Sweet potato pancakes

5.00 stars from 95 reviews

Sweet potato pancakes are a delicious alternative breakfast that tastes a little like hash browns and has a texture that's crispy on the outside and softer than traditional pancakes on the inside. Our recipe diverts a little from traditional potato pancakes (though it's similar) by using cooked potatoes and adding ingredients. It's also a little different than traditional latkes (though it's similar) due to different ingredients and having the smoothness of potato pancakes.

Boiling the sweet potatoes is the most time consuming part. As a result, this dish is especially nice to make when you have leftover cooked sweet potatoes. The next time you make potatoes as a side for a meal, make extra so you have them in the refrigerator. You can follow the same recipe for leftover baked potatoes. You can also use leftover potato fries, potato wedges, etc. as long as you're ok with a different texture. If your leftovers are dry potatoes, such as baked potatoes, you may want to add more sour cream, butter or milk to the mixer to moisten them up.

That being said, it probably tastes a little better with freshly boiled sweet potatoes, so if this is your first time making these, it's probably a good thing to take a little more time for a better 1st impression. When you can use leftovers, you have delicious sweet potato pancakes at less than half the time. You can also follow this recipe with Russett, red, yellow, etc. potatoes.

Fried eggs pair well with this, so we recommend adding fried eggs to top the potato pancakes or else eat them on the side. If you want to eat only these by themselves for breakfast, then you may want to increase the amount per serving.

Ingredients

SERVES 3

• 4 tablespoons of a high heat cooking oil such as coconut oil
• 7 medium sized sweet potatoes (or the equivalent of whatever size you have)
• 2 tablespoons of soft or melted butter
• 2 tablespoon of sour cream
• 1/8 cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon of dill
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• Dash of pepper

Directions

1. Peel your potatoes unless you bought organic and want the extra nutrients.
2. Boil your potatoes or else use leftover already cooked potatoes. Boiling will take at least 15 minutes or more with larger or unpeeled potatoes taking longer than peeled or smaller potatoes. Wait until they are soft enough that they will be mashed up while mixing them.
3. When your sweet potatoes are ready, place them into a bowl for mixing. You may want to cut them or mash with a fork to help them mix.
4. Add all of your milk, soft/melted butter, sour cream, dill and most of your salt to the bowl and mix.
5. Slowly mix in your flour little by little until it's mostly used up. Reserve a small amount of flour to coat a plate or cutting board for dredging your sweet potato cakes.
6. Heat your pan to medium heat and add your cooking oil. Once hot, take some of the sweet potato dough, flatten it and dredge it in the additional flour. If you run out of the flour for dredging, you can add some more. The goal is to get a crispy outside for the sweet potato pancakes.
7. Cook your sweet potato cakes until they are a crispy golden brown on each side. This should take roughly 3-4 minutes for each side.
8. Serve with your favorite toppings. Pictured are a fried egg, ketchup and sour cream.

Dig in...

Here are some common questions people have related to sweet potato pancakes:

Is there a difference between potato pancakes and latkes?

Yes. Potato pancakes will be smooth and round while latkes will have shredded potatoes in the texture. Both should have a soft interior, but latkes are a little firmer and should have some stringy potato and possibly onions evident while potato pancakes will be smooth like mashed potatoes. It's popular to add matzo to latkes and potato pancakes seldom (never?) have that.

Sometimes latkes are called potato cakes and vice versa. Our readers tend to be very creative since many enjoy pancake art, so feel free to blend the two and get creative if you'd like.

Are potatoes Irish or American?

American. More specifically, South American. After potatoes migrated to Europe in the 16th century, they "took root" in many different countries, particularly the northern climates. Potatoes eventually became very popular in Ireland and were brought back to North America from Europe.

Why do you soak sweet potatoes in water?

This recipe calls for boiling the potatoes because this makes them more moist and easier to blend in the blender for a smooth texture along with the butter, sour cream, etc. Additionally, soaking sweet potatoes in water can cause them to crisp up better by releasing the starch from the potato. Other methods such as baking can leave them dryer and lumpier.

You can use leftover potatoes that have been baked, but you may want to add more moist ingredients or else you will have some clumps. We've made these with lumps from baked sweet potatoes and from sweet potato fries and they were still delicious. We just had to work a little harder and more carefully to keep them together, especially when flipping.