Sweet Potato Casserole- Good for Your Soul.

If I could, I would eat sweet potato casserole every day of my life. I love it. Let me be clear though, I am not talking about the one with marshmallows. You can keep those marshmallows! I am talking about the one with the brown sugar/ butter/ flour and sometimes pecan topping.

Used to be, I got it twice a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. But all that changed when I took an interest in cooking and figured out that it is really not that hard to make. So now, we have it once every 6 weeks or so- I think that is often enough to not feel deprived and yet not so often that having it looses its specialness. Also, I have to say, being as it’s my favorite I know a good sweet potato casserole when I taste it: they are not all created equal. My Moma’s recipe is one of the best and it really is easy to make (and it’s in her cookbook).

There are two parts to the recipe, the mashed sweet potatoes and the topping. Here is a list of all the ingredients for the sweet potatoes.

• 6 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes (roughly 4-6 sweet potatoes)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter

and for the topping

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup pecans, chopped

Now, I would like to speak on what to do to get your sweet potatoes cooked and mashed. You can use canned but fresh is better and you can boil them, but baked is better. What my Moma does (and what I do) is line a cookie sheet with foil and bake them on 400 F until they are soft enough that when you squeeze them they give. How long it takes depends on how many you are cooking. I check them at 45 minutes and every 15 minutes after until they squish when I squeeze. I usually bake a bunch of them, mash them and freeze the extra. Once they are baked, the skins will just peel off much easier than peeling them with a potato peeler. And also, they need to be pureed in a food processor so that the strings in them are destroyed.

Once you have your sweet potatoes pureed in the food the processor, combine all the sweet potato ingredients being mindful that if you put eggs in hot sweet potato puree you will have a mess, so let them cool a bit before you combine them. Once combined place the mixture in a greased 9 x 13 Pyrex (or baking dish).

For Bub and I, I halved the recipe and put it in Corning ware. And then I mixed up the sweet potato casserole topping. This time, I left out the pecans- trust me, either way, it’s excellent! And sprinkled it on top. I did not halve the topping recipe because I like a lot!

Cook it on 350 F for 30 minutes or until the topping is nice and brown (rather than tan).

So, here’s the recipe in full:

• 6 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 stick (1/2 cup)

Puree sweet potatoes in a food processor and combine all ingredients and place in a greased 9 x 13 Pyrex. Combine the following ingredients and crumble on top of casserole. Bake on 350 F for 30 minutes.

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup pecans, chopped

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