Sugared Sweet Potatoes with Pecan Streusel Topping

This dish is my one must-have dish on my Thanksgiving table. I'm pretty sure my husband would revolt if I didn't serve sweet potatoes. I mentioned leaving them out once and he gave me the look of death. These sweet potatoes are heavenly. They are sweet and delicious and feel more like a dessert with their German streusel flair. We eat them at Thanksgiving. We eat them at Christmas. We even eat them on other occasions throughout the year. They put "candied yams" to absolute shame. Give it a try this year, you won't regret it. 


Ingredients

4 large dark skinned sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Streusel:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

2. Fill a large pot with water. Bring to a boil. Add cubed sweet potatoes. Return to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer sweet potatoes until tender (15-20 minutes). Drain. 

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together sugar, eggs, salt, butter, milk and vanilla. Add in cooked sweet potatoes and use a hand mixer to mix until smooth. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish.

4. In medium bowl prepare the streusel topping. Mix the sugar and flour together. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse. Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.

 In America the terms "Sweet Potato" and "Yam" are used interchangeably and refer to that potato looking thing with the red skin and orange flesh. Yet, you have probably seen something else in the grocery store labeled sweet potato with a light yellow skin, while your orange flesh variety is labeled yams. Guess what? Both of them are sweet potatoes! The kind of sweet potatoes you think of as yams are simply dark skinned sweet potatoes. You won't commonly come across true yams in an American grocery store. True yams have brown or black skin and the flesh is either red, purple, or off white. Crazy, huh? You thought you've been eating yams all these years!