Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

I've spent a lot of time over the last few days making batches of sweet potatoes. I really wanted to share with you some amazing, delicious sweet potato recipe that would make you jump out of your socks. So I made about 8 different batches. I made them with a cornstarch and spice crust (as shown in the picture), I tried coconut oil and olive oil, and I tried dipping them in egg whites. I baked them straight on the baking rack and on cookie sheets and on pizza stones. Here's what I found:

The simpler, the better.

At least in my opinion. I didn't prefer the cornstarch batter or egg whites. I like sweet potatoes for their own sweet chewiness, and the coatings just seemed to get in the way. I didn't like seasonings of paprika, garlic, or pepper either, even though I thought that I would. I like them with just a little bit of salt. (Plus, with a heavy seasoning, our amazing dips would be superfluous. It's just too much.)

As far as baking methods--on the cookie sheet, pizza stone, or baking rack--I thought the baking rack made the sweet potatoes a little softer, and the cookie sheet and pizza stone didn't show a lot of difference. So either one should work fine.

So, without further ado, here is my very simple, yet very delicious sweet potato fry method.


Ingredients

sweet potatoes
olive or melted coconut oil (Again, I didn't notice much difference between oils either in texture or taste.)
salt
one of our fry sauces

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut your sweet potatoes in half. Place both halves face down on your cutting board. Then cut each half into 1/4 inch strips, being careful to keep all of them the same size. Then turn the strips on their sides and cut those into 1/4 inch strips.

3. Put a small amount of oil in a bowl and toss the sweet potato strips in it until its surfaces are just barely coated.

4. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet and put in oven.

5. After 10 minutes, take the baking tray out and flip the fries over. Return to oven for another 5 minutes. Watch the fries carefully at this point. They can go from perfect to perfectly charred rather quickly. Some blackened areas will develop, especially at the thinner tips, but that just goes along with baking sweet potatoes. Take the fries out just before they begin to char.

6. Let the fries cool for a minute or two, salt to taste. and serve immediately. They are best fresh! If you wait too long to eat them they can get mushy really quick. Enjoy!