There is nothing better than a dish of candied yams that have been slowly baked in the oven for hours, just simmering in that sugary mixture YUM!!
I love sweet potatoes I just don’t like having to turn my oven on for an hour+ to cook them to perfection the way I like, so I save that recipe for special occasions like Thanksgiving.
On the weekdays when I ‘m craving sweet potatoes to pair with a pot roast and cabbage I turn to this recipe. It is just as delicious and doesn’t require me to turn my oven on.
Weekday Candied Yam/Sweet Potatoes
The Recipe

Weekday Candied Yams (Sweet Potatoes)
By Divas Can Cook
Recipe type: Sweet Potatoes
Cook time
Total time
Serves
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes or yams
- 4 tablespoons of butter
- 1 cup of sugar
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
- Wash and peel two large yams or sweet potatoes.
- Cut off the ends of yams and throw away.
- Cut yams into ½ inch thick circles.
- Melt butter in a large pot. and place yams into the pot
- In a bowl combine sugar, nutmeg, & cinnamon.
- Pour sugar mixture on top of yams.
- Stir well to cover yams with the mixture.
- Cover yams and reduce heat to low and cook for 45 minutes or until yams are fork tender. You may need to toss yams gently halfway in the cooking process to make sure they aren't sticking to the pan but be gentle.
- When yams are done transfer to a baking dish. Use a spatula or slotted spoon to keep from breaking them up. You can also pour a teaspoon of vanilla extract into the remaining syrup and pour over the yams at this point if desired.
- Serve piping hot & enjoy!
I just made this as part of our dinner tonight. OMG! The bomb!!! Thank you for sharing your recipes with us.
I’ve made the sweet potato recipe last night- to add on to our leftovers from thanksgiving. (Yes, I still have leftovers LOL)… it was really good. I’m still learning how to cook certain foods but I’ll definitely cook sweet potatoes this way for now on…
Btw I love your website and recipes, continue to make delicious recipes and keep up the great work. God bless you in everything.
I’ve been using this recipe for years. My entire family loves it. I’ll never try another recipe for my yams.
I love this very easy, yet delicious recipe. It is one of my favorite dishes along with those green beans, and that mac and cheese. Monique you are a very talented cook and I appreciate you sharing all your goodness with me so that I can prepare it for my family!!!
I love all of your recipes. I couldn’t cook for dear life but with your videos I’m crushing it in the kitchen. You go girl.
My family just LOVES LOVES LOVES this recipe. I had never ovenbaked my yams before because my mother didn’t either! When I find THIS recipe, I was SO HAPPY! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We love your other recipes as well! Please continue making videos! They’re very helpful!
Do you have a printer friendly version of this? Thanks.
My family loves these sweet potatoes!!!
I use this recipe all the time, except I use dark brown sugar instead of white sugar. I suppose you could use light brown sugar as well.
I use this recipe as well. I mix white and brown sugar. It’s a good base recipe one can use to adjust to your liking.
I followed your recipe and the yams came out perfect! Thanks so much for sharing!
This recipe is the best and I use the other one for thanksgiving. My husbands family can cook so I was nervous using it as I thought they would be critical but they LOVED it!!! I love the flavor.
I use this recipe all the time!!! If you want to cut down some time for Christmas dinner this is the way to go. Tastes the same as being made in the oven. Love it love it!
Very good n easy i popped mine in the oven with some marshmallows on top at the last end to finish them off!! Great weekday recipe my family loved them!
Hello, I would like to know how many servings this recipe produces? Thanks in advance for you or anybodies response.
Id say bout 5 healthy servings i fed 2 kids a toddler n 2adults with a serving for leftovers
I made these tonight for my tomorrow’s Christmas dinner and they turned out 100% perfect. They look and taste GREAT. I am too happy. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
I’ve tried this recipe several times, however, I use brown sugar and a little sprinkle of “sugar in the raw” in place of white sugar. White sugar is POISON…
Brown sugar is just white sugar sprayed with molasses.
in some processes…
These yams were absolutely delicious!!! Every recipe on your website that I’ve tried has turned out great! Thank you for sharing all these tasty recipes!!!
Made these the other nite. Next time i will use 3/4 cup of sugar but THEY WERE A HIT!!!
Thanks, MO!!
I made these and OMG!! They are the BOMB!! I love these yams! I can’t cook and your site and YouTube just keeps me going!
Even though this dish looks delish, I have a question about your other sweet potato recipe. You list real maple as an ingredient but real maple what? Thanx.
Not sure why but this took over an hour to cook. Either way it was delicious!
Gurrrrrl these sweet potatoes are the BOMB DIGGITY!! I AM ADDICTED
This was my first time ever making candied yams and my family loved them along w/ your man pleasing meatloaf. Thanks Monique for all of your wonderful recipes.
I have a recipe from a cook book that is incredible! It tastes like Penuche sauce. It is made with brown sugar rather than white and also has cream/milk in it. I never have cream at home so I use low fat milk. The sauce is made in a large pan, like a frying pan. Then the already cooked yams are added to coat the yam slices before serving. Unbelievably delicious!!
Delicious! So many comments. Thank you!!!!
Just made this tonight for dinner and it was GREAT!! Thanks again for another amazing recipe
I made this today for Thanksgiving dinner. It was amazing!!! I may cut the sugar to 3/4 cup next time b/c 1 cup made the dish too sweet. Thanks for the recipe. Simple and common ingredients in the home.