Sweet Potatoes and Marshmallows

Cafe Society
1

Who’s got The Definitive Candied Sweet Potato Casserole ™ recipe?

I dislike sweet potatoes. Not as much as, say, mushrooms or most sorts of fish, but they do not please my palate so I avoid them. Therefore I have never made them for Thanksgiving (I know, I know, I must be a Commie or somepin’).

Dweezil, however, has recently heard of this evident delicacy and would like to have it for Thanksgiving. I promised I’d find a recipe. :::sigh:::

I may have him make the dish, so easy would be good (can you use canned sweet potatoes?).

2

I do! But not with me. :frowning:

When I get home though I will post. It’s an old family recipie, but I don’t think it will be all that different from most.

The biggest advantage my recipie has over others IMHO is that it isn’t super sweet like many other recipies, but is spiced enough that I personally know many people who once claimed to dislike sweet potatoes that now specifically request that my mother make this for them on special occasions.

It’s sort of half way between a sweet potato pie and a sweet potato casserole.

3

I’ve wanted to try this ever since they ate it in an episode of Chuck. Sweet potatoes are good. Best french fries I’ve ever had were Sweet potato fries from Whiskey Creek in Bishop, CA.

4

Oh and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NO! :stuck_out_tongue:
Do canned sweet potatoes even exist?

5

My husband’s family uses canned sweet potatoes. I think they taste awful. They have a very “canned” taste, more so than other vegetables, and I feel retain some of the metal flavor. I love sweet potatoes, though, and have tried a few ways of cooking them. My mother used to do the standard peel and boil for eternity, then slice into discs and pop into the oven with brown sugar, butter, and marshmallows. Mmm. For the past five years or so, she has mashed them until super creamy, then cooked them in the oven with the afore-mentioned toppings. MMMMMMMM.

If you are anti-sugary topping with regard to sweet potatoes, sometimes I chop them up to about golf-ball size, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and coarse black pepper and roast in about a 400-degree oven until they are soft enough to eat. They are tasty and make a nice complement to other dishes. The worst part, IMO, is that chopping raw sweet potatoes is a PAIN; they are large and very dense, making it harder work than, say, a white potato.

6

May I suggest a happy compromise that even you may like?

Joy of Cooking has a great recipe, and yes - you can use canned sweet potatoes if you want.

The basic trick is the glaze - it is created using dried apricots (put into a saucepan and stirred until dissolved, adding water as needed) and then add canned pineapple. Bring to a boil and then let cool. (It holds for ages in the fridge and can be used as a topping for ice cream or whatever.)

Then you simply lay the sweet potatoes in a casserole dish, cover with the apricot/pineapple topping and bake uncovered until fully heated (about 45 minutes in a medium oven temp). Even tastes great when you re-heat in the microwave as leftovers.

You can find the exact recipe in your Joy of Cooking book, but ever since trying it about 15 years ago, this has been a standard dish on Thanksgiving - and even makes those people who yearn for the marshmallow version happy with the slight alternative approach.

7

I cut up the sweet potatoes, put them in a pot and boil them until they can be mashed. Then I mash them with a half stick of butter and sir in 1/2 to 3/4 cup of orange juice and about 1/4 cup of bourbon.

I put that into a baking dish, sprinkle crushed pecans over the top and stick the obligatory marshmallows in the top. Bake at 350 until heated through and the marshmallows have turned gooey.

What good eating!

8

I make a sweet potato souffle. It’s basically this, except I do not put any sugar in the sweet potatoes themselves (I don’t think they need it), and I add a bit of cinnamon.

I use real sweet potatoes, not canned. A trick I have learned is to bake them with the skins on, and then peel them once they cool. The skins come right off.

9

I am not a cook, but I would like to offer my own IMHO: Sweet potatoes (or yams - same thing) rock. Candied yams are gross. I used to think I hated yams, until someone convinced me to try them without the sugar.

Now my favorite winter recipe is baked sweet potatoes, baked like a plain old baked potato. Cut it open, add butter and maybe some allspice. Or try mashed yams, again made like you’re using regular potatoes. (Skip the pepper, though. Salt’s okay.)

I realize This is useless to you in your search for a candied yam recipe, but I wanted to give you hope that there are edible yams out there.

10

NO, for the love of God don’t boil your sweet Potatoes, you’ll remove a lot of the natural sugar. Bake them until the skins start to separate from the potato (If they are dark brown on one side that’s okay, it’s just the natural sugars browning the potato) peel the potato, chop them up add brown sugar, butter and top with marshmallows.

11

Yeah, this is the way to do it. The skins come off very easily once they are baked.

12

I just made some last night, actually, and it doesn’t require a recipe. Here’s what I do:

Get enough sweet potatoes such that there’s about half of one per person who’ll be eating. Peel them, chop them up into medium-sized chunks, boil them until they pretty much fall apart when you touch them. Then mash them. I use a beater; you don’t have to, but it makes it easier. Mix in melted/softened butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, heavy cream, and pumpkin pie spices (if desired) until it tastes the way you want it to. Stick it in a baking dish, sprinkle with marshmallows, and bake (at any temperature, really; I use 350-400, depending on what else I’m cooking) until the marshmallows are toasty/melty and the potatoes are hot. Streusel topping is also good on sweet potatoes, but I think with the marshmallows it might be a bit much.

Hope that’s somewhat helpful. It’s really simple; it’s just mashed potatoes using slightly different ingredients. :slight_smile:

ETA: huh, I’ve never heard of baking and then mashing. Maybe I’ll try that next time-- I do love me some baked sweet potato.

13

This thread interests me because I want a different spin on sweet potatoes this year. I usually make a pecan-crusted souffle, but this year I want a different texture to the sweet potatoes. I already serve Garlic-mashed potatoes, and mashed sweet potatoes just seem, bohr-ring (mash+mash=boring).

I’m hoping to find a recipe that calls for cubed sweet taties, steamed or baked; with possibly some fresh ginger involved. I would probably pop a few mini-marshmallows on top to appease the five grand-kiddies. Perhaps some Carribbean flavors? Any ideas? Anyone??

14

I don’t even bother with secondary processing after they’re baked; I serve them like baked potatoes, with butter, and also brown sugar, chopped pecans and miniature marshmallows, where where on a baked spud, one might put sour cream and chives, bacon bits, and shredded cheddar cheese.

If they’re not hot enough at serving time to melt the marshmallows, a brulee torch can do the trick.

15

HA! You all would hate my mother’s candied sweet potatoes, as she truly “candied” them, and she used canned sweet potatoes.

Large fry pan
Melt 1/2 stick of butter over medium heat
Stir in 1 cup granulated sugar and let come up to a bubble
Toss in 2 cans of sweet potatoes, stirring to coat
As they get candy-hard on the bottom scrape and turn.
Serve with all the crunchy bits of sugar tossed in.
Die of sugar shock.

:smiley:

16

Heh. As a kid at Thanksgiving dinner once, I made the mistake of raving about how much I liked my aunt’s sweet potato casserole. My grandmother–bless her–apparently took note because for the next 15 years every time we went to visit (several times a year), she would open up a can of sweet potatoes for me at dinnertime. They were awful–pressed into disks about 3/4 inch thick and with a rubbery outer texture. But I dutifully ate them–with a little encouragement from Mom–because she bought them special just for me.

17

Ok, as promised sweet potato casserole/pie. Easy and amazing. People who don’t like Sweet Potatoes actually request this dish.

I prefer yams for the darker color, but you can use either.

You will need 2 cups cooked and lightly mashed sweet potatoes/yams
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (fresh is better, dried is fine)
4 tbs melted butter

2 cups mini marshmallows
Bake the sweet potatoes (1 hour, like a regular potato) and peel and place into the work bowl of your mixer.
Mash lightly with a potato masher or even just a fork. The main idea is to break them up a bit, you don’t need to go crazy.

Combine eggs, milk, butter, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and melted butter in the mixer and beat until smooth.

Pour contents into a pyrex loaf pan and bake for 25 minutes at 425, then reduce heat to 325 and continue to cook for an additional 40-50 minutes or until a knife pulls clean from the center.

Remove from oven and cover with mini marshmallows.

Set oven to broil and place dish in the oven until marshmallows begin to brown and melt. (It won’t take long, less than 5 minutes, I just watch it.)

Remove and let rest for 15 minutes, serve hot.

It’s amazingly simple and insanely good. Spicy (cinnamon spice not pepper spice) but not too sweet. I like pyrex over a metal loaf pan because it makes for a better presentation and you can (and should) serve straight from the dish. A metal pan is fine if you don’t have another option.

18

Okay, thanksgiving is canned yams time in my family. Sure, we were upper middle class and lived in chi-chi wealthy Long Island, but we ate like we were low rent, it was the seventies and my mom was no Julia Child; what can you do? My mom died two decades ago and now this stuff (plus her Ritz Cracker stuffing a la Joan Hamburg – awesome and no one ever believes it’s Ritzes!) is total comfort food for her children. We know quality stuff is and enjoy it, but the crappy goodies are near and dear to our hearts.

Here’s how I recreate my mom’s dish. No measurements, because everything is “to taste.”

  • Three or four large cans of canned yams, drained and mashed (we always use a brand called ‘Prince’s’ – is that just NY area?)

  • Combine with crushed pineapples (usually a half a can, more or less), also drained; keep liquid on hand for flavor if necessary, esp. if you don’t have orange juice

  • Stir in about a half cup of orange juice – use less if your yams seem too moist from the pineapples or are not properly drained enough. We used Tropicana, FWIW. The concoction should have the consistency of mashed potatoes, not too watery. There’s no other sugar in this dish, so if you want sweeter, add more O.J.

  • Mix in about a half teaspoon of cinnamon, again more or less to taste

  • Optional: a smidge of nutmeg. I usually skip this.

  • Mix together and place in casserole or pie plate(s). Bake until thoroughly heated and top is just starting to get browner and firm. Keep covered and set aside until nearly ready to serve.

  • When close to eating time, cover with a package-worth of marshmallows; my mom always used the large kind, but nowadays I prefer the minis because they’re easier to cut once melted. Not sure why she didn’t use these, as I’m sure they existed.

  • Place in oven, bake until marshmallows are melted and brown.

  • Serve. YUM.

  • Hope in vain there’s some left over. This stuff’s even better right out of the fridge! OM NOM NOM! :slight_smile:

19

Thanks, all!

I’ll have to see what we can come up with. I’ll probably hit the farmers’ market Saturday, perhaps someone there will have sweet potatoes. If not, the Giant or Whole Foods will have them.

20

Mama Zappa, if you’re ever interested in something for Dweezil that’s yam-licious for summer, I have a great sweet potato salad recipe that you might like. Just holler.

Oh, and good luck at Thanksgiving dinner!