An hour has passed and you look in your oven and to your surprise you see that your sweet potatoes are still rock hard. The skins are as tough as a stale Twizzlers and you're just about ready to Postmate it for the night. Don't be defeated though, there's a solution to this for next time! But first, I'm giving you permission to order from Postmates (JUST THIS ONE TIME!) and turn that sad oven off. But, before you climb inside your phone for the next seven hours, here is the quickest and fool-proof way to bake sweet potatoes for next time:

1. Don't preheat the oven. Place your baked potatoes in the oven after you've cut them lengthwise and dressed them in EVOO, salt + pepper. Make sure your oven starts off cool--turn it on once the potatoes go in. Bringing up the temperature of the potato skin slowly as the oven heats up allows for it to become tender, not tough.

2. Bake them cut side down. Always. The more surface area that comes in contact with the hot baking sheet, the more evenly cooked the potatoes will be. The steam will naturally rise into the potato itself, creating a perfectly cooked orange potato goddess. This cooking method also allows for all of the natural sugars to come out and caramelize--yum!

3. Cook for 40 minutes. No more, no less. After just 40 minutes in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven, these potatoes will be perfect!

That's it! With these three simple steps, you will have the perfect baked sweet potatoes. Just in time for you to finish that last episode on Netflix...