Sweet Potato Dessert Nachos

I am a huge fan of nachos – AND dessert. This is a super combo of the two. 

It’s nice to work in a place with farmers all around you! I work in a town in the country where fresh produce is plentiful. One of our sweet customers grows sweet potatoes, and came by last week with a whole truckload of sweet potatoes and told us to take our pick. I got them Friday, so I had the whole weekend to think of what to do with them (we went out of town to Atlanta, and just got back). 

I’ve had kind of a sweet tooth the past few weeks… more than normal. And when I started looking into sweet potato nachos (to see if they’ve been done before), I ran across mostly savory recipes (which ALL looked amazing). I ended up really wanting to make a Dessert Nacho… I started to think about what normally goes with a sweet potato, and thought about a yummy sweet potato casserole I had a few Christmas’s ago. It was topped with marshmallows – YES! Marshmallow creme could be the gooey topping for these guys. 

I only had regular mini-marshmallows, so I looked up how to make them into a creme sauce [link from craftsy.com]. I used just marshmallows, corn syrup, and vanilla — double boiling the marshmallows first and adding the corn syrup and vanilla once they started getting melty. 

When I got home, I decided to create the masterpiece that had been developing in my head for a few days. I knew I would incorporate some cinnamon and sugar because they’re of course amazing with sweet potatoes. I grabbed The Flavor Bible (which happens to be what I’m giving away this month) to see what else I’d add to the top of these nachos. The more toppings the better anyway, right? 

I found that apples and oranges (two fruits we happen to have fresh in the house) pair well with sweet potatoes. I diced up a small apple we had in the kitchen (diced small like in a pico de gallo), and tossed them with juice from half the orange to prevent any browning and to add a subtle orange flavor. Also, allspice is a top spice that pairs with sweet potatoes. Before baking, I tossed the potato slices with some grapeseed oil, cinnamon, sugar and allspice, then I spread them out on a cooling rack set on a baking dish and cooked at 425^ for 20-30 minutes until starting to crisp. 

It was a bit tough to drizzle the marshmallow creme… but that really doesn’t matter — the taste couldn’t have been better! Greg and I devoured our shares and agreed the dish was killer, and the orange flavor is what set it over the top!

I ended up just taking a fork and digging in. With the toppings, the potatoes softened up enough that a fork was easier to use (plus a little less sticky).