Slow Cooker "Baked" Sweet Potatoes

I've mentioned once or forty two times how excessively hot it is in Milwaukee this summer. When the air conditioning is on full blast and you're still feeling sweaty and gross, it's hard to turn on the oven. But I had some sweet potatoes lingering on my counter, and I needed to bake them somehow. 


Enter the slow cooker. 


Did you know that you can make "baked" potatoes in the humble crock pot? It's absolutely genius. You get a perfectly cooked spud, and the temperature in your kitchen doesn't hit triple digits.


What unorthodox foods do you make in your crock pot? Share your slow cooker secrets in the comments section.  

Slow Cooker "Baked" Sweet Potatoes*
Serves: 4

4 sweet potatoes
Your favorite sweet potato toppings: Salt, pepper, butter, brown sugar, etc.

Wash and dry sweet potatoes. Wrap them with aluminum foil and place them in your slow cooker. (I lined my slow cooker with an extra sheet of aluminum foil in case the sugary juices from the sweet potatoes leaked out of their foil jackets. I have a particular aversion for scrubbing my crock pot, and this helped me avoid that unpleasant task.)

Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve sweet potatoes with your favorite toppings.

*I tried this technique with sweet potatoes, but I'm sure it would work just as well with regular, old Idahos.