Our homeschool co-op always has a Thanksgiving meal before our last hurrah of the fall semester. I have taken sweet potato casserole the last two years for this meal.

The funniest thing happened yesterday when I went to go clean up my dishes at the end of our meal. One of my friends came up to me and said, “I hope you don’t mind but I took the little bit that was left over in one of your dishes.”  She said the recipe was just so good she wanted to take a little bit of it home with her.

So now that you’ve heard the story I’m sure you are going to want to make this recipe.

By the way, I make this the day ahead just to not worry about it on the day of Thanksgiving! I just keep it in the fridge and pull it out a few hours before cooking.  I add the Streusel topping right before putting it in the oven.

So here it is for you:

Sweet Potato Casserole (that is so good your leftovers will be stolen):

For Sweet Potato mixture–

• 6 cups mashed sweet potatoes (5-6 medium-large potatoes–see below for how to prepare them!)
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/2 heavy cream
• 1/4 melted butter (evidently you don’t really need this as I found it in my microwave after we got home from co-op–this pregnancy brain is killing me!)
• 1/4 t. cinnamon
• 1/4 t. salt

• 1 c. quick oats
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. all purpose flour
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1 stick of cold butter

• 2 cups (or more) mini marshmallows (I do not like to skimp on these!!)

Cooking the Potatoes: This is super easy.  Wash and prick each of the sweet potatoes with a fork, place them on a foil lined cookie sheet (makes for easier clean up) and then bake them in a preheated 400 degree oven for 60-70 minutes or until they are pretty soft!  Pull them out of the oven to cool just a bit.

Once they are cool enough to handle, scrape out the insides and mix with an mixer (I love my Bosch for this, but a hand held mixer will do as well) until they are smooth.  Measure 6 cups into a  large bowl.

Then add the rest of the Sweet Potato ingredients listed above and mix well until blended.  (I throw it all back into my Bosch mixer).

The original recipe said to put this mixture into and 8×8 baking dish.  I really like using a 9×13 casserole and spreading the mixture a bit thinner…this allows me to have more topping (which of course we all know is the best part). By the way, this recipe has double of what the original called for in the Streusel Topping department!

Ok, now if you don’t want to refrigerate until the next day, this is where you would preheat your oven to 350.

Now we are going to make the Streusel Topping.  Combine all of the ingredients for the Topping except the butter and marshmallows.  Once this is mixed you can then cut the cold butter into the mixture with a pastry cutter/knife or a fork.  Try to get the mixture to a crumbly pea sized bit consistency.  Now I just put this into a baggie or container and throw it in the fridge with the Sweet Potato Casserole until I pull it out to come to room temperature before baking.

Once you are ready to put it in the oven sprinkle the topping on top of sweet potato mixture and then bake in 350 degree oven for 70-80 minutes or until the top begins to brown slightly.

Once you remove from oven immediately spread the marshmallows over the top. (This is up to your discretion…I love to cover the whole top, others like to sprinkle a few)  Let this sit 10 minutes.  Or you can pop it back in the oven for a couple minutes to warm/melt your marshmallows.  Then you are ready to serve!

Just be careful, or someone might steal your left overs as well! : )