10 November 2011


Today is Day Four of Thanksgiving Week.  I have already given you unique recipes for mashed potatoes, dressing, and green beans.  Today I have a really fun sweet potato recipe for you.  One that doesn't involve mini marshmallows!

My family absolutely loves the sweet potato casserole I make every year.  It's one of those dishes that everyone looks forward to the most and is the only thing they request leftovers of.  And I will be making it again this year, but I wanted to experiment with another sweet potato dish to share with you.  I tried a Taste of Home recipe that looked really good, but after trying it twice and being disappointed in it, I gave up.  I decided to skip the casserole dish altogether and do something different with the sweet potatoes.  I often make twice baked potatoes at my Easter feast, so I thought, why not try twice baked sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving?  I have never had a twice baked sweet potato before, but it's got to be good, right?  Right!  I created this recipe (three original recipes in one week, wow!) and I think it's a winner.

Twice Baked Orange Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:
4 large sweet potatoes
4 tbsp butter, divided
Zest of half an orange
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup flour
½ cup pecan chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°.  

Wrap potatoes individually in foil.  Place in oven and bake for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, or until soft.  Remove from oven and unwrap.  Let cool just enough to handle.  Line a baking sheet with foil and coat generously with cooking spray.  Place potatoes on the prepared baking sheet.

Cut a large hole in the top of each potato and discard the skin.  Scoop out the flesh of each potato, being careful to leave at least ¼” of flesh around the outside edges to help the shell hold its shape.  Place the flesh in a bowl and mash until smooth.  Add 2 tbsp melted butter, orange zest, cinnamon, and salt.  Mix well.  Place potato mixture back into potato shells, mounding it up on top if necessary.

To make streusel topping, combine brown sugar, flour, and remaining 2 tbsp butter until crumbly.  Fold in pecans.  Evenly distribute streusel topping among potatoes.   

Return potatoes to oven and bake another 10 to 15 minutes, or until topping is slightly browned.  Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings.

Now, the picture above may not be the best, but right after I snapped that pic, the platter tilted off the tiny table I use for taking food pics, and the whole thing slid off onto the floor.  Yep.  That happened.  Right before dinner.  My lovely husband cleaned up the mess and was able to salvage enough of the potatoes that landed on the tablecloth and not the floor, that we were still able to give it taste.

The combination of cinnamon and orange is so good in sweet potatoes.  I've got the amounts just right so that you can taste a little bit of each, but they are not overpowering.  The potato filling is mostly savory. I like it that way since the topping is sweet.  But if your family insists on having their sweet potatoes sweet sweet, you can add a little bit of brown sugar (maybe ¼ cup?) to the potato filling as well.



Try to find sweet potatoes shaped like this, kind of shorter and fat, instead of those that are long and skinny.

These potatoes are really good and I think they are a unique alternative to sweet potato casserole.  The nice thing about them is that you can bake the sweet potatoes ahead of time, and prepare the filling, then they just need 10-15 minutes in the oven right before serving.  My sweet potato casserole bakes for around 30 minutes, so that is a nice time saver.  The more things you can prep ahead of time for Thanksgiving dinner, the better!

Tomorrow is the last day of Thanksgiving Week and I am sharing with you a twist on pumpkin pie.


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3 comments:

  1. Those look amazing! I have been making something similar in a casserole for the past 2o years. My son says he could just eat a bowl of the topping all by itself!

    Your spill sounds like something that would happen to me. :)

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  2. quickeasycheaphealthyNovember 10, 2011 at 6:27 PM

    What a fabulous idea! I think I'm going to try this for Thanksgiving this year!

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  3. 5 second rule. I totally would have eaten them off the floor, as long as it was fairly clean. LOL


    Thanks for linking up at A Little Nosh this week!

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