Sweet Potato Dumplings

Our sweet potato dumplings recipe from scratch is delicious!! With a sweet cinnamon sugar glaze on the top, they are a sweet side dish that is family friendly stuffed with sweet mashed potatoes or use canned yams for the filling.

Sweet Potato Dumplings from Scratch

This is one of the best Thanksgiving Sides ever. I know it is a sweet one but really anything goes then and at Christmas time right? A savory version is called Palt but you can make the same dough and fill with something sweet like in this case.

Made with Canned Biscuits

I guess you could make these with canned biscuits if you didn’t want to make the dough as directed below. Either way you’d still want to roll each one out into a thin layer so it fits more filling inside pinching the edges firmly to make sure no leakage.

You may have had pierogies before, and yes those are so delicious but more on the savory side of things. This is the same technique with a filled dough full of smooth potatoes but we are going sweet sweet like a dessert.

Now let’s talk about the star ingredient cooking it it in a multitude of ways shall we? From baked in the oven, pressure cooker or air fryer we have a few choices to start with. You’ll want to get this done first, remove the skin and allow it to cool a bit.

How to Cook Sweet Potatoes to Mash

You can remove the skin first, so that is done, dice and cook Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes Cubed if you like. This way is great because it’s fast, and all you have to do it mash once fork tender. Sweet Potato in Air Fryer is the way we have described to you in the recipe card below since that is how we typically do it.

For the old fashioned way, this is How Long to Bake a Sweet Potato at 400 until you can stick a knife into the center and it slides right out easily. My favorite way to prep is following our Pressure Cooker Sweet Potatoes instructions.

Once the middle is tender and cooled a bit you are ready to proceed. You could make the night before, refrigerate and make the center the next day too for easier prep.

Ingredient Notes

You will need all purpose flour for the base for the dumpling dough, you can use our all purpose flour substitute chart if you need to use an alternative

You will want some buttermilk because is richer than milk so we go with that. I have instructions in recipe card if you don’t have any on hand. You can make it with milk and lemon juice.

Water or really any liquid will work for the filling and also sealing the edges closed so nothing leaks out.

White granulated sugar gives it a bit of sweetness which you want for the filling goodnesses. Salt will just a tad to bring out the sweetness. Olive oil, use the good stuff, or avocado oil is a substitute that works too.

Then you would need 1 tbsp brown sugar, some sugar and cinnamon for filling to combine with 2 sweet potatoes cooked until insides are tender, peeled mashed smooth. Raisins or dried cranberries are other add ins you could include.

Can you use canned yams?

Absolutely you could, that would make it a lot easier and faster. Skip cooking the taters all together and instead drain the can from liquid and mash with a fork. You will still want to add the cinnamon into the mix but could skip sugar since it’s already sweetened.

Variations

You could roll dough of crescent rolls alternatively too for the dough. Many times if I am going to go thru the effort of baking from scratch I will make a few extras. Mash, save in the fridge so the next day I can use that to make a batch of Sweet Potato Muffin Recipe for breakfast in the morning too!

Baked Dumplings

I will say that in a casserole dish with the sauce surrounding them is the best outcome for that super tender texture. Instructions are in the recipe card below for you to follow for this method.

Dumplings in Air Fryer

These are baked in the oven but if you did want a bit crispy in a saucepan you’d combine sauce ingredients and saute instead. You can also make air fryer dumplings but really I like the outside to be super moist and kinda’ wet with this sauce. Either way the prep is the same and you are going to need;

Can you freeze dumplings?

Yes you could freeze the leftovers. You would want to keep as much sauce as possible and store together in a closed container. This is how to cook frozen dumplings when you want to enjoy again.