A Healthier Dessert!?

Japanese sweet potato dessert first grabbed my attention through Rei's blog. My curiosity was immediately aroused when the words "creamy" and "custard-like" popped right before my eyes. Being unheard of the existence of this dessert, I marked it onto my to-do list.

About two weeks ago, I found the two sweet potatoes that I purposedly bought just for this dessert sitting in my fridge. Fearing of seeing these babies go rotting, I quickly started preparing the ingredients and making them.

Japanese sweet potatoes have purplish peels and yellowish flesh, and are recommended as THE choice for this dessert. However, I didn't follow it exactly because they were unavailable locally. So, I had to use those that came with brown peels and orange-colored flesh.

Nonetheless, the end products still turned out creamy and custard-like as promised! They gave you the perfect sweetness that tasted so natural! Oh my, possibly one of the healthiest desserts I've ever made so far! I actually found a video demonstrating how to fix this Japanese dessert. But well, I bet you'll also think that there isn't too much of a difference between this and the following version of the recipe after watching it. I suppose you can add a bit of rum and vanilla to the mixture for a slight kick of flavor with modifications to the recipe below. But, that's just a matter of preference.

Japanese Sweet Potato Dessert (adapted from Rei's):
Serves 4

500-550g Japanese sweet potatoes

(A)
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp honey or 10g castor sugar
15g heavy whipping cream
15g butter, softened

Some white or black sesame seeds, for topping (optional)
Some extra honey, for glazing (optional)

1. Wash and steam the sweet potato wholes with their peels on till soft , then remove them from the steamer and let cool aside till warm and yet cooled enough to be handled
2. Carefully slice the warm sweet pototoes in halves with a sharp knife so as not to tear the peels apart
3. Take one sweet potato half and carefully scoop the flesh out to make a cavity; repeat with the remaining halves. Set the peels aside for use later
4. While the sweet potato flesh is still warm, mash it well. Then, mix in (A) till blended
5. Scoop the sweet potato mixture back into the cavity and sprinkle the top with some sesame seeds, then set each of the filled cavity onto a baking tray
6. Bake them at 180C/350F for 10 minutes or till browned. If you'd like to apply some glaze, glaze them with honey first before sending to the oven to bake for 4-5 minutes.
   At 4-5 minute mark, take them out from the oven and glaze them again. Then, return them to the oven and bake till browned. Don't overbake them or they'll end up dry!