Sweet Potato Butter

Upon visiting the grocery store, I learned that the sweet potatoes were only $0.29 per pound. Twenty-nine cents per pound. Ahhhhhhh, I’m in heaven! So not only did I buy up their entire selection, I got them home and started conspiring on how to make use of ’em all. Enter… my sweet potato butter.

While I was working toward making my mashed sweet potatoes (one of MANY dishes I was about to enjoy from my phenomenal amount of sweet potatoes I got), I opted to cut my recipe short and veer off into another direction – sweet potato spread! If I can do it with apples and blueberries, why not sweet potatoes? It’s uncommon, but on the right crackers and breads (or pancakes… or waffles… or even ice cream…), it’s a wonderful little addition. My daughter adores this, so I figured you might find a use for it.

First, let me laugh a little – I’m not a photographer at all. I have an awesome camera, but I have no idea how to work it.. so I snap these shots with my cell phone. Stop laughing.

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1/8th teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8th teaspoon cloves
• 1/8th teaspoon allspice
• 1/4th cup brown sugar

Chop up your sweet potatoes into nice big chunks. Don’t worry about skinning it. Also, don’t use a bread knife. Knife almost took some of my fingers.

Toss your chunks into a nice sized pot full of water. Just enough water to cover your potato chunks.

After about 20 minutes, start checking your potatoes. Some people microwave ’em instead of boiling. I can’t vouch for that method because I avoid my microwave, but I’m not against it.

Drain your pot, let the sweet potatoes cool, then take your chunks one by one to pinch off the skin. A simple pinching motion should do well to get rid of it.

All of your skinned chunks should be soft and in a bowl together, now. Take a potato masher, and get to work!

After enough work, drop in your spices – feel free to add a little cinnamon if you choose – and stir it up with a good wooden spoon. Then, grab your brown sugar and slowly start pouring it in. After about a quarter of your brown sugar, taste it a little.. gauge what you’re going for, here. At this point, you can go where you want with it. Make it taste more like sweet potato pie, add more cloves, whatever you desire. I made mine a little tangy by adding some molasses to it (just a tablespoon), and my little one adores it.

I keep extra jars in the house, so I just tossed this in a jar and ta-da!

Spread it on some water crackers for a nice snack! I don’t like it spread on wheat bread too well (at least with the kind I buy.. tastes like true-to-life cardboard to me) so the water crackers is my favorite bet. Enjoy!