Sweet Potato Pecan Streusel Casserole

So I have been converted to the sweet side…

The sweet side of potatoes that is!  Thanks to my concept of Roasted Grape Honey Sweet Potatoes I am now a HUGE fan of them! Between Mr. Fantabulous and I, I roast up roughly 8-10 a week.  Following my directions on how to make Perfect Sweet Potatoes in the oven, these are so simple and truly cook themselves.  I mean what, 5 minutes of that (if that actually) of prep work for a week of awesome food?  Yeah, I’m so there!

Now with Thanksgiving coming up, many of you serve sweet potato casserole.  I never have though I do make my baby Candied Sweet Potatoes which are a royal PITA!  First you par-boil them, peel them, cool them, dip in stuff and then pan sear in an almost caramel-sauce.  You get splatters, sugar burns and it STINKS after a while as the sugar burns.  Then the cleanup… grrrrrrrrrrr.  It just sucks!  But I make them as those are one of his favorites.  And yes, I will be making them again for him for Thanksgiving. It makes him happy and seeing him happy makes me happy.  Ah love… ♥

This Thanksgiving I wanted to provide you all a Sweet Potato Casserole recipe that I approve of (and would eat) cause you all know I’m such a picky eater and a food snob.  I threw in some sweet potatoes to roast up another batch and as I was trying to figure out what I could put in this casserole I saw some lonely bananas that were a tad dark for me to eat but no where near ripe enough for baking.  Since I love roasted bananas I decided to throw a couple into the oven towards the end of the potatoes baking time and see what happens.  Once they were done and cool enough to handle I scooped and squoze (squoze in my world means to squeeze out something) out the banana flesh into the bowl with the potatoes.  I literally used a fork to mix it together.  I tasted it – bland so I went with my newest favorite – honey and cinnamon.  It was good but a tad sweet from the banana so I opted for some salt which balanced it out.  Since I needed to bake this I wanted to add some fat to it so it wouldn’t dry out thus I channeled my inner Paula Deen and added some melted butter.  Now this mixture by itself was AWESOME but for me, it needed another texture.  And since this was sweet I had to go with streusel, just HAD to!

I went with just a basic streusel mixture – flour, cinnamon, brown sugar and butter.  Great but… It needed something.

It just didn’t feel complete. I wanted another level of flavor; another texture.

So literally I rummaged around my kitchen for a good 10 minutes before it hit me.  No, actually before it burned me. See I wasn’t paying attention (broken rule #1 in the kitchen – PAY ATTENTION) and went to move a hot pan only I forgot it was hot.  Yeah… lovely little burn.  So after cursing like a sailor, I went to the freezer to grab some ice.  As I went to close it the bag of pecans fell out.  I picked it up, shoved it back in only to have it fall out again.  It did this 3 times.  Needless to say I was cursing even more, my hand hurt and the damn bag wasn’t ‘listening’ to me.  LOL  Then when I picked it up on the 4th time I kind of looked at it, looked at the streusel and THEN it hit me.. DUH!  Put the pecans IN the streusel genius!  I think the pecans were jumping out on purpose as they wanted in on that party!  LOL

So I chopped up some, with my other hand – man, can I say that unless you’re truly ambidextrous trying to do ANYTHING with your other hand is near impossible!  I looked like a 3 year old trying to cut something out perfectly.  HAHA but I managed to chop them up, add them to the mix and put on top.

As this baked I waited patiently.  Okay I actually was side tracked as I had to put some burn cream on my hand and bandage it.

However I didn’t mind as the smells that were coming from the oven were amazing!  This was so in my belly very shortly!

I took it out and let it rest just a few.  I took the first bite…

WOW!  I mean pure WOW!  It was just pure perfection!  The bananas lent such a nice natural flavor without having it taste banana-y.  You tasted the potato and that streusel.  My word that streusel!  The pecans, honestly, made the dish!  Now this is perfect as-is however I drizzled just a wee bit more honey on top and that set it from a perfect 10 to a perfect bajillion and one!  It’s totally your call though. Just make this people, seriously.. MAKE THIS!

Sweet Potato Pecan Streusel Casserole

• Author: The Kitchen Whisperer

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Ingredients

• 6 medium-large sweet potatoes
• Olive oil
• 2 yellow bananas (not too ripe), unpeeled
• 6 tablespoon melted butter, unsalted
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature cut into small cubes
• 1/3 cup honey plus additional for drizzle
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 cups pecans, rough chopped

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven 450F with the rack in the middle.
2. Scrub the Potatoes – Scrub the potatoes thoroughly under running water and pat them dry. You don’t have to remove the eyes, but trim away any blemishes with a paring knife.
3. Season the Potatoes – Rub the potatoes all over with a little olive oil. It’s easiest to use your hands, but a pastry brush also works fine.
4. Prick with a fork or sharp knife (watch your fingers) – Prick the potatoes in a few places with the tines of a fork. This allows steam to escape from the baking potato.
5. Roast your potatoes per these instructions. I prefer to place a piece of foil on the lower rack and then roast the potatoes directly on the middle rack. I find the skins crisp up better.
6. 35 minutes into your potatoes baking place the bananas (in the peel) on a pan and place in the oven with the potatoes.
7. Roast for an additional 15-25 minutes or until the bananas are super soft and the potatoes when pierced with a knife are super soft.
8. Remove them from the oven and reduce the temp to 375F.
9. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh into a large mixing bowl. Discard the potato skin.
10. Squeeze out the bananas into the bowl discard the peels.
11. Add the melted butter, honey, 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and salt.
12. Since the potatoes and bananas are soft just use a mixing spoon or even a big form to mix everything until well combined and smooth. You don’t want any chunks.
13. Spoon this into a 9×9 glass baking dish OR a 2-3 quart casserole dish and spread evenly.
14. In a separate mixing bowl, place the flour, remaining cinnamon and brown sugar.
15. Whisk to combine and break up the clumps.
16. Using a pastry cutter, fork or your fingers cut in the 1 stick of butter until it resembles crumbs.
17. Add in the pecans and gently mix.
18. Sprinkle the streusel mixture over the sweet potatoes and place the pan in the oven.
19. Cook for 20 minutes or until the streusel is golden brown, a little crusty and the pecans have a brown hue to them.
20. Remove from the oven and drizzle honey over top right before serving.

Notes

Note: To make as individual servings, divide the mixture into 8-12 8 ounce Ramekins , divide the streusel evenly and bake the same amount of time.

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