- I'm feeling sweet potatoes.

I have a whole tray of them here.

About an hour and a half ago, I popped these guys into a 375 degree oven.

I've let them cool off till I can handle them, and now I'm just gonna take the skins off.

Now, the destiny for these sweet potatoes is a recipe that I have been making for more than 20 years.

I call it sweet potato casserole.

But some people will call this a sweet potato souffle, maybe a sweet potato pudding.

And while they're still slightly warm, I'm gonna mash these, and then we'll go get on with the good stuff that goes in.

And now I'm gonna start adding the good stuff.

I'm gonna be using an electric mixer, but I'm not even gonna turn it on at first.

I'm just gonna use the beaters to crush these potatoes up.

And the first thing is some softened butter and some dark brown sugar.

And that's all the sugar that's going to go into these sweet potatoes.

It is a very gentle sweetness.

Turn this on low and just start a little initial blending.

Once I feel that these potatoes are starting to crush, we'll go up a little bit in speed, because every time I turn this mixer on, I'm adding a little air, a little bit of fluffiness to this entire thing.

That is just right for now.

So let me tell you what else I have here.

This is half-and-half.

Bourbon, good bourbon.

The nuttiness and the wonderful aroma of that is a great pairing with sweet potatoes.

Vanilla extract and one whole egg.

This egg is going to bind the sweet potatoes a little bit.

It's also gonna give a tiny bit of lift and volume.

And some pumpkin pie spice.

Yes, this isn't a pumpkin pie, but pumpkin pie spice is just what we need for these sweet potatoes.

Now, what is in pumpkin pie spice might vary from brand to brand, but generally speaking, it is cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice, all the good stuff.

And then I'm gonna show you my two secret ingredients to this.

We have a lemon.

Now, you'll see I'm taking off the zest, the zest being that shiny outside part of my lemon.

There is a ton of flavor in there, actually more in the zest than there is in the juice.

Not to mention, it smells great.

Making sure none's stuck to the bottom.

And then I am going to juice this lemon and get that juice in there, every delicious drop.

And now I'm gonna add one more thing that is a secret to this great recipe.

This is a jar of peach preserves.

I'm putting in about 1/3 of a cup, and it is going to be that final thing that we need to make these taste great.

And a little salt.

Salt makes everything in the bowl shine a little brighter and taste a little bit more like itself.

Then take my good old mixer again, turn it on, and let this become one.

And that's good to go.

Yeah, there's still a little bit of butter showing, not worried about that.

It's gonna come together in the oven.

So whenever I use a mixer to blend, I still take my handy-dandy spatula and give it a few good turns up from the bottom to make sure that everything is blended in.

So this is all stirred up.

Gonna be ready to go into a baking dish into the oven.

So this bakes in a buttered baking dish.

So I'm just taking some softened butter.

And I'm using my fingers.

Some people use a paper or a pastry brush.

I like to get my fingers in this.

In goes our sweet potato mixture.

And you wanna level the top.

So now I'm gonna make this simple crunch topping to go on top of the sweet potatoes.

I'm gonna start with some all-purpose flour and some more of that delicious, richly flavored dark brown sugar.

And a bit more of that same pumpkin pie spice that we put in the filling.

So I'm just gonna stir that up a little bit.

And then this is melted butter.

I'm just gonna stir this around.

And it's gonna look dry, but it's really not.

Add my pinch of salt.

Salt with the sweet makes all this taste better.

And when it starts looking like some wet sand, that's when I'm going to toss in pecan pieces.

So we're gonna put that in there.

And then, with my fingers, I'm just tossing them together to make this little topping.

And it goes on our sweet potatoes.

I use my fingers and kind of sprinkle it around to make sure I'm getting it in the corners, because everyone is gonna want their fair share of this brown sugar topping.

It's just the right amount of topping and sweetness that make our sweet potatoes happy.

And now it goes into the oven just to warm through and get a little bit bubbly, easy-peasy.

Look at how pretty this is.

I love how it looks when it comes out of the oven.

You've got just that perfect little top layer of the crisp topping.

It stays on top, it doesn't sink down in there, and there's just enough of it to enhance the sweet potatoes without overwhelming them.

Another thing I want you to remember is let this rest about 15 minutes before you serve it.

It is so hot when it comes out of the oven, you can't taste all the good things.

When it cools off to a nice warmth, you're going to get every delicious thing we put in there.

And speaking of tasting every delicious thing, that's what I'm gonna do.

Let me get some out here.

You know, I've called this a side dish, which it certainly can be.

And it is so good, you don't want to save it just for holidays.

But I've been known to eat this for breakfast.

And you know what?

At my house, this qualifies as dessert, too.

The crunch of the pecans, that beautiful earthiness of a great sweet potato.

This is a fabulous casserole.

Maybe we won't call it casserole, maybe it needs another name.

But no matter what we call this, it is so good.

You're gonna love this.

It is one of my favorite sweet potato recipes I have ever made.

It's so good.

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