I’ve gone a little crazy with sweet potatoes this winter. We constantly have them at our house and I needed to find a new way to enjoy them. That’s when I created these air fryer dessert fries.
They’re sweet potato fries with cinnamon and sugar to create a nice sweet way to enjoy them. They are SWEET potatoes, right? (please don’t tell my husband I just said that joke)
This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more information, please read my disclaimer.
These fries are super easy to make, and even your kids will absolutely love them!
I made this recipe using the Cosori Air Fryer. It has a square basket that allows for more surface area to cook in one layer.
That means crispier food in less time! I’m absolutely in love with this air fryer and cook all my air fryer recipes at Everyday Family Cooking in this specific model.
How to Make Air Fryer Dessert Fries
This recipe calls for fresh sweet potato fries, but you can also use frozen air fryer sweet potato fries by following the directions here.
Preheat your air fryer to 380 degrees.
Peel your sweet potato if desired. I personally prefer to peel them for this air fryer cinnamon sugar sweet potato fries recipe, but it is not mandatory.
Cut your sweet potato into ½ inch strips to create fries.
Keep reading for tips on how to easily cut your sweet potato below.
Toss the sweet potato fries into a bowl with the melted butter and mix to coat the fries evenly.
Place the air fryer dessert fries in the preheated air fryer and cook for 15-18 minutes, shaking the basket gently halfway through.
The sweet potato fries can overlap, but should not fill up your air fryer more than halfway. If there are too many fries, you will need to cook in batches.
Remove the sweet potato fries from the air fryer and place them back into the bowl. Add in the remaining melted butter coat fries so the sugar mixture will stick.
Add the sugar and cinnamon in and mix to coat the fries evenly.
Enjoy them immediately!
Looking to just make sweet potato fries without the added sugar? Follow the recipe above or use this Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries recipe here.
How Do You Cut Sweet Potatoes into Fries?
First, peel the skin off the sweet potato using a Y-peeler. Y-Peelers are much easier to hold than a normal vegetable peeler. They actually make peeling things more enjoyable.
Next, take a sharp knife and cut the sweet potato in half. It’s super important to have a sharp knife to avoid the knife from slipping or getting stuck halfway through the potato.
I personally use a Victorinox Chef’s knife because it’s reasonably priced and works great.
I just using a honing stick, like this Utopia sharpening rod, to help keep it sharp. It’s amazing how much sharper a knife is just by using a honing stick for 30 seconds each week!
Place the sweet potato cut side down and cut into slices longways. They will look like wedge fries at this point. From there, cut the slices into ½ inch slices to get skinny fries.
If your sweet potatoes are too tough to cut in half using this method, try this instead:
Put the sweet potato on the cutting board and cut ½ to 1 inch off one side of the potato.
Place the flat side on the cutting board, so the sweet potato stands tall and slice through the top down, keeping your fingers above the knife at all times.
You may need to rock the knife back and forth to help it cut through.
Do I Need to Preheat My Air Fryer?
Different air fryers are different sizes and even different wattages. An 1100-watt air fryer will heat up slower than a 1500-watt air fryer.
Preheating an air fryer allows for your food to cook the proper cook time and cook evenly.
Basically, if you don’t preheat, it will take longer to cook, the food won’t cook as evenly, and it will mess up your cook time of the recipe you’re following.
I promise it’s worth it. You would never cook in a cold oven, so don’t start with your air fryer.
To preheat your air fryer, just turn it on to the temperature needed and let it run completely empty for a few minutes.
It will typically take 4-5 minutes to get to 380 degrees, which is the perfect amount of time to prep these air fryer cinnamon sugar sweet potato fries.
Do You Need to Soak Your Sweet Potato Fries Before Cooking Them?
If you’ve ever made homemade French fries you know it’s incredibly important to soak/rinse off your potato slices to make them extra crispy.
You can see the quick way I do this for Crispy Air Fryer French Fries.
It allows the starch to come out of the potato, which helps create the mushy texture you love in mashed potatoes and baked potatoes.
While sweet potatoes contain starch, I have tried making sweet potatoes in the air fryer after soaking them for an hour or two and not soaking them at all and did not notice much difference.
So, if you have the time you can soak them in water, or you can skip it.
More Air Fryer Fries Recipes
- Air Fryer Sweet Potato Wedges
- Air Fryer Crinkle Fries
- Air Fryer Curly Fries
- Air Fryer Waffle Fries
- Air Fryer Carrot Fries
- Air Fryer Avocado Fries
More Air Fryer Dessert Recipes
Air Fryer Cinnamon Sugar Dessert Fries
Ingredients
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 1 tablespoon butter melted
- 1 teaspoon butter melted and separated from the above
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your air fryer to 380 degrees.
- Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into skinny fries
- Coat fries with 1 tablespoon of butter.
- Cook fries in the preheated air fryer for 15-18 minutes. They can overlap, but should not fill your air fryer more than 1/2 full.
- Remove the sweet potato fries from the air fryer and place them in a bowl.
- Coat with the remaining butter and add in sugar and cinnamon. Mix to coat.
- Enjoy immediately.
Nutrition
This nutrition information is based on the exact products I used in this recipe. Brands and sizes of products could alter exact nutrition and should always be calculated independently.
Have a new Omni air fryer love help thanks Mary
The first time I had sweet potato fries, it was at a Texas Steak House restaurant. They were sprinkled with sugar instead of salt and absolutely delicious! Unfortunately, every other restaurant serves them with salt, which makes no sense to me at all and does not taste anywhere near as good. I have been looking for a recipe ever since that I can try to replicate the sweet ones at home. They were a side and not a dessert, so I am not sure if I have found it with this one, but they look like a keeper all the same! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Hi Robyn, I hope you enjoy! I call them “dessert” fries because of the cinnamon sugar flavor on top, but we love to eat them as a side too.
I wonder if anyone has tried to make a similar recipe but with white, red, or gold potatoes? I don’t have anything against sweet potatoes, other than their name being a misnomer, lol. I will be trying this recipe with white potatoes just to see if I can make a desert out of potatoes like you can turn ricotta cheese from a lasagna filling into a desert with some honey (or other sweetener) some dark chocolate powder, and some almond slivers, mmmm.
I’ll let you know how it goes…
Hi Lee, I have not experimented with other type of potatoes for this recipe. Here’s my recipe for air fryer french fries to use as your base fry recipe. I’d love to hear how it went turning them into dessert fries!