Julie Clark
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Sweet Potato Puffs
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Savory twice baked sweet potato puffs make an elegant, healthy side dish for your family dinner. These mashed potato swirls are also called duchess sweet potatoes.
The main holiday seasons, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, are known for their rich, calorie filled food. Cinnamon bread, cream puffs, and thanksgiving stuffing are often found on our holiday tables.
But what about healthier options? These can be delicious, too! Twice Baked Sweet Potato Puffs are just one example of a healthy side dish recipe that I come running for. These mashed sweet potatoes are gluten free, dairy free, grain free and sugar free. Paleo-approved and a gorgeously presented Whole30 recipe.
About this Sweet Potato Puffs Recipe:
Officially these sweet potato puffs are not twice baked. They’re once cooked and once baked. But they have that depth of flavor that twice baked potatoes have.
- This recipe calls for whole sweet potatoes, first mashed, then piped into a pretty swirl and baked to get the edges just slightly crispy.
- The Dutchess potato swirl makes these savory puffs so pretty, perfect alongside your honey baked ham.
- We bake them in the oven, but I’ll also give air fryer instructions, which will free up the oven on busy kitchen holidays.
- The baked sweet potatoes do take about 30 minutes of hands-on prep time, but grab the kids and let them help make the swirls! The presentation and taste are worth it.
How to Make Twice Baked Sweet Potato Puffs
- Wash and peel 3 pounds of fresh sweet potatoes. Use canned sweet potatoes if you absolutely need a shortcut, but fresh sweet potatoes give these sweet potato puffs a light, pleasantly fresh taste.
- Cut the potatoes into large chunks and boil them until they are soft. Depending on the size of the potatoes this will take 15-20 minutes.
- Drain the water off the potatoes and add butter (or ghee or even coconut oil) and cashew milk (or the milk of your choice). Use a mixer to whip and mash these potatoes until they are completely smooth.
- Add two eggs and whip those potatoes and eggs together for a minute or two until they are light and fluffy. The eggs will help give the potatoes structure.
- Now comes the fun part…making the swirls! Use a decorating bag and a Wilton 1M tip. This is a tip with a large opening that is perfect for squeezing those potatoes out.
- Fill the bag with the mashed potatoes and squeeze swirls onto a greased baking sheet. Once you’ve made all of the swirls, drizzle them with butter or ghee, then bake them for 15 minutes at the high temperature of 425ºF. Then you can broil them for just 2-3 minutes in order to get a little bit of a brown edge on the swirls.
Use a dark baking sheet.
For the best browning, use a dark baking sheet. The bottoms of the potatoes seemed to get a little more caramelized and slightly crispy this way.
Add other flavors.
I kept the flavoring on this sweet potato puff recipe simple, but you can switch up the savory flavor profile by adding other spices such as garlic powder, paprika, rosemary or thyme.
Make them a little more sweet by adding vanilla extract or a sprinkle of brown sugar. Although I think the sweet potatoes have enough sweet flavor on their own.
Love cheese? Add a sprinkling of parmesan cheese! It’s always a good idea.
Make it a meal.
Serve the sweet potato puffs with slow cooker ham or roasted turkey as a main dish along with a side of green beans or roasted red potatoes.
A simple, healthy dinner that is perfect for holidays, company and family dinners!
You may also love our healthy sweet potato casserole and sweet potato fries. Cinnamon rolls made with puff pastry and lemon cream puffs make a light dessert.
Sweet Potato Puffs
Twice Baked Sweet Potato Puffs make an elegant, healthy side dish for your holiday dinner. These mashed sweet potato swirls are also called duchess potatoes.
Servings 10 servings
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 3 pounds sweet potatoes washed and peeled
- 1/3 cup salted butter or ghee softened
- 2 tablespoons cashew milk or any milk you prefer
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons salted butter melted (for drizzling)
- Additional salt to taste
- Fresh parsley for garnishing
Instructions
- Boil water in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cut the potatoes into chunks and place the chunks in the boiling water. Allow the potatoes to boil for 15-20 minutes* or until the chunks are soft. Drain off the water. 3 pounds sweet potatoes
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- Place the drained cooked potatoes in a bowl. Add the butter and milk to the drained potatoes. Use a hand mixer to beat the potatoes until the butter is completely melted and the potatoes are smooth. If you don't have an electric mixer, use a potato masher. ⅓ cup salted butter or ghee, 2 tablespoons cashew milk
- Add the eggs and beat for an additional 1-2 minutes until the egg is completely mixed in. The mixture should look light and fluffy. 2 large eggs
- Take a large disposable decorating bag and snip the tip off. Place Wilton 1M tip inside the bag and push it into the cut off tip. Fill the decorating bag with the sweet potato mixture.
- Spray a dark baking sheet with coconut cooking spray. (For better browning, it's best not to use parchment paper or a baking mat for this recipe.)
- Take the decorating bag, hold it perpendicular to the baking sheet and pipe a swirling mound of sweet potatoes on the prepared pan. Continue until you've used all of the sweet potato mixture. Drizzle the melted butter over the sweet potato swirls. 3 tablespoons salted butter
- Bake for 15 minutes. Turn the oven to high broil and broil for 2-3 minutes. Be sure to watch the sweet potato swirls carefully and take them out when they just barely brown on the edges.
- Snip fresh parsley over the sweet potatoes if you desire. Add additional salt also if you'd like. Additional salt, Fresh parsley
Notes
*The exact cooking time for the potatoes will depend on how big you cut the potato chunks.
Nutrition
Serving: 161g | Calories: 216kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 167mg | Potassium: 475mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 19653IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 49mg | Iron: 1mg
Can you make these ahead of time?
Great adaptable recipe! We made them to go with the leftover Christmas ham. Substituted Mexican crema for the milk, add a generous grinding of nutmeg and 1 Tbsp of Parmesan cheese for half a recipe. Next time will increase the parm in the recipe and perhaps sprinkle a bit on top as well. They were beautiful and tasty!!
If I don’t have the decorating bag/tip, could I spoon them out and make them non swirls or does the decorating tip make them fluffy/airy?
Hi, is this in Celsius or farenheit? Thanks.
I was wondering if you thought that subbing the milk for orange juice or coconut milk would work?
Do you think it could work without the eggs?
Can you make them the day before?
These look so good! I am just wondering if you think I can mix these up and do the swirls then freeze them? This would be great around the holidays but things get a little (really) hectic around that time and having a few things predone that I can just bake will make the stress easier.
why don’t you bake the sweet potatoes instead of boiling them so as to retain all their nutrients?
These do look yummy. I’m completely dairy-free. I’m wondering if coconut oil would work in place of the butter / ghee? Thanks!
Have you tried making them a day (or 2) ahead of time?
How many servings does this recipe make?
What a fun idea – hope you are enjoying your vacation. It sounds heavenly!
Those look delicious, and they are so healthy and pretty too! They’d be perfect for Easter!
Oh yum! These sound delicious and are perfect for me… I love sweet potato and I’m gluten-free and lactose-free 🙂