There is something alluring about a sweet potato crisped up like a chip, at least my girls thinks so. They will eat sweet potato chips all day long!
For some reason, I haven't gotten around to this baking adventure. But, I took the plunge, bought a mandoline and now I am officially in the chip business. 🙂 (By the way, I love my new gadget and would highly suggest investing in a good one. They are not very expensive.)
First up on the chip baking agenda: sweet potatoes. The whole process is quite easy (although they do take quite a while to cook.) I learned a few tips along the way which might shorten your learning curve. A few nuggets of knowledge plus directions for a cute origami serving cup are detailed below.
These sweet potato chips won't last long!
After washing and drying the sweet potato, use a mandoline to cut thin slices. I used a setting of 2, which was pretty thin. It is difficult to get thin and even slices with a knife...but, that's an option too.
Next, lay the slices out on a baking sheet that is lightly covered with cooking spray. (Every time I did this step it reminded of a memory game where you turn two cards over at a time and tried to get a match!)
I used an insulated baking sheet specially made for cookies. Once I put some overflow slices on a light brown baking pan and they promptly burned.
Lightly coat the sweet potato slices with olive oil using a pastry brush. (And, I do mean lightly.) Sprinkle a little sea salt over the slices. (I didn't use much at all.) Bake them in a 225 degree oven for 1 ½ to 2 hours. (Yes, you read that right!)
Experiment with the temperature, if you dare. I tried a batch at 250 degrees, but some of the chips browned too quickly and the total cook time didn't change much. But, the 225 degree temperature worked every time in my oven.
The downside of making your own sweet potato chips is that it takes a lot of oven. It took 3 cookie sheets for one large sweet potato. I put the two racks in the middle of the oven, a few inches from each other, and cooked all 3 cookie sheets at once on the two different levels with no problem at all. I did switch the bottom pan to the top once during the cooking process, just to be sure.
While the chips are cooking you will have plenty of time to dream up creative ways to serve them. In a pretty cupcake liner? Scattered next to Healthy Warm Artichoke Dip? Possibly in a cute little origami cup?
Remember those? A square piece of paper is transformed into a cup that can magically hold water.
Follow these easy steps: Fold the paper in half to form a triangle.
Fold the two side points to the middle.
Fold the top flaps down. Now open the cup and give it a nudge...the bottom will pop up a bit and the cup will stand by itself...like magic.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on the chips while they are cooking. I checked them at one hour and flipped each one over. I then began checking the progress every 15 minutes or so. The cooking time will differ depending upon the thickness of the sweet potato slice, the individual oven and amount of oil brushed on the sweet potato slice.
These are looking pretty good, firm and just starting to curl at the edges.
After about 1 ½ hours, a nice bowl of sweet potato chips! As long as your home for a few hours, it sure doesn't hurt to have a batch of these in the oven!
Baked Sweet Potato Chips
Ingredients
- 2 medium sweet potatoes
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- Sea salt
Instructions
- Place oven racks in the middle two levels, right next to each other.
- Preheat oven to 225 °F.
- Wash and dry sweet potatoes.
- Thinly slice potatoes with a mandoline (setting of 2) or knife.
- Place potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
- Use a brush to lightly coat potatoes with olive oil.
- Lightly season with sea salt.
- Bake in oven for 1 ½ to 2 hours, flipping potato slices at 1 hour and checking for doneness every 15 to 20 minutes after the one hour mark. Cook until slices are crisp, not burnt, and lightly curled at the edges.
Notes
Nutrition
If you are counting, no points! (Okay...maybe 1 for the olive oil depending upon how many you eat.)
Enjoy!
Pamela
Sounds yummy. I remember these with cinnamon sugar!
Marjory
Absolutely! Just sprinkle a little on instead of salt.
Maureen
I would never have thought of using cinnamon sugar instead of salt. Love the idea though.
Marjory
Me too. I guess if you make a little dip with marshmallow you'd have something like a sweet potato souffle!
Christine (Cook the Story)
The top picture on this post is stunning. I want to eat these chips right now!
Marjory
Thanks Christine! I'd like to munch on few now too!
Tara
Those are fabulous and I love the little container, so cute!!
Marjory
Thanks Tara! It's the perfect time of year to heat up the kitchen...I'm going to be making a batch soon.
Autism United
Last week I thought I would cheap out on my time of making homemade chips and buying, Costco sells a sweet potato chip that tasted pretty good at the time. Well they really aren't, they are hard and too crunchy and after just a few the flavor takes on an unknown yuck flavor.
Back to homemade.
Love the idea of a bit of cinnamon, that would be interesting.
Thanks for sharing your recipe and tips.
Marjory
Thanks for reading. You just can't beat homemade and you can control the salt too!
Liz
Oh, boy, do these look fantastic!!! I hope to try them soon!!!
Colin Leung
I'm sure this would have tasted delicious. However, it might be a good idea to state that the temperature to set is in Fahrenheit. I'm from Australia and set our oven to 225 degrees, which is in Celsius. Needless to say they turned out a lot crispier than we would've liked. Rookie mistake!!
Marjory Pilley
OMG! I cleared that up! Thanks for coming back to comment.