Sweet Potato Butter

You’ve heard of Apple Butter.  You may have heard of Pumpkin Butter…. But Sweet Potato Butter??  Maybe.

Last year, *our* farmer grew vast quantities of pumpkins and offered them at a discount for the adventurous.  I bought tons and, with the help of my mother, baked them and froze bags of pumpkin puree and homemade pumpkin butter.

Well, this year, he planted more sweet potatoes instead of pumpkins.  OK by me since this is my favorite fall vegetable.  Therefore, I decided that I would attempt a sweet potato butter for freezer storage.

Conclusions: Yummy!!  And, sooo much easier and quicker than pumpkin butter.

Basically, the fact that sweet potato puree is more dense, sweeter, and without stringy-ness makes it a much better base for a “butter”.  Or, even a pie (which I will be doing as well)- in my opinion.

I looked up recipes online for inspiration and then ad-libbed my own method.  There is really a lot of freedom with something like this and the possibilities are basically endless.

It went something like this:

-- Put peeled, soft sweet potatoes* into a large crockpot.  Use stick blender to mash/puree- adding water as needed.

-- Add:

- Lemon Juice (I used about 1 1/2 tbsp)

- Cinnamon (2 tbsp?)

- Ground Cloves (about 2 tsp)

- Real Maple Syrup (2 tbsp)

- Sugar (2 tbsp)

-- Cook in covered crockpot on high for about 1 hour to soften all chunks and meld.

-- Take lid off and cook on low for a few hours until at desired consistency.  I cooked mine like this for about 2.5 hours and it was thick and spreadable.

-- Portion into freezer containers (e.g. bags, jars, molds, plastic bowls, etc.)  I used recycled plastic peanut butter jars so that they can go easily between the freezer and fridge and be ready for serving when thawed.

I plan to serve it in/on oatmeal, yogurt, toast, bagels, muffins, pancakes.  I will also use it to bake with (perfect for quick breads, muffins, pancakes, cookie bars, brownies, bread pudding, rice pudding, and spice cakes).  On 2 cup jar can also serve as a base for a “pumpkin” pie (just add: ginger, nutmeg, and evaporated milk).