Baked, Caramelized Sweet Potatoes

I learned the secret to the best Sweet Potatoes. Most people don't cook them long enough. If you leave them in a little longer than they need to be they'll develop this great natural caramelized coating just under the skin.
So, scrub your sweet potatoes, heat oven to 450 degrees. Place sweet potatoes in something with a bit of an edge like a casserole pan or cookie sheet. Bake for about an hour (this will vary greatly with the size of your potatoes). You will start to smell a caramelized, almost burned smell. When you poke the sweet potato it's done but when you poke it and it oozes a little bit then it's really done! The outside skin will look dry and wrinkly like you really over baked it.
Take out the sweet potatoes, break in half, and squish out all the good filling. You can serve it as is or whip it up. I like to top with butter, sugar, and a spice mixture of cinnamon, cardamom, and a tiny bit of ginger.

NOTE: In The All of a Kind Family they talked about street vendors who sold small sweet potatoes out of their carts. We tried to duplicate this by breaking a sweet potato in half and wrapping up in a napkin. You eat it like an ice cream cone and kind of squish it up to the top of the cone as you go. My kids love sweet potato cones for a quick on the go lunch.