Food and Recipes Side Dishes Potato Side Dishes Classic Candied Yams 4.9 (9) 7 Reviews Lightly spiced, these candied yams will become a mainstay in your holiday recipe lineup. By Pam Lolley Pam Lolley Pam Lolley developed and tested recipes for Southern Living Magazine in the Souths most trusted Test Kitchen for 19 years. She worked closely with the editors planning and packaging stories, collaborating with art and photo teams on food styling and recipe reproduction to ensure reader satisfaction, content quality control, and recipe authenticity history and cooking. Her area of expertise was baking and and pastry development and she acted as the point person for these areas in the Test Kitchen. With 30+ years of experience in the culinary field, Pam created and tested 1000s of recipes for Southern Living. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Updated on November 10, 2023 Recipe tested by Southern Living Test Kitchen Recipe tested by Southern Living Test Kitchen The Southern Living Test Kitchen has been publishing recipes since 1970, four years after the first issue of Southern Living Magazine appeared on newsstands. The Southern Living Test Kitchen team includes a team of professionals with deep expertise in recipe development, from pastry chefs and grilling experts to nutritionists and dietitians. Together, the team tests and retests, produces, styles, and photographs thousands of recipes each year in the state-of-the-art test kitchen facility located in Birmingham, Alabama. Learn more about the Southern Living Test Kitchen Save Rate PRINT Share Active Time: 20 mins Total Time: 1 hr 25 mins Servings: 12 Jump to recipe Candied yams land somewhere between a side dish and a dessert. This classic Thanksgiving dish has the perfect blend of warming spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg, sugar, and a touch of cream. Plus, our streamlined recipe for candied yams doesn't require any boiling. Everything is mixed in one dish and baked for a fantastic final side. Learn how to make candied yams as a special holiday treat, and don't forget that you can make this sweet side any time of the year—no excuses needed! Antonis Achilleos, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall, Prop Stylist: Christina Daley Tips for the Best Candied Yams Though this dish is quick and easy to prepare, here are a few tips and tricks we've learned throughout the years to take candied yams from super to stellar: Get good potatoes: When picking your sweet potatoes, look for small to medium-sized potatoes that have smooth, firm skins free of dark or soft spots. You can store whole sweet potatoes in a cool, dry place for up to two weeks. Don't refrigerate them, as they'll dry out and be less tender after cooking.Slice evenly: Make sure you chop the sweet potatoes into equal-sized pieces, so that they cook at the same rate. If you have small and large chunks in the same dish, some pieces will be overcooked and mushy while other pieces will be unappetizingly crunchy.Don't skip the foil: The foil over the pan will help the potatoes steam and turn tender and keep the sugar mixture from scorching.Let the potatoes rest: Letting the sauce sit for a few minutes after the dish comes out of the oven will create that thick, dark syrup we all have come to expect and love. Ingredients for Candied Yams The full ingredient list and step-by-step instructions are further below, but here's a brief list so you know what to get from the store: Sweet potatoes: Yes, sweet potatoes, not yams. A Southern staple at many family tables, candied yams aren't actually made with yams. Most often, when you purchase a "yam" at the grocery store, you are really getting a sweet potato. Butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, and heavy cream: These ingredients form the base of the syrup. Both sugars provide a great balance of flavor and sweetness, but you could use all of one or the other type. Cinnamon and nutmeg: These warming spices are the perfect partner to sweet potatoes. Feel free to add others like allspice or cardamom. How To Make Candied Yams For being so impressive and special, candied yams really are a breeze to make. Follow these simple steps. The full recipe is below, so this is just a recap: Step 1. Prep the potatoes: Layer the sweet potato rounds in a baking dish.Step 2. Make the sauce: Combine butter, cream, and sugars. Just as the mixture reaches a simmer, remove the saucepan from the stove. Add vanilla extract, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg.Step 3. Combine: Pour the butter-sugar mixture over the sweet potatoes. Cover the pan with aluminum foil.Step 4. Bake, stir, and serve: Bake the candied yams. Remove the foil, and stir the potato mixture, helping to coat the pieces in the sauce. Return the baking dish to the oven (without the aluminum foil), and bake until bubbly. Sweet Potatoes Vs. Yams Yams are a dry, starchy root vegetable with rough skin that looks a bit like the bark of a tree. They can be as small as a potato or grow up to 45 feet long. Yams are most often found in Latin America, West Africa, and Asia. Though they are a versatile root vegetable, they are more starchy than sweet and are difficult to find in the United States. Sweet potatoes are a root vegetable with softer, red skin and creamy flesh. Why are candied yams made with sweet potatoes? Perhaps through a lack of knowledge or wanting to increase sales, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes were misnamed as "yams" to help differentiate them from standard baking potatoes (like a Russet). Though inaccurate, the name stuck, so here we are making candied yams with sweet potatoes. Which type of sweet potato does this recipe use? There are many varieties of sweet potatoes available at most grocery stores, ranging from white to orange to purple. Though the orange-fleshed sweet potato is what we most often associate with candied yams, any variety will be delicious in this dish. Can You Make Candied Yams Ahead of Time? Assemble candied yams up to 3 days in advance. Make the recipe through Step 3, store it covered in the refrigerator, and then bake it on the day you plan to serve it. Do You Have to Peel the Sweet Potatoes? You don't have to peel your sweet potatoes when making candied yams. In fact, we recommend leaving the skins on. Give them a good scrub to get rid of any dirt, then chop them up, skin and all. What To Serve With Candied Yams Candied yams are a classic holiday side dish, just like Cornbread Casserole, Cranberry Salad, and Hashbrown Casserole. It goes perfectly with main dishes like Roast Chicken, Roasted Turkey Legs, and Skillet Chicken Pot Pie. How To Store Candied Yams Leftover candied yams can be wrapped with storage wrap and aluminum foil and stored in the fridge up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or oven. You can also freeze candied yams in an airtight container up to 3 months. Let the dish thaw overnight in the fridge, and reheat in the microwave or oven. Cook Mode (Keep screen awake) Ingredients 4 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-in.-thick rounds 1/2 cup salted butter 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar 1/4 cup heavy cream 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tsp. kosher salt 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg Directions Add potato slices to pan: Preheat oven to 350°F. Layer sweet potato slices in a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Antonis Achilleos, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall, Prop Stylist: Christina Daley Make sauce: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium. Add sugars, stirring until well combined. Antonis Achilleos, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall, Prop Stylist: Christina Daley Stir in cream; cook, stirring often, just until mixture comes to a simmer, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla extract, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Antonis Achilleos, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall, Prop Stylist: Christina Daley Combine sauce and potatoes: Pour sugar mixture evenly over sweet potatoes, and cover with lightly greased aluminum foil. Antonis Achilleos, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall, Prop Stylist: Christina Daley Bake candied yams: Bake, covered, in preheated oven, about 40 minutes. Uncover and gently stir potato mixture. Bake, uncovered, until potatoes are tender, 25 to 30 more minutes. Transfer potatoes to a serving bowl with a slotted spoon; pour syrup over potatoes. Serve immediately. Antonis Achilleos, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall, Prop Stylist: Christina Daley Frequently Asked Questions Do you have to par-boil sweet potatoes before making candied yams? Many traditional recipes will have you par-boil the sweet potatoes and prepare the sauce ahead of time, then combine everything together for the final bake. Though it may be the way grandma did it, we find that process creates many more dishes and uses valuable time.Instead, we bake the casserole in one dish, saving time and clean-up. You still end up with perfectly tender sweet potatoes, covered in a sweet syrup. Make sure to stir the potatoes about halfway through, so they cook evenly tender, and are covered in the sauce. What is the difference between sweet potatoes and candied yam? Sweet potatoes and candied yams are two different plants, but sweet potatoes are sometimes mistakenly labeled or called yams. That's why this dish of candied yams is actually made with sweet potatoes. Actual yams are not easy to find in the U.S. What are candied yams made of? Slices of sweet potatoes are baked in a syrupy sauce that is made with butter, white sugar, brown sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and a bit of salt. 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. Rate It Print