Today, I’m sharing one of the more traditional and singular North Carolina sonker recipes: sweet potato sonker. While other cobbler versions may appear outside Surrey and Wilkes counties, you’ll probably only find sweet potato sonker in and around Mt. Airy, NC.
A juicy cobbler by any other name, you may also want to check out my blackberry cherry sonker, lazy peach sonker, and strawberry peach sonker.
For ease of browsing, here are all of my cobblers, crisps and more. Thanks for stopping by!
Sweet Potato Sonker, At a Glance
✅Skill Level: Intermediate
✅Skills: The Biscuit Method, Simmering Sweet Potatoes, Baking
✅Type: Cobbler-Type Fruit Dessert
✅Number of Ingredients: Biscuit Dough: 6 Milk Dip: 5 Sweet Potato Filling: 7✅Prep Time: 20 minutes
✅Cook Time: 1 hour
✅Yield: 8 servings
Jump Straight to the Recipe
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What Does Sonker Taste Like?
I wanted to get this out of the way right at the beginning. This sweet potato guy really tastes like pure, unadulterated sweet potato pudding in a brown sugar crust.
The flavor is very simple and straightforward. Very approachable and comforting. And the texture is soft and yielding. It’s really very good.
You can up the flavor factor a bit if you want by adding some ground spices or even some minced crystallized ginger to the filling.
But what I like about it so much is that the flavor is just not-too-sweet comfort. I think you will really enjoy it!
The Crust
Generally speaking, the trickiest part of making a sonker is making the crust. Many folks are intimidated by making pie dough, so I thought I’d make a quick sweet biscuit dough and then roll it out almost as thin as pie crust.
It worked out really well, and the brown sugar from Dixie Crystals I used added a lovely caramel flavor to the biscuit.
I even made a video so you could see the process of making the dough. Pie crust is made the same way, but the proportions are usually a bit different, with more fat and a bit less liquid.
Making the Filling
The filling is really easy to make, the ingredients are few, and the steps are simple. Here’s how it goes:
- Peel sweet potatoes
- Put in well salted water and boil until tender, about 30 minutes
- Let them cool a bit and then slice them thinly (or cut them up or mash them. Whatever is easiest for you)
- Whisk together some of the potato cooking water with some flour, brown sugar and a maybe pinch of salt (you can add some cinnamon here if you want)
- Layer the sweet potatoes in your dough-lined baking dish
- Pour the mixture over all until almost full.
- Put on top crust and bake at 375F for about an hour, stopping about 40 minutes into the baking to pour on some milk dip
To recap, the filling ingredients are nothing more than cooked sweet potatoes, some of the salted cooking water, brown sugar, flour, and maybe some salt and cinnamon.
Short ingredient list. Pure comforting flavor.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
I got the broad strokes of this recipe from a recipe by Ronni Lundy from her excellent James Beard Award-winning cookbook, Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes.
Her recipe calls for sorghum syrup and extra butter, but I streamlined the ingredient list a bit to feature the brown sugar as well as keep it on the less-rich side.
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Milk Dip? What?
It sounds a little weird, but think of it sort of like melted Philadelphia-style ice cream. Philadelphia-style means it doesn’t contain eggs.
It’s a simple mixture of milk, flour or cornstarch, sugar and a pinch of salt that you bring to a boil so it thickens. Then add some vanilla.
Folks in Surry County serve milk dip particularly with sweet potato sonker, but I like it so much, I make it for pretty much all sonker flavors.
Storing Instructions
Keep leftovers refrigerated for up to 4 days or so. Reheat individual portions at 350F until as warm as you’d like it, probably about 10 minutes or so.
Freezing Instructions
If you want to freeze it, your best bet is to freeze it unbaked. You can bake it from frozen if you have a pan that won’t break when you do that.
If you know you’re going to freeze it, consider making it in a cake pan or in a recyclable aluminum pan.
Make the whole sonker, and freeze it overnight. Then wrap it well in plastic wrap and foil. Bake at 375 until done–make sure the juices are bubbling all over. If the crust seems like it’s browning too much before the juices bubble, cover the top loosely with foil and keep baking.
You can also bake your sonker, let it cool, portion out into individual bowls, and freeze those. Let each portion thaw in the fridge overnight and then bake at 350F until hot.
If you don’t mind that it won’t be crisp, you can also reheat in the microwave.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.
Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.
If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.
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Sweet Potato Sonker Recipe
Video
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Ingredients
For the Sweet Biscuit Dough
- 2 cups all purpose flour plus more for flouring your work surface (measured by spoon and sweep method)
- ⅓ cup brown sugar packed (I used Dixie Crystals)
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
- 1 stick cold butter cut into chunks
- 6 oz 3/4 cup cold half and half (sub whole milk if you don’t have half and half)
For the Milk Dip
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons flour
- heavy pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
For the Filling
- 2 quarts water
- 4 teaspoons fine sea salt or table salt
- 2 large sweet potatoes about 2 pounds, peeled
- 1 cup reserved sweet potato cooking water
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
Instructions
For the Sweet Biscuit Dough
- Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the cubed butter and toss to coat.
- Rub the butter into the flour mixture until the flour is coarse like cornmeal and you still have a few larger pieces of butter in the bowl.
- Pour in the milk and stir together with a knife until you have a shaggy dough.
- Liberally dust your work surface with more flour, and turn the dough out.
- Add a bit more flour on top and knead/press together 3-4 times.
- Quickly roll the dough out to about 1/4" thickness.
- Cut strips of dough to fit up the sides of a 1 1/2 quart baking dish, leaving the bottom empty.
- Refrigerate the lined pan for about an hour. Wrap the remaining dough in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate until assembly.
For the Milk Dip
- In a small saucepan, bring the milk, sugar, flour, and salt to a boil, whisking frequently.
- Allow the sauce to boil for 15 seconds or so.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
- Cool and chill. You can serve the sauce at room temperature, chilled or even warm. Your call.
For the Sweet Potato Filling
- Put the water into a pan just large enough to hold your peeled sweet potatoes.
- Add the salt and stir well.
- Place the potatoes in the pan. It’s okay if the water doesn’t completely cover them. You can just turn them frequently. That’s what I did.
- Bring the pot to a boil and keep at a low boil until you can insert a fork pretty easily down into the center of the potatoes, about 30-35 minutes.
- Remove from the water with tongs and let cool to just warm, about 30 minutes or so.
- Reserve one cup of the cooking liquid and let cool.
- Slice the sweet potatoes into thin rounds. You can also cut them into small chunks or even mash them. Whatever is easiest for you.
- Layer the potatoes into your prepared pan. Your pan will be pretty full of sweet potatoes!
- Whisk the flour together with a bit of the cooking water and whisk until you have a paste. Keep whisking and slowly add the rest of the liquid.
- Whisk in the optional cinnamon if you'd like. Or use your own favorites like pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice.
- Whisk in the sugar and an additional pinch of salt if you think it needs it.
- Carefully pour the sugar/water/flour mixture over the sweet potatoes.
- Cut out the remaining dough to fit over the top of the sonker and cut some vent holes to let steam escape.
- Bake at 375F on a parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet (for easier clean-up) for about 40 minutes.
- Slowly pour about 1/2 cup of the milk dip over the top of the sonker and let it soak down into the vent holes.
- Bake an additional 15-20 minutes until the juices are bubbling all over. If the crust browns too quickly, tent it loosely with foil.
- Serve warm with additional milk dip passed at the table.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
Storing
Store, refrigerated, for up to 4 days. Reheat to serve.Freezing Instructions
If you want to freeze it, your best bet is to freeze it unbaked. You can bake it from frozen if you have a pan that won’t break when you do that. If you know you’re going to freeze it, consider making it in a cake pan or in a recyclable aluminum pan. Make the whole sonker, and freeze it overnight. Then wrap it well in plastic wrap and foil. Bake at 375 until done–make sure the juices are bubbling all over. If the crust seems like it’s browning too much before the juices bubble, cover the top loosely with foil and keep baking. You can also bake your sonker, let it cool, portion out into individual bowls, and freeze those. Let each portion thaw in the fridge overnight and then bake at 350F until hot. If you don’t mind that it won’t be crisp, you can also reheat in the microwave.
Nutrition
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I really hope you love the sweet potato “cobbler” you guys!
Thanks, and enjoy!
Take care, y’all.
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I’m a fan of blueberry desserts…Pies, cobblers and tarts.
This would be great made with blueberries. Sub white sugar for the brown and add some lemon zest. Fresh or frozen berries would be perfect. Enjoy!
I love sweet cobblers and hadn’t heard the term sonker before.
Since I have sweet potatoes in my pantry, this recipe is in the rotation for baking.
Have you ever added some pecans to your biscuit topping?
Might need to try that.
Thanks so much for the recipe
Hey Jean! I have not added pecans, but it seems like a sound plan, for sure. Toast them first for extra flavor. Enjoy, and stay safe! ❤️