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon melted butter (Kerrygold preferred)
- 4 ounces brie with rind removed
- ½ cup Red Walnuts
- Heilala Vanilla Syrup or real maple syrup (see note below)
- Garnish: fresh chives
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Scrub the outside of the potatoes and dry them. Poke a small hole in the skin (so it doesn’t explode in the oven) and bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until just tender but not mushy. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Cut the potatoes in half. Scoop out some of the flesh of the potatoes and reserve it for another use (I suggest pancakes or waffles or quick bread). Season halves with freshly ground black pepper, and drizzle with melted butter.
- Place the skins on a baking sheet and return to the oven to bake for about 10 minutes, or until crisp.
- Top each skin with 1 ounce of brie. Place the skins on a baking sheet and broil until the cheese is bubbly; about 5 minutes. Place walnuts on top, drizzle with your choice of syrup, and garnish with chopped chives.
- Serves 2-4, depending on whether it is an appetizer or side dish, or the main course.
Notes
Advice and wisdom from those who have made these before, gleaned from the Food Network website:
1. Plan on only 1 potato half per person as an appetizer or side; these are rich!
2. Don’t overcook the potatoes in the first bake or they will become too soft to hold the toppings.
3. The original recipe called for “1 cup Walnuts in syrup,” which is apparently an ice cream topping in the aisle with the hot fudge and maraschino cherries. It doesn’t seem to be a California thing (I couldn’t find it), so I used pretty red walnuts drizzled with vanilla syrup and with maple syrup as a substitute.
Recipe source: Slightly adapted from Christie Campbell’s original recipe submitted to Emeril’s Potato Contest for “Emeril Live”.
I found this wonderful recipe through the blog “A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures,” written by Christie Campbell. I was assigned her blog this month for Secret Recipe Club, the group I belong to in which participants are secretly assigned to explore someone’s blog and quietly cook from it for a month. We all share our secret projects on the same day, and today is Reveal Day!
On Christie’s “about” page, she says she appeared on “Emeril Live,” which hooked me immediately. Turns out she had seen a contest for potato recipes while watching the show one day, and had forgotten she even entered it when they called her to say she won and wanted her to appear on the show. Love that story! I immediately made plans to make that recipe.
I almost made her Spinach and Mushroom Quiche with Spaghetti Squash Crust, since I have a newfound love for that squash. And her Key Lime Cheesecake Bars look to-die-for, but in the end those potatoes were whispering in my ear. So glad I answered the call, Christie!
The fact that it was a sweet potato recipe was all the better, since I adore sweet pots, as I call them. I decided to push the envelope here and used a new-to-me sweet potato called Stokes Purple® Sweet Potatoes, a non-GMO version whose flesh stays bright purple after you cook them.
And since I was pushing things, I used Red Walnuts, a new variety grown in California that is slightly less bitter than regular walnuts (to my taste buds anyway). They’re pretty, too! Score!
We ate the potatoes for a vegetarian dinner, and I wished I had made more. They’re already on my menu plan for Thanksgiving.
Thanks, Christie, for a fun month exploring your blog. Everyone skedaddle over there and take a look!
Disclosure: Frieda’s Produce sent the Stokes Purple Sweet Potatoes, Heilala Vanilla sent the vanilla syrup, and Red Walnuts sent the nuts, for recipe development.
Meanwhile, browse the photo array below to see what else the Secret Recipe Club cooked up this month!
What a creative recipe with these purple sweet potato skins.
Meagan,
Thank you!
Wow….how cool that you’ve made an ‘award-winning’ recipe! I’ve never seen purple sweet potatoes, but they really made a striking presentation for a tasty dish.
Christiane,
If you can’t find the purple variety, try it with garnet yams. Should be every bit as good!
This is my kind of sweetpotato skin! I am a huge brie lover, yum.
Fabiola,
Brie is a yumfest, that’s for sure!
I have never seen purple sweet potatoes before. They make for such a striking dish!
Sarah,
They are starting to become more popular, so I’ll bet you’ll see them in your markets soon!
WOW! What a stunningly beautiful food, and they sound so delicious, too. Awesome pick for the SRC this month!
Thank you Amy! I am like a proud mama showing off my beautiful baby.
What a great (and gorgeous) appetizer. Who knew sweet potatoes could be so elegant! Cracked up on the chicken mention – I thought at first you were going to say you can never have too many chickens. I tried for years to get my husband excited about the idea of raising chickens. Apparently one was too many for him 🙂
Thanks Susan/Wimpy,
I would love to have chickens, but we live near the hills and the coyotes roam our backyard at will. Those chickens would be dinner for THEM!
Elegant indeed! I like the flower in the last shot.
Thank you Hapatite! I am flattered!
Quite elegant and classy. I can’t wait to make this!
Absolutely gorgeous…great SRC pick!
Asiya,
Thanks! They did turn out really pretty!
These are lovely and you are right, they would make a beautiful addition to a holiday table.
Thanks Wendy! I’m thinking a Thanksgiving buffet.
Super elegant indeed! And a huge laugh with the comparison of sweet potatoes with chicken… you are too funny!
I bet this recipe could get the most popular award this month, super creative and gorgeous!
Sally,
Thanks! Oooo, an award? How cool would THAT be!
These are gorgeous!! What a great combination of flavors and love the colors! Happy Reveal Day. 🙂
Thanks Rebekah! These purple spuds are awesome!
LOVE the purple potatoes! What a great idea. You sure picked a winner from Christie’s blog. Although, we both know THAT was not a hard thing to do!
Betsy/Desserts,
You are correct, ma’am!
I love sweet potatoes and I love brie. This is the ultimate comfort food for me. What a great pick!!
Emily,
We intended to eat it as a starter, but my husband and I both reached for another half of the potato and that ended up being our dinner! Happy about it.
I discovered purple sweet potatoes this year and love them, not just for the taste, but for how pretty they are! This recipe certainly dresses them up.
April,
They really are little works of art with that color, eh?
These look great! How did you find the potatoes? I have never seen them before! They do look so elegant and delicious Dorothy!
Karen,
Not sure where you live, but in Southern California, conventionally grown Stokes Purple® Sweet Potatoes are available at Sprouts and Gelson’s. The organic Stokes are available at Ralphs.
this is so unusual, and the colors are stunning!
Thanks Sue!
I almost made this recipe when I had her blog! Sounds like SUCH a great combination!! I don’t think I have ever seen purple sweet potatoes OR red walnuts. How fun!! Your photos are gorgeous!
Jess,
Thank you! The red walnuts have just been on the market a year or 2, and they have a short season — holiday baking time!
What a wonderful pick for this month’s src. My family doesn’t care for brie cheese but we do love Kerrygold cheese which would be a great substitute. I’ve got to make these for Thanksgiving:) Lynn
Lynn,
Sure, Kerrygold would be a great substitute! (Kerrygold goes with EVERYTHING!)