Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole with a pecan topping (or a marshmallow topping) has become a traditional holiday classic. This sweet family favorite can be made ahead with the easy-to-follow step-by-step photo instructions.
😊Why you will love this recipe.
- A wonderfully sweet and buttery holiday side dish with a nutty topping that will become a family tradition.
- Make it your way with the crunchy pecan topping or the traditional marshmallows.
- Easy to make ahead and refrigerate or freeze.
- It will scale the size you need.
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.
👨🍳How to make this recipe
- Bake sweet potatoes, allow them to cool, and then peel.
- With a mixer, beat the sweet potatoes until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, sugar, salt, melted butter, vanilla, and milk.
- Add to sweet potatoes and mix well.
- Place into a well-oiled casserole dish.
- Mix topping of brown sugar, flour, melted butter, and chopped pecans.
- Add topping to sweet potatoes.
- Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes until golden brown and 160° minimum internal temperature.
🍠Ingredients
- Sweet potatoes: cook ahead by baking or boiling before proceeding.
- Pecans: chopped for the topping
- Mini-marshmallows: Optional if used for topping.
- Other pantry ingredients: eggs, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, butter, and milk
✔️Tips
- To create a marshmallow topping, you give it a nice topping of mini marshmallows on the top with or without the pecans but not the other topping ingredients. It will take about 1 ½ cups, depending on the size of the baking dish.
- Due to the raw eggs, the casserole needs to reach 160°+ internal temperature, and the topping should be nicely brown. A marshmallow topping will brown a bit faster.
- If ether topping is browned, but the internal temperature has not reached 160°, tent the casserole with foil lightly to prevent further browning and continue to bake until you get the safe internal temperature of 160°. This is more likely to happen with deep dishes. Use a larger baking dish for a thinner casserole with more topping...yum.
- This fits nicely in a 2-quart casserole dish. But use what you have, and it will be fine if you reach the endpoints.
- The oven temperature specified is 350°, which will take about 30 minutes, but you can vary that depending on what else you are baking and adjust the time and the endpoints.
📆Make ahead option
You can make it ahead, but I find long storage bothersome because the uncooked casseroles contain eggs. Many suggest three days, but I feel 1-2 days is enough. I can find no FDA guidance on this, so your choice.
If you make ahead, you can make up the topping but do not top until ready to bake.
❓FYIs
Yes and no. True yams are mostly grown outside of the U.S. and are much less commonly sold here.
In the U.S., firm varieties of sweet potatoes are frequently called sweat 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.
Leftovers are good for 3-4 days refrigerated.
Either cooked or uncooked should freeze well for up to 3 months.
📖Thanksgiving Recipes
How to Cook a Turkey Breast the Easy Way
Green Bean Casserole Without Soup
Homemade Rolls for Dinner in 60 Minutes
Part of Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Note: The recipe is for about eight servings; you will see pictures for a triple batch. There are only three adults eating today. My daughter was cooking for leftovers.
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 to cool and then peel. You may refrigerate at this point until needed for up to 3 days.
In a large mixing bowl, beat 3 cups of sweet potatoes until smooth. A stand or hand mixer work, but you can do this by hand. A bit more sweet potato is fine if that is what you have.
In a separate bowl, beat together two eggs, ¼ cup sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ stick melted butter, 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla, and ½ cup milk.
Add to sweet potatoes and mix well.
Place into a well-oiled (Pam or butter) oven-safe 2-quart or larger casserole dish.
Chop the pecans.
Mix topping in a medium bowl. 1 ½ cup of brown sugar, ½ cup flour, ⅓ stick melted butter, and ½ cup chopped pecans.
Add topping to sweet potatoes. You may cover and refrigerate at this point for the next day or freeze.
Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes until golden brown and 160° minimum internal temperature.
📝Recipe
Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole
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
- ½ cup chopped pecans - optional
Instructions
- Scrub and bake sweet potatoes. 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 to cool and then peel. You may refrigerate at this point until needed for up to 3 days.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat 3 cups sweet potatoes until smooth. A stand mixer or hand mixer work, but you can do this by hand. A bit more sweet potato is fine if that is what you have.
- In a separate bowl, beat together two eggs, ¼ cup sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ stick melted butter, 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla, ½ cup milk. Beat well.
- Add to the egg mixture to the sweet potatoes and mix well.
- Place into a well oiled (Pam or butter) oven-safe 2-quart or larger casserole dish.
- Chop pecans.
- Mix topping in a medium bowl. 1 ½ cup of brown sugar, ½ cup flour, ⅓ stick melted butter, and ½ cup chopped pecans.
- Add topping to sweet potatoes. You may cover and refrigerate at this point for the next day or freeze.
- Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes until golden brown and 160° minimum internal temperature.
Marshmallow Topping Option
- Skip the above topping. Using about 1 ½ cup of mini-marshmallows. You may add ½ cup of chopped pecans before the marshmallows if you want.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- Precook the sweet potatoes the day 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 quart or larger casserole dish. You can use a deep 9 by 9 baking dish if you want.
- Cook to nicely brown with at least 160° internal temperature, which should be about the same amount of time. A marshmallow top may brown a bit faster.
- If the top is brown, but the temperature is still too low, tent lightly with foil until done.
- Make-ahead options. You can cook the sweet potatoes, and they will be good refrigerated for 2 days. You can assemble and freeze for up to 3 months.
- After cooking, store refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
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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Editor's Note: Originally Published December 3, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Ashlee
The batter 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.
Cary
In the ingredients list, it says 1/2 cup melted butter, but twice in text, it says 1/2 stick, so I’m going with that. Fingers crossed! Love your recipes. They rarely disappoint. Merry Christmas!
DrDan
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
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
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
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
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