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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
Creamy sweet potato filling and crunchy pecan topping make this casserole the perfect side dish for the holiday season! You can even make it a day in advance and warm it up just before it’s time to eat.
Why not keep the pecan theme going and make some Pecan Pie Bars or a Pecan Butter Rum Cake to serve for dessert? Or try making a batch of Curried Sweet Potato Soup With Chicken if you have some extra sweet potatoes.
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This is a fairly easy recipe, especially if you buy pre cooked and pureed sweet potatoes.
- Total Time: Making this casserole will take you approximately 2.5 hours from start to finish.
- Variations: Try making this casserole with yams or butternut squash to get the same colour and creaminess but a slightly different flavour. If you’d like a sweet element, why not add some marshmallows? Or, change up the colour with some sweet and vibrant purple yams.
- Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need an 8×8 baking pan, a large bowl, a medium bowl, an immersion blender or hand mixer, a spoon or spatula, a fork or pastry cutter, and some foil.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Sweet Potato Filling: The filling of this casserole isn’t just mashed sweet potatoes! You’ll need some eggs to help hold everything together, some butter and cream to amplify the richness, and some sugar and vanilla to round out the flavour profile. Go ahead and add some cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, or pumpkin spice seasoning to make it even more appropriate for the season.
Pecan Topping: This crunchy, crispy topping is made from chopped pecans, sugar, and flour. You can decided how small you want the pecan chunks to be based on your own personal preferences. If you leave them whole or in large pieces, they’ll keep a more chewy texture during the baking
How to Make Sweet Potato Casserole
This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Bake and cool the sweet potatoes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Put the cooked sweet potatoes into a large bowl. Add sugar, eggs, butter, cream, and vanilla. Mix with a hand mixer or immersion blender until smooth and creamy.
- Scoop sweet potato mixture into 8×8 pan.
- In a medium bowl, mix brown sugar and flour together. Then cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Stir in the pecans and sprinkle the mixture on top of the sweet potato layer.
- Cover pan in foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 25-30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Pecan Topped Sweet Potato Casserole
Save Time: You can save yourself a lot of time with the prep work for this recipe if you cook, cool, and mash your sweet potatoes in advance. You can do this a day or two in advance and keep the mashed sweet potatoes in a covered bowl in your fridge until you’re ready to assemble this casserole. If you have an air fryer or a small convection oven, you could significantly reduce the time it takes to prepare the potatoes. Note: Another timesaving option here would be to buy pureed sweet potatoes or butternut squash. They’re often available in the freezer section with other frozen vegetables.
Dessert vs. Savoury: Maybe you’d like to add a marshmallow layer to this casserole to make it a bit more decadent and dessert-like. To do this, wait until near the end of the baking time, when the casserole is uncovered, and sprinkle some marshmallows evenly over the topping. They won’t take long to get golden brown, so pay close attention. You could also wait until the very end instead, and use the broiler setting of your oven for a minute or two. If this sounds appealing, you can also check out this Easy Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows.
Storage Instructions
Once it’s fully cooled, you can store this casserole in a covered container in the fridge for 4-5 days, though the topping will lose some of it’s crunch over time.
You can also freeze it for 2-3 months, though you may want to freeze individual portions for easier defrosting later on.
More Delicious Casserole Recipes
Looking for more easy casseroles to make during the cold, dark months?
Try this Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole or a Banana Cinnamon Roll Casserole for tasty hot breakfast.
If you’re looking for a full meal in one pan, why not make some Easy Chicken Pot Pie Casserole or Chicken and Stuffing Casserole
There you go, everyone. A classic side that combines crunchy and creamy in one pan. Try this sweet potato casserole out and let me know what you think.
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
Crispy Pecan Topped Sweet Potato Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 2 teaspoons canola oil
Sweet Potato Casserole Filling
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons salted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Crispy Pecan Topping
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
Bake The Sweet Potatoes
- This can be done ahead of time. Wash and dry the two sweet potatoes. Preheat your oven to 425 °F. Pierce the potatoes with a fork in multiple places. Run the canola oil over them.
- Bake in the oven for 45-60 minutes until the potatoes are cooked and soft. Remove and cool.
Sweet Potato Casserole Filling
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F. Scoop out the inside of the sweet potatoes into a large bowl. Add in the sugar, eggs, butter, cream and vanilla.
- Using a hand mixer or immersion blender, beat together the ingredients until smooth and creamy. Scoop into an 8×8 pan.
Crispy Pecan Topping
- In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour together. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse and has small pieces of butter throughout, smaller than peas.
- Stir in the pecans, then sprinkle the mixture on top of the casserole. Cover with tinfoil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and keep baking for another 25-30 minutes, until the casserole is cooked and set in the middle and the topping has browned. If the topping browns too quickly, cover again with the foil.
- Remove and cool for 10-15 minutes before serving. This casserole stays HOT a long time!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
MARIE HESSE says
I make this at every Holiday , my family loves it, so very good
Billie says
It says add the ingredients to the scooped out pot.s bu it never says what they are!@!!!