Baking a sweet potato brings out its natural sweetness and makes it a nutritious and tasty side dish. In this post, you will learn how to bake sweet potatoes in foil in the oven..
If you’re looking for a simple way to savor the subtle sweetness that sweet potatoes bring, go no further than this recipe for Baked Sweet Potatoes in Foil.
Detailed instructions for baking sweet potatoes till they’re soft and fluffy. Recipes for using baked sweet potatoes are included, as are images explaining how to bake and preserve them.
Whether you prepare them in the microwave, slow cooker, or Instant Pot, sweet potatoes are always a hit. However, the tried-and-true oven technique is my favorite. The consistent lightness and fluffiness of the texture are fantastic.
How Should A Sweet Potato Be Baked
My preferred baking position for sweet potatoes is in the center of the oven. However, if you’re in a rush, you may microwave potatoes by piercing the skin and then cooking them for 5 minutes until they’re tender, which should take approximately 10 minutes for a large potato. Wrapped in foil, the sweet potatoes can be grilled for 35–40 minutes, or until soft.
You may also use a slow cooker if you need your oven for something else while you bake the sweet potatoes. To cook sweet potatoes, wash, salt, puncture the skin, and cover in foil before adding to a saucepan. The sweet potatoes should be cooked until tender, either on low for 9-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
Why We Prefer Bake Sweet Potato in Foil
Starchy and sugary sweet potatoes have both of these qualities by design. So, sweet potatoes may be used as a building block for a wide variety of tasty dishes.. You may boil it, mash it, fry it, or bake it in tin foil. Wrapping your sweet potatoes with foil before placing them in the oven will help them cook more quickly and improve their flavor and texture.
If you follow this recipe to the letter, you’ll end up with baked sweet potatoes that are both soft and sweet, and you won’t be able to get enough of them. When baking sweet potatoes, it might be helpful to cover them with foil first. After removing them from the oven, the foil keeps them toasty and adds some steam to keep the skin nice and soft. Don’t use foil in the oven if you want the skin to get roasted and crispy; instead, wrap them up after roasting. I never bother with aluminum foil while baking sweet potatoes since we always devour them as soon as they come out of the oven.
Use foil to protect the sweet potatoes’ exterior from the grill’s heat. However, using foil might further lengthen the cooking process.
How to Bake Sweet Potatoes in Foil in the Oven
First, we’ll need to prepare the sweet potatoes for baking in the oven. A sweet potato is prepped for baking by washing, then being pierced with a fork.
Scrub, Poke, and Rinse
Due to their underground growth, these root vegetables require thorough washing and scrubbing before being baked, especially if the skin is to be consumed. More fiber can be found in the skin than in the meat alone, providing a nutritional bonus.
Use a big fork to prick the sweet potato after you’ve washed and scrubbed it. By doing this, any extra moisture may be driven off during baking. If you want to eat the skin, you may dab a little oil and season it with salt and pepper on top of each one before cooking it.
Take A Sheet of Foil and Wrap the Potatoes
Set aside enough aluminum foil squares to wrap each potato twice. Then, wrap each sweet potato with a piece of aluminum foil. To ensure the potato remains sealed, fold over the foil’s ends.
The sweet potatoes should be covered in foil and a baking pan.
Take to the Oven
The recommended cooking time for sweet potatoes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit is 45-60 minutes.
When baking sweet potatoes, 400 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal. While this heat is high, it won’t scorch the potatoes and will cook them in under one hour.
If you need to prepare many items at once, you may cook them in an oven at temperatures ranging from 350 to 450 degrees. Modify the cooking time to reflect the change.
It takes about an hour to cook a large sweet potato but only about 40 minutes to prepare a small one.
How to pick the perfect sweet potato for baking
It takes skill to bake a sweet potato. Find the proper sweet potato before you start following my 5 suggestions. If you select an improperly shaped sweet potato, you will not have a perfectly cooked sweet potato.
Check for these qualities in your sweet potato:
Ensure that it is substantial in length.
Sweet potatoes come in a variety of shapes and sizes. One group is thick and another is thin, while still another group is long and yet another is short. It’s a tough choice to make.
A roasted sweet potato MUST BE LONG if you plan to stuff it. In this technique, you may make it appear like there are a lot of ingredients without actually using that many.
Pictured here are two sweet potatoes, side by side, to help you decide between them: Five Easy Steps to a Perfectly Baked Sweet Potato.
The short, stumpy sweet potato is quite OK. It works wonderfully for making mashed sweet potatoes or sweet potato curry. The longer one tastes better and is “meatier” when used for loading or pulp.
Those showing signs of “rot” should be avoided.
Some of the sweet potatoes can dry out and go bad. Put them in a stew or curry (cut out the bad part first).
But you shouldn’t use them on roasted sweet potatoes.
The search for symmetry
When baked, a symmetrical sweet potato retains its shape and flavor. Thus, you can relax knowing that your sweet potato will be evenly cooked throughout and not have dry spots beside mushy ones.
Make a mental cut through the sweet potato from top to bottom, smack dab in the middle. Then, make sure each side has roughly the same number of potatoes.
Look at these two cute babes. How perfectly symmetrical they are! Wow, talk about the ideal sweet potato!
How long should you bake a sweet potato in foil?
Baking a sweet potato in foil takes around 1 hour. After 45 minutes, you may test the doneness with a fork. When the sweet potato is completely soft, it is done.. Could you wait a few minutes to eat it safely?
Here are some esteemed calculations about different temperatures:
- Should cooking take place in an oven preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit? Longer than 75 minutes
- Time required to bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit? Between sixty and seventy-five minutes
- At a temperature of 425 degrees for should bake for 45-60 mins
It all depends on the oven temperature, the size, and the thickness of the potatoes you use to determine how long they need to bake.
Tips for Baking Sweet Potatoes in Oven
The more enormous and spherical your sweet potatoes are, the more time they will need to bake and the more likely they will turn up undercooked in the middle. So instead, you should search for sweet potatoes that are lengthy and consistent in size.
If you want perfectly baked potatoes, you need to dry them thoroughly first. This will stop them from steaming during cooking, resulting in lovely, crispy skin.
Prepare a baking sheet by spraying liberally with nonstick cooking spray and lining it with foil or parchment paper. Baking brings out the natural sugars in sweet potatoes, which caramelize and become increasingly sweet as the potatoes continue to cook. Sugar crystallizes and adheres to surfaces…like cookie sheets.
Similarly, never bake on an unrimmed baking sheet unless you plan to wrap the pan with aluminum foil.
FAQs
What Temperature Should Baked Sweet Potatoes Be?
Make sure the potato is tender all the way through by poking it with a fork. An instant-read thermometer can be used for a more accurate reading of the interior temperature. Potatoes are considered done when the internal temperature is between 205 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit in the thickest region of the potato.
Should I Wrap Sweet Potatoes In Foil?
This might cause the sweet potato to get soggy if steam is trapped while baking. The easiest way to bake sweet potatoes when wrapped in foil is to leave some space between the foil and the potatoes for the steam to escape.
Conclusion
You may now eat your perfectly roasted sweet potatoes. You may use the skins as a garnish for the dish or eat them with the meat. Don’t be hesitant about eating the skins of the sweet potatoes; they’re filled with potassium and fiber. Caution: the baked skin, while delicious, is quite chewy.