Are You Ready for Your Goth Potato Moment?

My family always has some kind of sweet potato dish on our holiday table. We love a starchy side in general, so there are usually a few different potato options. My sister-in-law and I tag team on the spuds; sometimes it’s whipped sweet potatoes or a cheesy gratin, and we always have my stepdad’s favorite sweet potato casserole with crunchy brown sugar pecans. For me, nothing beats a side of candied yams. I love them hot out of the oven or at room temperature and especially with a little chill on ’em because that’s when they taste most like a cold slice of pie.

Did you know 99.8 percent of all “candied yam” recipes actually use sweet potatoes? Thanks to an Instagram info-meme, I learned that sweet potatoes and yams are not the same thing, even though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably in recipes. I won’t go into the details of yam versus sweet potato, but it’s a worthy Wikipedia rabbit hole if you enjoy root-veggie trivia. This candied yams recipe uses actual yams — purple yams known as ube. It’s a staple in Filipino desserts, from cakes and cookies to doughnuts and flan. The color is intense, but the flavor is subtle, kind of like a touch of vanilla with a sprankle of pistachio. It’s like ube is the new matcha, popping up everywhere as ube waffles and ube lattes and ube churros; Trader Joe’s even made ice cream out of it.