Sweet Potato Casserole

This is a recipe I tweaked for my own liking, after searching through MANY sweet potato casserole recipes... My goal was to make a casserole that was not too sweet nor runny (I wanted this to be a side to our meal rather than a dessert!). I used the original recipe as a guide, and then made changes based on the end result I wanted. Everyone who had it liked it, so I think it's a keeper!!

Sweet Potato Casserole
Makes one 9x13 casserole dish

Ingredients:
3 lb sweet potatoes

2 eggs

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 light brown sugar

4 Tbsp butter (half stick), softened

1/2 cup heavy cream (or milk)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp all spice (or cinnamon)

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Topping:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup AP flour

3 Tbsp butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mini marshmallows (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 400 degrees F. Scrub and wash sweet potatoes; poke holes all over each potato with a fork. Place them on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil (for easy cleaning afterwards). Bake potatoes for about 1 hour, or until a knife goes through the potato very easily (what's called "fork tender"). 

2. While you wait for the potatoes bake, gather all other ingredients: take out the butter (for both the potatoes and topping) and eggs from refrigerator and let them come to room temperature. Go ahead and make the topping too: in a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter (with a pastry cutter if you have one) until mixture is coarse. Stir in pecans; set aside.

3. Once potatoes are done, scoop out the meat of each potato and place in a large bowl of a stand-up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Reduce temperature of oven to 325 degrees F. Add all other ingredients with the sweet potato in the bowl and mix on medium speed until well incorporated. Transfer mixture into an oven-safe baking dish. Place topping onto potatoes. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until topping is lightly brown.

*Note: For a prettier finish, I alternated the pecan topping with marshmallows to look like stripes. This recipe makes enough pecan topping to cover the whole casserole with just pecans, so marshmallows are not a must!

Recipe adapted from All Recipes.com