Stuffed Sweet Potatoes - Gluten Free

Another easy, yet very impressive side dish. Baked sweet potatoes stuffed with apples cooked in brandy, walnuts and cranberries. The top has a small sprinkle of sugar and then put under the broiler to brulee. Your spoon has to break thru that thin layer of crispy sugar to get to the creamy sweet potato. I serve this with maple/walnut butter that's at room temperature.

The sweet potato is one of the oldest vegetables known to mankind. It is believed that the sweet potato was domesticated thousands of years ago in Central America (source: all about sweet potatoes) Did you know that a sweet potato is not a potato? There is a difference between a sweet potato and a yam.

Yams have a starchy white-colored flesh that is dry. The sweet potato has the familiar orange color and is very sweet. The production, harvesting, handling and storing processes are different for these two vegetables. Ask my family, they challenged me once in a restaurant and I had to explain the difference. After my daughter "Goggled" the difference, they realized, Mom knows her stuff!

Eating more sweet potatoes will give you a diet that is high in fiber, provides many nutrients, is rich in complex carbohydrates, and is low in fat. This recipe does not have marshmallows that are normally added to the sweet potatoes. If you want to adjust the sugar in this recipe, you can us Splenda instead of the sugar for the brulee top. It works the same.

Once you realize how easy it is to make a stuffed sweet potato, you'll never buy the ones in the can ever again. To me, they always have the taste of the tin can, or as I call it "metal mouth".

Let's get cooking, you'll need:

2 medium sweet potatoes

1 tbsp butter

1 small green apple -cubed

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup brandy

pinch nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp sour cream

Wash the sweet potatoes well and wrap in aluminum foil and place on a disposable pan. You'll want to use disposable since the sweet potatoes may leak and make a mess on a regular pan that will require scrubbing. I don't scrub if I don't have to! Bake in an oven on low heat (325 degrees) for 2 hours or until a knife inserted in the sweet potato goes in easily. Allow them to cool so you can handle them. You will get burned if you attempt to handle them while still hot since their sugar contents is very high. Hot sugar and tender hands do not play well - you will get burned.

Once cooled to the touch, cut them in half length wise and hallow out the sweet potato to make "boats" . You're going to want to use your mixer to get the sweet potato broken down into a smooth paste. Add the sour cream, butter and spices. Fold in the walnuts and dried cranberries and set aside.

Cut the apple into small cubes and put in a shallow skillet and add the brandy off the heat. Return to the stove and tilt the pan just enough so you get a flame. You have flambe of apples which means you're burning off the alcohol and the flame will go out within a few seconds. Continue to cook the apples until they are soft and drain off the brandy. (note: you can use this brandy in a cup of tea later depending on how your day is going)

Add the apples to the sweet potato mixture and stir gently. Spoon the mixture into the skins and flatten the top.

Sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on the sweet potatoes and put under a hot broiler for 5 minutes or until the sugar has melted and just starts to turn brown.

If you have a kitchen torch, you can use it to brulee the sugar to a hard shell. I wanted to show how to get the same crust without any special tools or kitchen gadgets.

To compliment the sweet potatoes, I serve a soft maple/walnut butter. Sounds fancy, no? It's softened butter with a drizzle of maple syrup and chopped walnuts. Serve it in a fancy little dish in the center of the sweet potatoes and I guarantee your guests will be amazed and delighted with this side dish.

I find myself eating all the sides at Thanksgiving and really don't eat that much turkey. To me, the sides are the fun part of the holiday.

In a previous blog post, the recipe for my Dad's Sausage Fennel Stuffing was posted. That also is a staple on my Thanksgiving table along with Fran's Apple Bacon Stuffing.

Enjoy and give thanks.