These crispy sweet potato goat cheese puffs are great as a party appetizer or just a fun side to dinner.
I’m going to bet that there will be quite a few posts today about Madonna’s performance, some Budweiser commercial, so and so’s horrible play…blah, blah, blah. But guess what? I don’t have cable, I didn’t watch a second of the superbowl and so I have nothing to say about it.
I do have some cheesy balls for you though.
Crispy, cheesy on the outside, creamy and sweet on the inside.
Personally, I think that sounds way better than anything having to do with football.
I find that experimenting in the kitchen is best done on a full stomach (kind of like grocery shopping) so that I hopefully avoid shoving whatever’s just come out of the oven straight into my face once it’s cooked.
There was no hope with these.
I ate lunch right before and still downed 3 immediately. As in, they didn’t even make it into the pictures.
Sorry, I’m not sorry.
While I don’t have any picky eater kids at home, I couldn’t help but think how awesome these would be for them after popping a couple in my mouth. I know I wasn’t a huge sweet potato fan when I was younger, but if someone had mixed them with goat cheese and rolled them in parmesan and breadcrumbs, I’m pretty sure I would’ve eaten a few and not complained. Or more likely, I would’ve put up a front and still complained but secretly loved them. Yeah, I was that kind of kid.
Not that I wanted to watch the game at all last night, but it’s kind of a shame I didn’t have a superbowl party to bring these to. I’m thinking they would’ve gone like hotcakes.
Instead, I sat home alone, watching Mad Men, playing words with friends and eating these on my couch in sweats. Not sure what’s more pathetic, the fact that I had no where to go or that I actually preferred it that way so I had more of the cheesy balls to myself.
So, who ended up winning anyway?
Sweet Potato Goat Cheese Puffs
Ingredients
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled & chopped
- 1 ounce goat cheese
- 1 teaspoon rosemary, minced & divided
- 1 cup parmesan cheese grated & divided
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup breadcrumbs
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt water and place potatoes in pot. Cook for 15 minutes until fork tender, drain.
- Place cooked potatoes in a large bowl.
- Add goat cheese, butter, milk, 1/2 cup of parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon rosemary and a generous amount of salt & pepper to taste. Mash together.
- Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes until chilled.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.
- In a small bowl, beat the egg.
- In a shallow bowl, combine breadcrumbs, remaining parmesan cheese, remaining rosemary, salt & pepper.
- Roll potato mixture into small balls (ping pong size or smaller).
- Coat balls in egg and then transfer to breadcrumb mixture, rolling around until completely coated. Place on baking sheet.
- Spritz balls with olive oil or baking spray and bake for 15 minutes.
- Turn oven onto Hi-Broil and bake for 5 more minutes until golden brown and crispy.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Kidding.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
These were a huge hit for my ladies luncheon. I have a few notes. I baked my sweet potatoes. Much firmer texture and added a pinch of cayenne and a small swirl of honey. I also cooled my potatoes before mashing by hand and adding ingredients. This is a go to! Thanks
Do you think I could make these ahead and freeze them – or just refrigerate 24 hours before baking? I would love to make them for TDay, but I would have to be able to prep them ahead.
You can definitely prep most of these ahead of time (steps 1-4 in directions). I would roll in the breadcrumbs and bake right before serving though to avoid them getting mushy.
Made these for Thanksgiving. They didn’t appeal to most of the guests, but I thought they were super-yummy and ate most of them myself. They were soooo good!
well, glad YOU liked them! :)
I love these!!
HI! These look delicious, but I just have one question: do you peel the potatoes after you’ve cooked them? Nothing is stated explicitly in the instructions, but in the pictures there doesn’t appear to be any skin on them. Thank you!!
yes, peel them! sorry about that :)
These look delicious! Not sure if you’ll see this in time but I’m hoping to make this for a party tomorrow night. The only problem is that my broiler doesn’t work. Any tips on what to do for those last 5 min?
Oops, forgot to rate it for you!
Ok, I know I’m coming late to the game (pun intended) but I came upon these via Pinterest last Sunday. Since just ‘happened’ to have all the ingredients, I added these to the dinner menu. For flavor, they get 5 stars out of 5 stars. Kids liked ’em, hubby liked ’em, even my mother (the most finicky eater in the house) liked ’em. BUT they did not come out beautiful like yours. OK, fine, they weren’t even puffed. They were like delicious little flat discs, breaded and baked. Mind you, no one but me knew they were supposed to be all fluffy and round… So, suggestions? I tried rolling them by hand, using a cookie scoop, begging them to stick together and keep thier shape, and even cursing them under my breath to no avail. Is there some little secret I missed? I did use my food processor to combine all of the ingredients…perhaps they were too finely mashed? That and adding fresh garlic chives are the only things I did differently than your instructions, so that is my guess anyway. I have a house full of guests this weekend who will be munching on these while having a game night, and I’d love for them to be lovely like yours. PS – I’m enjoying your blog, now that I’ve found it. And I’m sure both of us having the same first name has nothing to do with it. ;)
Hey Gina- I’m thinking the food processor might’ve been the issue like you said. I’ve never had them not hold their shape and turn out flat so that’s really weird it happened to you. I’d guess it was too mashed as you mentioned. Glad they at least tasted good!
Apparently that was the problem. I mashed them in the mixer for game night, and they were fine. Yeah! They were the first appetizer to run out. ;) thanks!
I had some goat cheese potato puffs at a restaurant this weekend, and immediately started searching for a recipe which led me here! :) Only difference was the restaurant’s version were regular potatoes and not sweet potatoes. Do you think this substitution would work in this recipe?
Probably. Haven’t tried it but doesn’t seem too drastic of a change.
Sounds delish! Do you think these could be frozen before or after baking?
I’m honestly not sure but if I tried it, it would probably be before baking and rolling.