The Variety To Avoid When Making Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

Twice-baked sweet potatoes provide a nutritional and flavor-packed addition to your weekly snack or meal rotation. You can get creative with toppings like avocado, black beans, and shredded cheese — but when it comes to the sweet potatoes themselves, not all varieties are created the same. Tasting Table recipe developer Miriam Hahn, who created our twice-baked sweet potato recipe, says to avoid Japanese sweet potatoes.

When cooked, Japanese sweet potatoes have a drier texture, Hahn says. The flesh is also known to be dense and thicker, so the insides might not turn out quite as creamy as you'd like when you take the time to cook them twice. In addition, the flesh of a Japanese sweet potato is white in color, instead of the bright orange you're used to, which means they won't look the same either. To avoid Japanese sweet potatoes, watch out for their dark-red exterior or check the label.

Read more: 23 Types Of Potatoes And When To Use Them

Covington, Centennial, And Other Varieties That Work For Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

Don't get us wrong, Japanese sweet potatoes are delicious when prepared in other ways. And to be fair, there are recipes for twice-baked Japanese sweet potatoes online that you can try if you want to risk the textural difference. However, if you're looking for the creamiest twice-baked sweet potatoes, do as Hahn advises and seek out another variety. Some options are Covingtons, which are known to be creamy and malty sweet, jewel sweet potatoes, which are commonly used in casseroles, and red garnets, which boast a more savory flavor. Some of these varieties are available as organic and those work, too.

Don't forget to wash the sweet potatoes and give them plenty of time to dry completely to achieve a crisp skin with the twice-baked sweet potatoes. Hahn also suggests poking holes in them before baking, which helps with the cooking process. They're ready when you can easily pierce the potatoes with a fork. To achieve that creamy texture we mentioned, you'll combine the flesh with ingredients like butter and sour cream then return to the oven according to the recipe.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.