Make the holidays complete with an Old-Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole. This easy, traditional recipe starts by baking sweet potatoes and ends with a pecan brown sugar topping or the alternate classic marshmallow topping. It is a creamy holiday classic that we enjoy every holiday season.
🍠Ingredients
Sweet potatoes
Pantry ingredients—eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, butter, milk
Pecan topping—chopped pecans, brown sugar, butter, flour
Optional mini-marshmallow topping—mini-marshmallows, chopped pecans
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Featured Comment by Ellen:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"Just made this for Thanksgiving dinner, and I'm blown away by how good it is! ….Turned out fabulous, my favorite dish this year!"
Our son-in-law brought this Thanksgiving favorite from his family's table to ours. It is a wonderfully sweet potato recipe with a delicious sweet potato custard topped with a crunchy brown sugar and pecan topping that has become our family tradition.
This easy sweet potato casserole recipe is written for a full-size dish for a family holiday gathering. Still, it easily scales to a half-size or even quarter-size dish, making a small-batch casserole.
👨🍳How to Make Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Scrub and bake sweet potatoes for 1 to 1 ½ hours until soft.
2. Allow to cool, then peel the sweet potatoes by hand.
3. Mash the sweet potatoes until smooth by hand, a hand mixer, or a stand mixer.
4. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, salt, melted butter, vanilla, and milk.
5. Add the egg mixture to the sweet potatoes.
6. Pour into the casserole dish.
7. Chop the pecans.
8. Mix the topping of brown sugar, flour, melted butter, and chopped pecans.
9. Spread the topping over the casserole.
10. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes until golden brown and 160° minimum internal temperature.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
👨🍳Marshmallow Topping Option
Skip the brown sugar pecan topping. Instead, add ½ cup of chopped pecans before baking. Bake for about 20 minutes, then add 1 ½ cups of mini marshmallows for the last 10 minutes. If added at the beginning, they will tend to become overly browned.
Some mini marshmallows will not melt or brown nicely. Avoid this problem by cutting up larger marshmallows.
🥘Baking pan size
A full-size recipe fits in a 2 ½ quart casserole dish or a 9 by 12 baking dish. If cooking a half-size recipe, use a 6 by 9, 8-inch square, or 9-inch round baking dish. A quarter recipe needs 6 inch round or 5-inch square baking dish, or use what you have that fits.
🍽️When to serve
Sweet potato casserole is an intrical part of our Thanksgiving dinner that includes Roasted Turkey Breast, Homemade Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Broccoli Slaw, Sausage Dressing, and Easy Dinner Rolls. Desserts are served after the food coma.
↕️Making a small batch sweet potato casserole
Since this recipe is most commonly used for bigger meals, I have left it as the full recipe, which makes about eight servings. You can also make a small batch half recipe for four servings or a quarter recipe as a true sweet potato casserole for two.
- Use the recipe card and adjust the number of servings to 4 or 2.
- Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust. You can round the egg up a whole number.
- For a half recipe, use a 6 by 9, 8-inch square, or 9-inch round dish. For a quarter recipe, use a 6-inch round or other smaller baking dish.
- Cook until browning well, and the internal temperature reaches 160°. The time will vary depending on the baking dish and the thickness of the casserole.
PS—The leftovers are wonderful, and making a quarter of the recipe is a little too much work for only two servings for me. Make the half recipe and enjoy some leftovers, or freeze them.
📆Make ahead option
You can make this casserole ahead of time, but according to the FDA, an uncooked casserole with a raw egg may only be refrigerated for up to 24 hours before cooking or frozen for 3 months. So, mix the casserole; do not add the topping, then refrigerate or freeze it.
If you make it ahead of time, you can prepare the topping and refrigerate or freeze it separately. Do not add it until you are ready to bake.
If frozen, thaw the casserole and any topping overnight in the refrigerator before baking.
❄️How to store leftover sweet potato casserole
Leftovers, whether cooked or uncooked, are good for 4 days refrigerated. They should also freeze well for up to 3 months—thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
Reheat in the microwave for small amounts. For a larger amount, cover it with foil and reheat it in a 325° to 350° oven for 20-25 minutes.
❓FAQs
Yes and no—it depends on geography. True yams are mostly grown outside the U.S. and are much less commonly sold here.
In the U.S., firm varieties of sweet potatoes are frequently called sweet potatoes, while soft varieties are called yams. This goes back to enslaved Africans called the soft, sweet potato yams because they resembled the true yams from Africa.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires labels with the term yam to be accompanied by the term sweet potato. To find true yams in the U.S., you will need to hunt.
⚕️Food safety
Due to the raw eggs, the casserole needs to reach 160°+ internal temperature.
If the topping is browned but the internal temperature has not reached 160°, lightly tent the casserole with foil to prevent further browning. Then, continue baking until the safe internal temperature reaches 160°.
Temperature issues are more likely to happen with deep dishes or marshmallow toppings browning too fast. You may use a larger baking dish for a thinner casserole that will cook faster. You will need more topping.
📖 Recipe
Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole
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Ingredients
- 3 cups sweet potatoes - about 3-4 medium
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ stick butter - melted
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup milk
Pecan Topping Option
- ½ cup pecans - chopped
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- ½ cup flour
- ⅓ stick butter - melted
Marshmellow Topping Option
- 1 ½ cup mini-marshmallows - or chopped large marshmallows
- ½ cup chopped pecans - optional
Instructions
- Scrub and bake sweet potatoes. Please give them a good scrub and poke with a fork a few times to vent steam. You will need about 3 cups, so 3-4 medium sweet potatoes. Bake at 375° for 1 to 1 ½ hours until very soft.
- Allow the sweet potatoes to cool, then peel them by hand—they will peel easily. You can refrigerate them before or after peeling until needed, up to three days.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat 3 cups of sweet potatoes until smooth. A stand or hand mixer works, but you can also do this by hand. A bit more sweet potato is fine.
- In a separate bowl, beat 2 eggs, ¼ cup of sugar, ½ teaspoon of salt, ½ stick of melted butter, 1 ½ teaspoon of vanilla, and ½ cup of milk.
- Add to mashed sweet potatoes and mix well.
- Pour into a well-oiled (Pam or butter) oven-safe 2 ½ quart or larger casserole dish.
Brown Sugar Pecan Topping
- Chop the pecans.
- Mix topping in a medium bowl. 1 ½ cup of brown sugar, ½ cup of flour, ⅓ stick melted butter, and ½ cup of chopped pecans.
- Add topping to sweet potatoes. You may cover and refrigerate at this point for 24 hours or freeze.
- Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes until golden brown and 160° minimum internal temperature.
Marshmallow Topping Option
- Skip the above topping. Top with ½ cup of chopped pecans before baking. With about 10 minutes left in baking, add 1 ½ cups of mine marshmallows or chopped up full size marshmallows.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- Precook the sweet potatoes up to 3 days ahead.
- The recipe calls for 3 cups of sweet potatoes, but a bit more is fine. That will be 3-4 medium potatoes.
- This fits in a 2 ½ quart or larger casserole dish. You can use a 9X12 baking dish if you want.
- Instructions for a half-size and quarter-size recipe are in the post.
- Cook to nicely brown with at least 160° internal temperature, which should be about the same amount of time.
- If the top browns too quickly but the temperature is still too low, tent lightly with foil until done.
- Make-ahead options are in the post.
- After cooking, store refrigerated for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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This wonderful recipe was brought into our family from our son-in-law's family for our first Thanksgiving together and has been a staple ever since. It is similar to The Best Sweet Potato Casserole from the Food Network.
Editor's Note: Originally Published December 3, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Ashlee says
The better came out great. It would have been even better if I invested in a mixer. I added pecan and marshmallow. I will make this again.
DrDan says
Hi Cary,
You are right, it is 1/2 stick for this size of recipe. We usually do a double or triple recipe.
However, 1/2 cup would be double the butter and would work fine.
You get the eagle eye award for the day. It has been this way since 2011 and the recipe has been visited over 300,000 times. You're the first. Now fixed.
Thanks for the proofread and have a great holiday.
Dan
Ellen says
Just made this for Thanksgiving dinner and I'm blown away by how good it is! I cooked it in an 8" square pan, so the topping was rather thick on top; after I took it out of the oven, I pushed the topping around with a fork and popped it under the broiler to brown. Turned out fabulous, my favorite dish this year! I had my doubts while I was making it because it doesn't use any spices, but it really doesn't need them. Thank you Dr Dan, I love your website and this recipe in particular turned out to be extraordinarily delicious.
DrDan says
Hi Ellen,
Welcome to the blog.
When I first did this recipe, I loved the simplicity but was concerned by the lack of other flavors. But it proved to have just the right combination without being overly complex.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Charlene says
This dish was the hit of our Thanksgiving - added bonus was that with a little bit of tweeking we were able to make it gluten free and substituted honey for the sugar for the Specific Carb diet as well! Yes, when I cook for my family I do face dietary challenges but this recipe was enjoyed by all - it will be my go to from now on!
DrDan says
Hi Charlene,
It is a fairly basic recipe and like all recipes "just guidelines". Depending on the family members present, we deal with mushroom and milk allergies.
Glad it worked well for you and have a great holiday season.
Dan