Sweet Potatoes casserole with homemade marshmallow topping

Would you like to elevate the sweet potato dish that we all know and love to new levels?  We see a lot of more traditional versions this time of the year–you know the one I’m talking about with the sweet potatoes and marshmallows on top, right?  I had an epiphany!  I could make the marshmallow fluff on top and pipe it in a way to look like a gorgeous meringue topping.  You have several options with this dish like leaving off the marshmallow fluff, buying marshmallow fluff, piping on the marshmallow fluff or simply spreading it on creating nice peaks.

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This is the finished creation!  See how it’s made by following the steps below.

Select 4 medium sweet potatoes, wash them, and prick them with a fork.  Preheat your oven to 375 and roast the potatoes in the oven for about 1.5 hours until they start caramelizing and release liquid (like the picture below).

Caramelization=more flavor in your sweet potatoes!

Gather ingredients for the sweet potato bottom.

Let your sweet potatoes cool slightly and then peel them.  Sweet potatoes are MUCH easier to peel after they have roasted.

Place the sweet potatoes in a stand mixer or large bowl and puree them (you can also use a hand mixer).

All of the remaining ingredients will go into a separate bowl.

Brown sugar goes in the bowl as well.  We love storing brown sugar in this vacuum sealed container to keep the brown sugar soft.

Orange zest adds SO much flavor to any dish!  Our handy microplane zester makes sure that you do not get any of the bitter pith in the mix.  Make sure you get all the zest from the bottom of the microplane.

Now for my favorite part— the fall spices!

We like all our spices organized so we know where they are, and we’re not continually buying them!  These are our favorite spice organizers.

Cinnamon, ginger and freshly grated nutmeg will all enhance this dish!  Make sure that you use freshly grated nutmeg for optimum flavor.  I thought I didn’t like nutmeg until I tried the freshly grated variety.

Yes, I even have a little microplane for my nutmeg!

Once you have combined all the ingredients besides the sweet potatoes, mix them to combine.  You can then add this mixture to the pureed sweet potatoes.

Butter a 9X9 dish and place your sweet potato mix in the dish.  After this step, you can cool the mixture down and place it in the refrigerator and finish later if you wish.  Anything you can do ahead of time will help you greatly on the day of your feast!

At this point, (a) you can either bake this dish without the marshmallow topping at 350 for 30-40 minutes, and serve it  or (b) bake it at 350 for 30-40 minutes and proceed with the marshmallow topping.

Marshmallow Topping

Place sugar, corn syrup and water in a pan and stir to combine.  Turn the mixture on med-high and stop stirring from this point.

Place a candy thermometer in the pan until the mixture comes to 240 degrees.  In the meantime, place the egg whites and cream of tartar in the mixing bowl and mix until soft peak stage.  Once you reach soft peak stage, turn your mixer off.

When you’ve reached 240 degrees, carefully and slowly pour this extremely hot mixture into the egg whites while the mixture is on med-high speed.  This mixture will need to mix on high for about 7 minutes until it’s shiny and thick.  Add your vanilla or vanilla bean paste, and quickly mix your mixture again.

You can either place the marshmallow topping on with a spatula, making lots of peaks, or pipe on a design.  If you decide to pipe on your design, fill the marshmallow topping into your piping bag fit with an Ateco number 827.  Please see this post for further instructions on how to fit and use a piping bag.

Angle your bag at a 45 degree angle and make a swirling design going around in continuous circles.  Keep doing your swirling design to complete one row.  Keep making rows until you have covered the top of the sweet potatoes.

After your sweet potatoes come out of the oven, let them cool slightly.  Place the marshmallow fluff on top of the sweet potatoes, and place them under the broiler (about 5 inches from the broiler) for 2-3 minutes. Watch them very carefully!  This will give your sweet potatoes a lovely toasted marshmallow look.

5 from 2 votes

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Elevated Sweet Potatoes

Course Side Dish

Ingredients

• 4 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 orange, zest and juice
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup cranberries
• 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375.  Wash sweet potatoes and prick them with a fork.  Place the sweet potatoes in a sheet pan covered with tin foil (for easy clean up).

2. Roast the sweet potatoes in the oven for 1.5 hours until they caramelize and ooze with liquid.

3. Add all the remaining ingredients in another bowl and mix together.

4. Let the sweet potatoes cool slightly and peel them.  Place the sweet potatoes in a mixing bowl and mix to puree.

5. Place your combined ingredients with your sweet potatoes and mix to combine.  Pour this mixture in a greased 9X9 pan.

6. Reduce oven temperature to 350.  Bake the sweet potatoes for about 30 minutes.  Proceed with the marshmallow topping if desired.

5 from 2 votes

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Homemade Marshmallow Fluff

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup water
• 1.5 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 4 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Instructions

1. Place water, sugar, and corn syrup in the pan and stir to combine.  

2. Place a candy thermometer in the pan until the mixture comes to 240 degrees.     

3. In the meantime, place the egg whites and cream of tartar in the mixing bowl and mix until soft peak stage. Once you reach soft peak stage, turn your mixer off.  

4. When you've reached 240 degrees carefully and slowly pour (this extremely hot mixture) into your egg whites while the mixture is on med-high speed.
5. This mixture will need to mix on high for about 7 minutes until it's shiny and thick. 

6. Add vanilla or vanilla bean paste and quickly mix again.

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