Mexican Sweet Potatoes (Camotes Enmielados)

Camotes means sweet potatoes in Spanish. These are camotes enmielados or Mexican sweet potatoes. My recipe is a bit different than the traditional one but I promise this is going to become one of your favorite desserts.

Sweet Potatoes in Mexico Are a Popular Snack

If you’ve ever traveled to Mexico chances are you’ve come across the camotero or street vender selling warm sweet potatoes — often times they also have plantains too.

The camoteros have a big metal cart with a tall exhaust that connects to the bottom where the wood is burning and creating the heat to cook the camotes.

After you choose your tender sweet potato you’re given a choice of toppings to drizzle over it. Things like sugar, honey, jam, cinnamon, or condensed milk are usually on offer for the client.

My childhood favorite was always the sweetened condensed milk also called Lechera.

Camotes Enmielados

In Mexico we love sweet potatoes. Not only the way the camoteros sell them but also made into all sorts or sweets and confections.

One is camote enmielado, or also called camote dulce, which translate to candied sweet potatoes.

This is an incredibly easy dessert to make. The traditional ingredients are nothing more than sweet potatoes, water, piloncillo, and cinnamon sticks. Super simple!

How I Make Camote con Leche

The way I make camotes is a bit different than the traditional Mexican recipe.

Much like my calabaza en tacha (cadied pumpkin) I love incorporating different aromatic, warming spices to give the dessert another level of smells and taste.

I also love serving this Mexican sweet potato with milk. It adds another level of deliciousness.

Ingredients

The ingredients I use are sweet potatoes chopped into large pieces, water, canela, piloncillo, aromatic spices, and a touch of salt.

The type of sweet potato I use the orange-fleshed variety but you could also use the one with the purplish skin that has white flesh.

Piloncillo

If you don’t know what piloncillo is, it’s unrefined whole cane sugar. It has a dark brown color and the taste is like brown sugar and a touch of molasses.

This is a sweetener that’s much more natural product than white sugar. It’s sweetness never overpowers the other flavors and best of all, it’s also 100% vegan!

You can get piloncillo at any Mexican or Hispanic food market. There’s also always Amazon, where you can also purchase the grated one like I use. In a pinch you can use brown sugar instead.

Non-Traditional Spices to Use

As previously mentioned, traditionally only canela or Ceylon cinnamon is used. There are lots of people that also use cloves and star anise.

I’ve incorporated some additional aromatic spices to give these camotes my own special twist.

Below are the spices I use. Feel free to use them all or choose our favorites.

• whole cloves
• all spice
• whole cardamom pods, crushed
• whole star anise
• some ground nutmeg
• salt (salt helps bring out the flavors)

How to Make Camotes

You can make them on the stove or use your pressure cooker or Instant Pot. I like to use my Instant Pot so that I don’t heat up my kitchen, being that it’s quite hot year-round where I live.

To start pour water into your pot, then add the granulated piloncillo, the cinnamon sticks, spices and salt. Simmer until the piloncillo has dissolved and the spices begin to release their scent.

If using the Instant Pot select Sauté function for 15 minutes, then add the water, piloncillo, and spices. Simmer until the piloncillo has dissolved and stir often.

Next you place the sweet potato chunks into the pot. Making sure they are skin up.

How to Serve Mexican Sweet Potatoes

As I mentioned previously, serving the camotes can be as simple as with the syrup made from the cooking process. Or you can use sugar, honey (for a nonvegan version), or jam or condensed or evaporated milk. It’s up to you.

I personally LOVE my camotes drizzled with the syrup and some soy milk or almond milk , when I was vegetarian I used either evaporated milk or media crema.

I haven’t seen a vegan evaporated milk (yet) where I live, otherwise I’d use that.

So that’s it, then you just dig right on in. Oh but make sure the camotes and syrup are warm when serving. It makes this treat taste even better.

Now imagine on a cool evening sitting down with a bowl of camote con leche, a mug of cafe or tea, a good book, and a cozy blanket. Sounds pretty heavenly to me!

How to Store and Reheat

Allow the sweet potato and syrup to come to room temperature then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

I don’t recommend freezing because sweet potato doesn’t freeze well. 

To reheat you can pop everything in the microwave for a couple of minutes until warm. 

How to Use Leftovers

You can take any leftover sweet potatoes and peel them then use as a filling for quick sweet empanadas de camote. 

Additionally, I love to mix the camotes into my morning oatmeal, and I also love to drizzle some of the syrup over it – or pancakes too!

Are There Vegan and Vegetarian Versions

Traditionally everything in the main part of the recipe is vegan.

But depending on what type of milk is added then it’ll determine what it is. Don’t worry because it’s super easy make either vegan and vegetarian versions for your family members.

For the vegan method I’ll use unflavored or vanilla flavored soy or almond milk. You could even use oat milk or your plant milk of choice. If you have access to vegan evaporated milk that would work great too.

For the vegetarian version simply use whole fat milk or evaporated milk, or even better is media crema. The media crema will give you quite a rich dessert, so yummy!

More Mexican Desserts to Make

• Calabaza En Tacha or Mexican Candied Pumpkin
• Concha Strawberry Shortcake
• Carlota de Limón (Mexican Lime Icebox Cake)
• Puerquitos: Mexican Piloncillo Spiced Cookies
• How to Make Rainbow Churros (Video Recipe)
• Healthy Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips
• Pastel de Chocolate Mexicano or Mexican Chocolate Cake

How to Make Camotes Enmielados

Ok amigos below is the printable recipe with a bit more details.

As always feel free to reach out with any questions. The best way to get a hold of me is to send me a message in the contact form or to DM on Instagram.

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