Best Homemade Sweet Potato Snacks

Updated on May 23, 2016 Patty Inglish morePatty collects various recipes from past generations and is interested in early American History, the Civil War, and the 19th century. George Washington Carver is well known for his development of 100s of products from the peanut grown in the American South. Sweet potatoes were the basis for dozens of additional useful inventions produced by Mr. Carver. He made everything, from delicious food dishes to medicines to household cleaning agents from this one plant. Carver never patented any of his products, preferring to share them freely with the world.

That's one difference between George Washington Carver and Bill Gates. Mr. Carver might have become a multi-billionaire in the 21st Century, or he might have chosen to help end world hunger. If anyone could do it, it was he. Even though you can make shoe polish from sweet potatoes, they are still just plain good to eat.

The following recipes have roots in George Washington Carver's own research and cooking manuals and I;ve done some experimenting. You can too, adding speces and other ingredients. I wish Mr. Carver were still here so we could talk to him - maybe ask him about today's food manufacturing processes and health foods.

Corn syrup - I want to ask him about that one. For now, we will have to be satisfied with visiting his entertaining ghost, seen in the videos below. What's an iPeanut, anyway, Boil the sweet potato in salted water untilit is fork- soft. Drain water and peel the potato. In a mixing bowl, mash the potato until it is smooth (or process in a food processor). Add butter and salt to the potato and mix thoroughly. Carefuily pour in the milk, mix, and and beaten eggs and mix again. Adding them seperately will make for a lighter consistency muffin.

Sift 1 teaspoon of baking powder into 2 Cups of flout and it to the wet mixture until youhave a soft and smooth batter, but not runny. Pour into an oiled or baking-sprayed muffin pan. Bake 20 minutes or until knife blade inserted into a muffin center comes out clean. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until they are light yellow.

Stir eggs while adding in the sugar, butter, and buttermilk. In a second bowl, place the all purpose flour. Add to it the salt, baking soda, and cinnamon and combine thoroughly so that all ingredients are even distributed. Ever get a mouthful of baking soda when you were expecting sugar, Stir the flour mixture into the fluffy egg mixture, carefully; mix well and then stir in the mashed sweet potatoes. If the batter is runny, add some more flour to make stiff enough for rolling out (Ever try to roll out pancake batter, - I didn’t think so.

Roll out the donutty dough, cut it out into rounds with a donut cutter or just the mouth of a clean drinking glass. Fry the donuts in deep hot vegetable or peanut oil (Peanuts were Carver’s other specialty). Remember to turn them over after teh first side is golden brown, and fry the second side.

Drain on paper towels and serve. You can sprinkle some pwdered sugar over them, but they might be sweet enough without it. Cut up sweet potatoes into ¼-inch thick slices. Core apples and cut them into ¼-to-½-inch thick slices. Starting with sweet potato slices, build layers of potatoes, followed by apples, until a baking dish is filled.

Sprinkle sugar over the top of the uppermost layer. Add a even sprinkle of cinnamon now, if you want to use it. Distribute butter slices over the top layer. Carefully and evenly pour in the hot water. Bake for 60 minutes and test for doneness (if it’s too runny cook a bit longer. Use a foil tent over the top if it browns too fast.

George Washington Carver studied plants to such an extent that he created at least 300 inventions from peanuts and sweet potatoes alone. One dish that I have not found among Mr. Carver's works, but which is very good when you can find it, is the sweet potato chip. If see any, purchase them and see if you don't like them better than regular chips.

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