off that trench coat and knock the little-person stack down.
We do this with the help of an enzyme naturally present in
the potatoes that is active between the range of 135° and
170°F. Essentially, the longer a sweet potato spends in that
zone between 135° and 170°F, the sweeter it becomes. To
test this, I cooked three batches of potatoes. The first I
popped directly into a 350°F oven and baked until tender.
The second I parcooked in a temperature-controlled water
bath at 150°F for 1 hour before baking. The last I parcooked
in the water bath overnight before baking.
More sugary sweet potatoes brown faster.You can immediately see that the parcooked potatoes
browned better, indicating a higher sugar content that
allowed them to caramelize faster. The color difference was
also reflected in the flavor: the parcooked potatoes were