Loaded Sweet Potatoes With Marshmallows

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These loaded sweet potatoes are the perfect treat and Southern side dish to serve this holiday season, thanks to the caramelized brown sugar, butter, and toasted gooey marshmallow topping.

Forkful of baked sweet potato.

If you’re a fan of my sweet potato casserole recipe with marshmallows, you’re going to love these loaded sweet potatoes! There’s basically a mini casserole (how good does that sound?). These loaded sweet potatoes are easy to make and stuffed with so much sweet goodness, I know you’ll be making them not just around Thanksgiving (they’re just that good). The tender twice-baked sweet potatoes are loaded with cinnamon, melted butter, brown sugar, and toasty marshmallows.

I mean, what’s not to love about a piece of food that counts as a vegetable but tastes like a treat? Even without the sweetness of the added toppings, I love me some sweet potato recipes! If you do as well, check out my vegan sweet potato cake with maple cashew icingeasy candied sweet potatoessweet potato bread with cinnamon swirl, and sweet potato pie (Southern Plate-style).

Plus, if you keep reading, I’m going to show you the easy foolproof way to bake a sweet potato so it’s perfectly done. This means it’s soft, tender, and fluffy as well.

Ingredients for loaded sweet potatoes.

Recipe Ingredients

  • Sweet potatoes
  • Butter (I used unsalted butter)
  • Brown sugar (either dark or light brown sugar, whatever you have on hand)
  • Cinnamon
  • Marshmallows

Sweet potatoes on foil-lined baking sheet.

Place sweet potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet.

You can skip the aluminum foil if you want but it will mean some cleanup later as sweet potatoes often weep a sticky liquid onto your baking dish while cooking.

Baked sweet potatoes.

Now for the baking part. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes, then reduce oven to 350 and bake for an additional 60 minutes.

These are how they will look when done.

Slice sweet potatoes down middle.

Slice each baked potato open at the top. I just use a butter knife or whatever I grab first.

They are soft at this point so a butter knife will do.

Open sliced sweet potatoes.

Use a dish towel so you don’t burn yourself or cover your hand with an oven mitt and grab hold of the sweet potato and push both of the ends together towards the center, which causes it to open up like in the picture above. 

Add ingredients to opened potatoes.

Add butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon to each baked sweet potato, according to taste. I do about a tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and 1/4 tsp cinnamon in each one.

Now, they are ready to serve UNLESS you want to top each stuffed sweet potato with toasted marshmallow goodness! You know you wanna… (or at least I want you to).

Topped with mini marshmallows.

Top with mini marshmallows.

Return to oven until marshmallows are toasted.

Baked sweet potatoes.

Voila! Our perfect loaded sweet potatoes!

Loaded sweet potato

These make a great simple Thanksgiving side dish but I like them any time I can get them!

Storage

I don’t recommend freezing leftovers. However, you can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in the air fryer or in the oven to toast the marshmallows again.

Recipe Notes

  • It’s a totally personal preference when it comes to baking your sweet potatoes. I don’t do anything to mine, but if you like, feel free to poke holes in your sweet potatoes, drizzle them with olive oil, or wrap them in foil prior to baking.
  • If you want to brown your marshmallows faster, turn the broiler on low and keep a close eye on it. If you’ve never cooked anything under your broiler you need to know that it can go from just fine to burned beyond recognition in a matter of minutes. So stay right there and keep an eyeball on it. My mother usually cracks her oven door open a little and watches. 
  • For additional spice, add a 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg to each loaded sweet potato.
  • You can also add a sprinkle of chopped pecans before you add the mini marshmallows.
  • Another option is to drizzle the sweet potatoes with maple syrup before baking, if there’s no such thing as too sweet in your book!

Loaded sweet potato

Recipe FAQs

Can I make the loaded sweet potatoes in advance?

Yes, you can store your stuffed sweet potatoes covered in the fridge overnight. Return them to room temperature before topping them with marshmallows and baking as per the recipe instructions.

Does the cooking time change if I bake more sweet potatoes?

No, the cooking time shouldn’t change no matter the number of sweet potatoes.

Should I use yams or sweet potatoes?

 I prefer the rounder ones that fill up my palm like the picture above. Sometimes, though, all you can find are the skinny ones and if that is what you have, they’ll do just fine.

Some people (and stores) refer to these as yams, which is an entirely different vegetable altogether. You’d be hard-pressed to find a true yam in the United States. Yams are from Africa and can grow up to three feet in length. They aren’t even related to the sweet potato but when Africans arrived (against their will) in the American South and saw the sweet potato could be cooked in the same manner as they cooked yams, that is what they began calling it, which makes perfect sense, and this caught on.

Why do I call it a sweet potato? Well, for two reasons. 1. That’s what it is. 2. That is what my mother called it. Having said that, though, if you grew up calling them yams, keep on doing your thing!

Here are some more Thanksgiving favorites:

Slow Cooker Turkey Breast

No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

Frenchs Green Bean Casserole

How To Make Cranberry Sauce

Apple Crisp in the Crockpot

Pumpkin Praline Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

Loaded sweet potato

Perfect Loaded Sweet Potatoes With Marshmallows

These loaded sweet potatoes are the perfect treat to serve this Thanksgiving, thanks to the caramelized brown sugar, butter, and toasted gooey marshmallow topping.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: American
Keyword: potatoes
Servings: 4
Calories: 86kcal

Ingredients

  • sweet potatoes

For each potato:

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup miniature marshmallows

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400.
  • Wash sweet potatoes. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake an additional 60 minutes.
    sweet potatoes
  • Cut a slit down the center of each potato. Using an oven mitt, press in on both ends of the potato at the same time, pushing towards the center to puff up the potato. Fill each one with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Top with a handful of marshmallows.
    1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
  • Return potatoes to oven until marshmallows are browned and puffed up, about five minutes. Serve warm and enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 86kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

 

 

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61 Comments

  1. Christy, you are spot on with timing on sweet potatoes. I love them and my husband always thought they had too many fiber strands. We had dinner out last night at Logan’s steak house and I had a baked sweet potato and it sure was good. A little cinnamon and a pat of butter and I was in heaven. My husband tried it and liked it too He has now given me the go ahead to grow some sweet potatoes. I will keep looking for them in the store but we don’t seem to have them fresh around here for some reason. Your recipe looks perfect for the holidays. Thanks for posting this today.

  2. Love baked sweet potatoes!! When I was a kid Mama would bake a big pan and we could grab one for a snack when we got the munchies. We just didnt know how good they were for us.

  3. Lord, honey, we practically live on sweet potatoes baked just this way. Well okay, I also add freshly grated nutmeg and sometimes a dash of ground cloves, because it makes me think of all the sweet potato pies my mama bakes at Thanksgiving. I am glad I stopped by today, as it was such fun to see your performance of Modern Major General!

  4. I just wanted to say, thank you, I love your sight. I truly love cooking and finding new recipes. I also love the step by step, being a visual person. I feel that you are in my kitchen with me. Linda Archer ;0)

  5. Thanks Christy!! i noticed your baked sweet potato yesterday and thought thats such a great idea! next time i go i’ll pick some up at Whole Foods.. last week they had piles of them looking just like yours- and i’ve had sweet potato casserole like you made it and liked it but its just me– so i was like.. well.. i dont know how to even start cooking that right.. . keep on.. see you didnt even KNOW we needed a new idea and came thru like always! Thank you 🙂

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