Sweet potatoes, peeled (3)
I believe the answer is:
pud
'sweet' is the definition.
(pud is a kind of sweet)
'potatoes peeled' is the wordplay.
'potatoes' becomes 'spuds' (spud can informally mean potato).
'peeled' indicates the central letters (outer letters are peeled off).
The middle of 'spuds' is 'PUD'.
(Other definitions for pud that I've seen before include "hand" , "duff?" , "Cooked sweet dish" .)