Easy Baked Candied Yams — 🍠🙌🧡 Learn how to make the BEST candied yams which are baked in the most wonderful buttery cinnamon-and-sugar sauce! If you’re looking for an EASY Thanksgiving or Christmas side dish recipe, look no further than this EASY holiday recipe with almost no active prep time. Truly candy-like in how sweet and wonderful they are. Sure to become a guaranteed family favorite!
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Easy Thanksgiving Day Yams Recipe
When it comes to classic Thanksgiving side dish recipes, it doesn’t get any more traditional than my recipe for homemade candied yams.
They’re soft, tender, sweet, and perfectly spiced thanks to a buttery mixture of cinnamon and sugar, ground nutmeg and cloves, and your choice of either orange or pineapple juice. That sauce is so good I could literally drink it.
As the yams bake and simmer away in the sauce — which is chock full of warming spices — your house if going to smell amazing. And the yams are going to become candied.
That is, the sauce will reduce, tighten, and thicken up to create a syrupy, candy-like tasting sauce that bathes every inch of the yams or sweet potatoes.
Ingredients in Candied Yams
To make this easy recipe for oven candied yams, you’ll need the following very common and easy to find list of fridge and pantry ingredients. Bonus, everything is very inexpensive which is always a nice bonus when cooking a big holiday meal.
Gather the following ingredients:
- Sweet potatoes – or yams
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Orange juice – if you have pineapple juice on hand, feel free to use it for a flavor twist
- Maple syrup – use real maple syrup and not imitation pancake syrup
- Bourbon – optional; the alcohol burns off but the depth of flavor that’s imparted is rich and lovely
- Salt
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground cloves
- Ground nutmeg
- Marshmallows, optional
- Pecans, optional
- Sage, optional for garnishing
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts and more complete directions.
What’s the Difference Between Yams vs Sweet Potatoes?
If you live in the US or Canada, it’s very likely that what you think are candied yams are actually candied sweet potatoes. That’s because it’s so much more common to find sweet potatoes in our North American grocery stores compared to yams.
Sweet Potatoes: Have smooth brown skin, orange flesh (usually), a football-like shape, and taste very moist and sweet.
Yams: Have rough, brown, scaly skin like tree bark, white flesh, are long and cylindrical, and they’re dry and starchy.
How to Make Cook Candied Yams in the Oven
Making baked candied yams from scratch is a cinch and involves almost no active work time, which is my favorite kind of recipe!
- Peel and slice the sweet potatoes and place them in a 2-quart casserole dish or 9×13-inch baking pan and set it aside.
- To a small saute pan, add the butter, sugars, juice, maple syrup, optional bourbon, salt, spices, and heat over medium heat to melt.
- Pour the buttery mixture over the sweet potatoes.
- Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour.
- Optionally add pecans or marshmallows and bake for 5 minutes if desired (detailed instructions provided in the recipe card at the end of this post). Or skip that and just serve the candied yams now, with an optional sage garnish!
Recipe FAQs
I prefer making candied yams in the oven, but you can do it on the stovetop as well. To do so:
1. Cube or slice the yams and boiling them in hot water for about 10 minutes or until a bit softened.
2. Drain the water, add the remaining ingredients to the pot with the yams, and simmer everything together covered for about 30 minutes, or until the yams are very soft.
3. If you want a sauce that’s more reduced, uncover them, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes uncovered.
I’ve also seen recipes where you don’t preboil the yams separately and instead simmer everything together, all at once, for about 45 to 60 minutes, covered.
Yes, although personally this isn’t my favorite way to make homemad candied yams for Thanksgiving. But, it’s doable. Add all the ingredients to your slow cooker, cover, and slow cook for about 4 hours on low or until the yams are soft and tender.
I only make candied yams with peeled sweet potatoes. I suppose you could leave the skin on but I’ve never tried it. This is a time where I’m not necessarily aiming for health and fiber, so I peel them.
Just for 1 hour at 350ºF, covered.
However, if you want the Thanksgiving yams to take on an extra chewy, more candy-like texture, you can bake them for up to 2 hours. This sounds like a very long baking time for half-inch thick sweet potatoes or yams, and it is. But remember your baking dish is covered, which reduces the likelihood of burning.
If you decide to go this route, every 15 minutes after the suggested 1 hour baking time has passed, lift the foil and check on your candy yams to see how it’s looking because you definitely don’t want to burn them!
The super chewy texture is worth if to me, if you have the time and oven space of course! If you go this route, make sure to line your pan with heavy duty nonstick foil for easier cleanup.
Of course! As I mentioned, both are nice additions and I outlined in detail above what to do. Which is basically baked the candied yams as directed, peel back the foil, sprinkle one or both, and bake uncovered for 5 minutes.
If you know you’re going to be pressed for time, energy, oven space (or all three!) feel free to make these easy candied yams up to 48 hours ahead of time and store them airtight in the fridge until it’s time to reheat and serve them.
What to Serve with Baked Candied Yams
Storage and Reheating
In the fridge: They’ll keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days.
To reheat: Transfer leftovers (along with all the lovely sauce!) back into a baking dish. Let it sit at room temp for about an hour, cover tightly with foil, and reheat in a 350F oven until warmed through, about 15 to 20 minutes.
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Baked Candied Yams
Ingredients
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch rounds* (I suggest sweet potatoes rather than yams but please read the blog post)
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup orange or pineapple juice
- 3 tablespoons real maple syrup
- 1 to 3 tablespoons bourbon, optional
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, or more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ cup toasted pecans, optional**
- 3 to 4 cups mini marshmallows, optional**
- Sage, optional for garnishing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and spray a 2-quart baking dish, 9×13-inch pan, or similar with cooking spray. Tip – For easier cleanup, line with a sheet of heavy duty nonstick foil and spray the foil.
- Peel and slice the sweet potatoes, making sure that the slices are no larger than 1/2-inch wide. If cubing them, make sure they're no bigger than 1/2-inch dice; set aside.
- To a small saute pan, add the butter, sugars, juice, optional bourbon, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and heat over medium-low heat to melt the butter; stir nearly constantly.
- After the butter has melted, slowly and evenly pour the mixture over the sweet potatoes.
- Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour, or until sweet potatoes are very soft and tender. If they're at all hard, there's no harm in baking longer, 10 to 15 minutes, or whatever they need.
- If you plan to add nuts and/or marshmallows, see my detailed directions below**. You add them at the very end after baking for 1 hour. If using both, sprinkle the nuts first, then the marshmallows, and bake for 3 to 5 minutes uncovered, or just until the marshmallows begin to turn lightly golden brown or. melt a bit. Make sure to keep a very close eye on them so they don't burn!
- Optionally garnish with sage before serving.
- Recipe can be made up to 2 days ahead of time. When you plan to serve the candied yams and need to reheat them, transfer them along with all the lovely sauce back into a baking dish. Let it sit at room temp for about an hour, cover tightly with foil, and reheat in a 350F oven until warmed through, about 15 to 20 minutes. Leftovers will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Adding Pecans (or Walnuts) – Add about 1/2 cup chopped and toasted pecans at the very end of baking time. Do this by first adding the nuts a dry skillet, and toasting them until they smell nice and nutty, about 2 to 3 minutes. Then, remove the foil from the candied yams at the 1 hour mark, evenly sprinkle the toasted pecans or walnuts, and bake for about 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can simply sprinkle on the toasted pecans after baking, and treating them like they're a garnish.
- Adding Marshmallows – Add about 3 to 4 cups mini marshmallows at the very end of the baking time. Remove the foil at the 1 hour mark, evenly sprinkle the marshmallows, and bake for about 5 minutes, or until they are just toasting up and melting a bit.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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