1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with lightly greased foil or parchment paper.
2. Make sure sweet potatoes are of equal size and length. Avoid sweet potatoes that are more than 8” in diameter, as they’ll take a very, very long time to bake.
3. Wash and dry sweet potatoes.

The goal of this next step is to create sliced sections that fan out from the base of the sweet potato where they are attached.

1. Using a sharp knife, carefully slice about 2/3 of the way down the potato, creating 1/8″ to ¼” sliced sections that are still attached to the base of the potato. If you’d like, you can lay two wooden spoons or chopsticks along the sides of the sweet potato to use as a guide. This guide will prevent you from slicing all the way through the potato.
2. Holding the sweet potato at both ends, gently lay each sweet potato evenly spaced apart on the baking sheet—they’ll be a bit fragile since they’re sliced.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter, oil, maple syrup, thyme, rosemary, paprika, cayenne (if using), salt and pepper (or more to taste).
4. Brush sweet potatoes evenly with half of the mixture until all sliced sections are coated and the mixture is dripping into each section. Reserve half for later.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.
6. Using a fork, gently fan the sliced sections apart. Then, brush the rest of the mixture and any butter/oil that’s dripped to the pan into each section.
7. Bake for an additional 15-40 minutes, until crispy on the edges and fork tender in the center/core of the potato. Mine took 35 minutes for this phase, for a grand total of 65 minutes from start to finish.
8. Remove from oven—don’t worry if the sugar is a bit burnt on the pan, that’s normal. You just want to avoid burning the sweet potatoes.
9. Using a heatproof spatula, carefully transfer sweet potatoes to a serving tray—they’ll be tender and fragile, so go slowly to avoid breaking them apart. Sprinkle with thyme, then a drizzle of maple syrup if desired. Serve and enjoy!