Twice Baked Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping

You simply won’t be able to get enough of this twice baked sweet potato casserole. It’s basically a sweet potato with pecan topping dish which pairs well with – well, just about everything! These individual sweet potato casseroles are a great side dish for a pot luck or any family dinner.

If you love the sweetness and crunch of sweet potatoes and pecans, you’re going to love these individual sweet potato casseroles. They’re just so tasty.

Other popular side dishes include bacon wrapped green beans and smoked elote. And this iced white chocolate mocha is such a treat after the meal.

It is special enough for a holiday side dish but you can also prepare this sweet potato side dish recipe to go with any meat you want. It’s so good it’s a pity to only make this over the holidays!

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes Ingredients

You will need sweet potatoes for this twice baked sweet potato casserole of course. In addition, for the filling, you’ll want to get eggs, sugar, butter, and cream. Vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, clove, and nutmeg add plenty of wonderful spice to your sweet potatoes.

As for the topping you can use either all-purpose flour or almond flour, along with butter, sugar and chopped pecans.

How to Make Sweet Potatoes and Pecans

These individual sweet potato casseroles couldn’t be easier. First you need to cook the sweet potatoes. They take about an hour in the oven but if you’re in a rush try the microwave instead. Just prick them all over first so they don’t explode in there!

The next step in the sweet potato with pecan topping recipe is to remove the flesh from the sweet potatoes. Now be careful not to cut all the way through when you do this. The aim is to remove the potato flesh from the middle without cutting all the way through.

Now mash the remaining ingredients with the potato flesh in a bowl, then return the mixture into the skins. Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle this over the top of each one. Bake this sweet potato side dish recipe for half an hour or until golden. It’s best to let them rest for a few minutes before serving. As you can imagine, these twice baked sweet potatoes are going to be very hot inside.

Garnish them with your choice of fresh herb sprigs or powdered sugar before serving. This is such a wonderful side dish for the holidays.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes Variations

Feel free to adjust the spices used in the filling. Perhaps you prefer to use allspice instead of clove or add more ginger and less nutmeg or vice versa. You could also use white sugar instead of brown. Walnuts would work just as well as pecans in the topping.

Tips and Tricks

Although you might be very careful when scooping out the potato flesh, accidents happen! The potatoes are cooked by this point, remember, so the flesh will be more delicate. If you do happen to cut all the way through the sweet potatoes, don’t worry.

You can use toothpicks to hold them closed then remove them before serving. These will hold the potatoes together in the case of accidental tears! Removing too much of the flesh can also make the skins weak, so leave some in there.

This twice baked sweet potato casserole is so good you’ll want to eat all of it. And I mean the skin! Potato skins are more nutritious than potato flesh, regardless of the type of potato. So if you want to enjoy the skins too, they’re perfectly edible. Serve along with other vegetable side dishes and your favourite holiday main dish recipes.

What Kind of Sweet Potato to Choose

There are different types of sweet potatoes in the grocery store, so you might wonder which to buy.

For a sweet potato side dish recipe you should choose an orange-fleshed variety such as Jewel or Red Garnet. These are known as ‘moist’ varieties because they contain more ‘amylase’ – an enzyme that breaks starches down into sugar.

This makes them more creamy and moist than ‘dry’ varieties (purple or beige-skinned ones). The dry type, such as Purple, Japanese and Sweet Hannah come out starchy and dry, something like russet potatoes. So use a ‘moist’ variety for your individual sweet potato casseroles.

Something else worth knowing is the orange-fleshed type will often be labeled as ‘yams’. Actually yams are dry, starchy tubers with a very thick skin. They’re a rarity in Canadian and American grocery stores, and usually only found in Caribbean markets. They’re the driest of all, so don’t use those here! Not for sweet potato with pecan topping anyway!

How to Store Twice Baked Sweet Potato Casserole

Got some sweet potatoes and pecans left over from your Thanksgiving or Christmas feast? Keep them in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and reheat them in the oven. Pop the potato directly on the oven rack and give it 20 minutes at 350 degrees F. That ought to be enough to warm it through. You can also microwave them but this tends to make them a bit soggy.

Twice Baked Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping Recipe

If you like sweet potatoes and pecans, you will LOVE this side dish. Twice baked sweet potatoes are always a big hit and great for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Let me know if you try the recipe out!

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