Honey Drizzled Sweet Potato Fries

Maybe you’ve had sweet potato fries that were fresh from the oven, but have you tried them with a warm, buttery, vanilla honey drizzle?

Just preheat that oven to 400 degrees and breathe easy. Your cravings are about to be satiated. IMPORTANT: This recipe is good for one person only. Even though there are 2 sweet potatoes, believe me, you will regret splitting this with another person. It is so finger-licking good that you might just throw that other person under the bus just to have their half. So do yourself a favor and double the recipe for sharing. You’ll thank me after one bite.

Peel 2 sweet potatoes, chop off the ends, and make some long fry-like slices. Some will be short, some will be long. Whatevs. Like the peel to stay on your fries? Be my guest. I’m not a big peel fan but it’s alright. Acceptable.

I’ve been making sweet potato fries for years but it was just this year that I stumbled upon a sweet baking tip from Sally of Sally’s Baking Addiction. She adds a little cornstarch to help crisp up the fries. If you’ve ever baked (as opposed to fried) sweet potato fries you know that because of their moisture content, its hard to get them to firm up and crisp. They usually end up very limp. Still TOTALLY edible. But limp. I have been using a modified version of what she does but it was inspired by Sally’s Baking Addiction.

Take a plastic zipper bag and drop in sweet potato fries, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Mmmmm. Sweet potatoes and cinnamon were a match made in heaven. Now, shake that bag!

This would be a good time to handover this task to a child. I have a 6 year old son who is constantly trying to look over the counter at what I’m doing. Being a bit of a control freak in the kitchen (this is MY zone), it’s hard to find jobs that I can trust to my kid. Here’s one that is simple and fun.

Let ’em shake that bag while you set up the next step. A stainer over a bowl.

I have a mesh strainer but even a plastic colander would work. Place the fries into the strainer and shake off the excess cornstarch and cinnamon. Discard the excess and put the fries into the bowl. Take 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and toss the fries around to coat. You can use different kinds of oil here – olive oil, coconut oil, canola oil. My preference is to stick with vegetable oil or coconut. Vegetable because it tastes like nothing so it doesn’t overpower the flavor of the fries, and coconut because it goes perfectly with these savory sweet flavors. But you’d be surprised at how NOT “coconutty” it tastes using coconut oil. Which, again, makes it perfect for this recipe.

Next, grab the widest rimmed baking pan you have (you want the room!) and line it with parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper, no biggie. Parchment paper just makes it more convenient with the non-stick, easy cleanup aspect.

Try to lay out the fries so that they aren’t touching one another. Take your time and work it out. When placed too closely or overlapping it defeats the point of using the cornstarch because they steam instead of bake/crisp. If you must, use 2 pans. You can see here I didn’t leave a whole lotta room between them but this is good enough.

Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Another good job for a young kitchen helper!

Bake for 25 minutes – flipping after 15. Turn off the oven and crack the door to let the fries sloooowwwwly cool for another 30 minutes. According to Sally this enhances the crisping action. And I agree. However, if you don’t have the time or can’t wait that long to eat them, skip this step. Or do it for less time. Say, 10 minutes! In fact, 10 minutes is going on my official recipe card below.

While that’s baking let me introduce you to raw honey from Y.S. Eco Bee Farms. If you haven’t tried unfiltered, unpasteurized, raw honey, please do. The flavor of one spoonful is like 10 spoonfuls of regular honey compacted into one intensely tasty gold mine. I think when I tried it I felt like I struck gold.

Melt 1 tablespoon (more if using regular honey) in a small sauce pot along with 2 tablespoons butter, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Stir the ingredients together as the heat rises. Bring to a boil then remove from heat and cover as you wait for the fries to finish.

When the fries are ready you can plate them. Make a cute little pile and see how they are nicely baked and not limp and soggy. Maybe not as crisp as a fried-fry. But for baked fries I think they do very well.

 The vanilla-y honey drizzle is next up. Pour the golden goodness all over and give the fries a little toss to evenly distribute.

 I mean whaaaaaaaaaaat? Share?

NOPE.

 See the honey drizzle on the bottom of the plate? As I said before… finger-licking good.

 Yes ma’am, I’m having them all to myself.