Sweet Potato CHEESE Smileys | Easy, Fail-proof recipe | Sweet Potato smileys with a cheesy twist | Quick Snacks

How to make Sweet Potato Cheese Smileys | Sweet Potato Smileys with detailed snaps and step-by-step procedure.

Are you thinking of Potato Smileys while seeing the picture? These Sweet Potato Cheese Smileys tastes adorably great with the subtle sweet notes of Sweet Potato and the lip-smacking cheesy hint. Sounds great, right?! The magic of Sweet Potato and Cheese when combined with the drizzle of a few spices would make these smileys unbelievably good. The crispier brown crust, the soft & cheesy inside, the beautiful inviting smiley shape, and the drool-worthy addictive taste of the sweet potato cheese smileys would make us say "WOW", for sure.

Deep-fried snacks are rare in our home as I used to depend on steamed or non-fried snacks most of the time to better not enter the unhealthy diet option. Since making smiley shape is totally fun, and the taste of these smileys are totally addictive, I love preparing these cheese smileys made with Sweet Potato especially for my little kiddo. The smiley in the below picture was prepared by my cute little chef.

Authentic Potato Smileys vs my version of Sweet Potato Cheese Smileys:

• Well! Sweet potatoes in the place of Potatoes. Being rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and lower GI, sweet potatoes are a great option to include in the daily diet.
  
• Sweet Potato Cheese Smileys use a lot of cheese while Potato Smileys don't have that yummy stuff. 
• To better bind the ingredients, bread crumbs are used in the Potato Smileys. Whereas, we replace the bread crumbs with the healthy chickpea flour in Sweet Potato Cheese Smileys.
• Also, more spice powders are used in the Sweet Potato Cheese Smileys to deliver a lip-smacking taste.

So, the very yummy, soft & cheesy, fail-proof Sweet Potato Smiley recipe is what I have come up with for this new year 2022. Smileys tend to disintegrate in the hot oil if the ingredients used are not in the right proportion. Since cheese is used in the recipe, the chances for breaking would be probably more. But, to the luckier end, I have found the best solution to get an unbreakable, perfectly not shape-shiftable beautiful smileys.

Though deep-frying could be avoided by baking these Sweet Potato Cheese Smileys, I'm not convinced with the taste of baked Sweet Potato Smileys (my personal opinion!). Still, if you are the person who strictly has an eye on your health, go for baking or air-frying the smileys. I personally do not have any experience on air-frying the smileys but my friend told me that it works just fine lending the perfect taste.

How long to Bake the smileys?

• Preheat the oven at 180-degree Celcius. 
• Bake the smileys in the preheated oven for 20 to 22 minutes or until the crust show off brownish colour.

So, you can obviously skip the frozen potato smileys that you get from the shop once you taste my version of Sweet Potato smileys that are tweaked with the health goodness of sweet potatoes and cheese. Also, I have many tips and tricks to get the perfect smileys without the fear of getting them disintegrated in the oil.

Dos and Dont's:

Moisture Content:

• If you choose to boil the sweet potatoes in the pressure cooker as I do, you should immediately take them out from the water once the pressure resides naturally. The water could be absorbed by the sweet potatoes if they stay longer in the water which in turn makes them carry more moisture content.
• While mixing the dough, gently handle the mixture. Over-mixing the ingredients may turn it more sticky making it difficult to hold the right shape.

The right amount of Cheese:

• Since cheese has salt in it, reduce the salt in the recipe to avoid salty smileys. I prefer processed cheese for this recipe. Nevertheless, cheddar cheese could also be used.
• For 400 grams of Sweet potato, 100 grams of processed cheese is the suggested ratio to get the perfect smileys. Adding more cheese could make the smileys break while frying in the oil.

Flour quantity:

• By any chance, if the sweet potatoes carry more moisture content or the dough turns out to be very sticky, one or two tablespoons of chickpea or corn flour could be added. Keep in mind, adding more flour could change the cheesy taste of the sweet potato smileys.

Oil temperature:

• The oil should be very hot while dropping the smileys. Otherwise, the cheese smileys may break.
• After dropping, reduce the flame and cook for a minute or two to get the smileys done with a perfect texture.
• Frying in the high flame changes the crust to brown keeping the inside not well-cooked.
• Frying in the very low flame makes the smiley absorb more oil.
• So, drop in the hot oil, and fry in the medium flame until the outside turns golden brown. 

The freshly fried sweet potato cheese smileys will be crispier on the outer and soft & cheesy on the inside with a great texture. After some time, the crispiness would be gone but the smileys taste great even after cooling down.

Best Side Dips:

• The tamarind sauce is the best pair of smileys that tastes great than tomato ketchup. Having said that, Tomato ketchup can also be paired with smileys.
  

If you are curious about some other sweet potato recipes, try my Sweet Potato halwa with Jaggery. If you look for cheese-based recipe, try my super crispy & cheesy Vegetable cheese nuggets recipe. 

So, making perfect smileys relies thoroughly on the proportion of ingredients, and how it is getting fried. Yup! Knowing the right proportion, we can make the perfect smileys now. Why wait? Let's move on to the fail-proof method of making delicious Sweet Potato Smileys with a cheesy tweak.

Have you tried this recipe?

If so, take a snap & tag '@packthesnack_' on Instagram. 

⏲ Preparation Time: 25 minutes
⏲ Cooking Time: 2 minutes per batch

🍴  Yields: 20 to 25 smileys

Sweet Potato CHEESE Smileys

---

The easy & fail-proof method of preparing soft & cheesy smileys with healthful sweet potatoes and yummy cheese along with a few spice powders.

 

What do you need?[1 cup = 200 ml]

• Sweet potatoes - 400 g (3 medium-sized)(2&1/2 cups grated)
  
• Processed cheese - 100 g (3/4 cup grated)
  
• Salt - 1/2 tsp (adjust to taste)
• Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp
  
• Red chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp
• Black pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
• Mixed herbs - 1/4 tsp
• Chickpea flour - 4 tbsp (1/4 cup)
• Cornflour - 2 tbsp
• Oil - for frying
  

Steps Involved:

• Boil and grate sweet potatoes into a mixing bowl.
• Grate the cheese and add it to the same bowl.
• Add ginger garlic paste, salt, red chilli flakes, black pepper powder, cumin powder, chickpea flour, and corn flour.
• Mix gently to form a dough (not very sticky!).
• Take a portion (about 22g) and make smileys using a straw and spoon.
• Deep-fry the smileys in the hot oil over a medium flame until golden brown.
  
• Drain off excess oil, and enjoy with tamarind sauce or tomato ketchup.
• You could choose to bake the smileys. Brush the smileys with oil and bake them for 20 to 22 minutes at 180-degree Celcius in the preheated oven.

Visual Treat: 

 Video link for "Sweet Potato CHEESE Smileys" post:

https://youtu.be/ctQz9dGLYs4

 

Subscribe to our YouTube channel (packthesnack)!
Stay Connected on YouTube, Facebook & Instagram(@packthesnack_)!

For comforting the easy understandability of the recipe, the step by step, detailed procedure, along with the picture is shown below:

Step-by-Step Procedure with Pictures

---

How to Make?

• Take 3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, wash them, cut the edges, and put them inside the pressure cooker. It measures about 400 grams.

• Add a little water to the pressure cooker.

• Let the sweet potatoes cook for 2 whistles or until fully cooked.

• Once the pressure has released, immediately take the sweet potatoes out from the water.

• Allow to cool them down and then peel off the skins of sweet potato.

• Grate the boiled sweet potatoes. You could choose to mash them as well. Grating helps in avoiding the lumps.

• Add the grated sweet potatoes to the mixing bowl. It measures about 2&1/2 cups (approx).

• Grate 100 grams of  processed cheese and get it ready.

• Add the grated cheese to the same bowl. It measures about 3/4 cup (approx).

• Add a teaspoon of ginger garlic paste.

• Now, add the red chilli flakes.

• Add in the black pepper powder.

• Also, add the cumin powder.

• Now, goes in the mixed herb.

• Season with the required salt. Since cheese has salt in it, adjust salt accordingly.

• Add 1/4 cup of chickpea flour. It measures about 4 tablespoons.

• Also, add two tablespoons of cornflour.

• Gently mix all the ingredients until well-combined.

• Over mixing the ingredients may turn the dough very sticky. So mix with gentle hands.

• Once the dough has gathered, grease the hands with a little oil. Take equal portions of dough (about 22g), make balls and flatten them. I have got 23 smileys and an additional mini smiley.

• Gently press with a straw to make two eyes.

• With the help of a spoon, make a smiling mouth.

• Now, slide the smileys into the hot oil.

• Fry over medium flame. It would take a minute or two to get done.

• Once the colour changes to a golden brown, take them out. Place them in the kitchen tissue to absorb excess oil.

• Enjoy the delicious smileys with tamarind sauce or tomato ketchup.

Tips:

• Changing the proportion of ingredients may cause the smileys to break in the oil while frying.
  
• Stick to the right proportion of ingredients, and fry over medium flame to get mess-free cute smileys. 

Cute! Tasty! Cheesy!