Sweet Potato Casserole

All this week, I'm posting recipes for traditional favorites for the holidays.  When I make these recipes next week, there'll be photos, if I can get to the food with the camera before the boys get to the food with forks!

My favorite memory with this casserole comes from when we were building the barn, twenty-ish years ago.
Our barn was built by the Mennonites, from a community about 30 miles away.
As we live way out here and their work ethic was such that they came and worked from sun up to sundown, I decided after the first day that I need to make their lunch.

So, I did... lots and lots of lunch and the three men very appreciatively ate it all!
It was awesome!

They were very surprised to find this dish in an 'English' home.

This is a standard on our table for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It contains so much sugar that it's not something that I make for day to day eating.
Sweet potatoes are so naturally good that they're served here fairly regularly, but in far, far simpler forms.

For this recipe, I usually prebake, either in the microwave or the day before when the stove is on for other reasons, about three large sweet potatoes.  I usually go ahead and peel and mash them while they're still warm and pop them in a bowl in the fridge.  Often, for Thanksgiving, especially, I make this casserole in it's entirety the day before and cover and fridge the whole thing.

Very simply, you mix 3 cups (more or less, but usually more) mashed, cooked sweet potatoes, with 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, two beaten eggs, 1/3 stick of softened butter, 1/2 cup of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  You pour all of that into a well greased baking dish.

The topping consists of 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of chopped pecans (Toasted pecans are so much tastier!) 1/3 cup of plain flour and another 1/3 of a stick of butter.  This mixture gets stirred together and sprinkled on top of the sweet potato mixture.

Popped into the oven, it bakes at 350 for about 40 minutes.  The top will be brown and bubbly and near candy like on the edges... nom~!

For a printable recipe, click the link!         

 Sweet Potato Casserole

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