A braided bread that is rich, sweet, and makes a lovely table centerpiece. To make it look more festive, add rainbow sprinkles.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 -2 1/2 quart dish |
Ingredients
- 2 ½ pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- ⅓ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 pinch ground allspice
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- ½ cup chopped roasted, salted pistachios
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 1/2-quart baking dish with butter.
- Place sweet potato cubes into a large pot, cover with water, and add a large pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and cook until a knife is easily inserted into a sweet potato cube, about 10 minutes. Drain well. Return to the pot and mash 2 tablespoons butter into sweet potatoes.
- Whisk eggs, maple syrup, buttermilk, milk, vanilla extract, cayenne pepper, allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon salt together in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually mash sweet potatoes into egg mixture, starting with 2 tablespoons of sweet potato mixture, until all sweet potatoes are incorporated. Transfer sweet potatoes into prepared baking dish.
- Mix pistachios, brown sugar, flour, and 1/4 cup melted butter together until completely mixed. Crumble topping evenly over top of sweet potatoes. Use the back of a fork to gently press pistachio mixture down onto sweet potatoes.
- Bake in the preheated oven until topping is browned and casserole is set, 25 to 30 minutes. If desired, place under oven’s broiler for 5 minutes to give topping a little more brown color. Let rest to cool slightly before serving, about 10 minutes.
- The sweet potatoes I used may be called yams at the store, but the fact is that all yams sold in American supermarkets are varieties of sweet potatoes. My recommendation is to use Garnet yams if you can find them. If you can’t, literally any other variety will do.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 368 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 56 g |
| Cholesterol | 71 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 7 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 353 mg |
| Sugars | 27 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is my new favorite way to sweet potato. Absolutely amazing.
Really nice change from the traditional yam recipes, not too sweet and full of flavor. We boiled the yams whole, then they peel much easier/quicker and then cubed them.
Delicious! Just sweet enough!
This side dish was a big hit at our Thanksgiving dinner! The maple syrup in the sweet potatoes adds a wonderful flavor without being too sweet. The pistachio crumble on top is delicious and so easy! I will definitely be using this recipe again
I used half the maple syrup and half the sugar and it was plenty sweet
Made this recipe for the firs time last Thanksgiving and it was a hit! Requested again for this year! Thanks, Chef John! Happy Thanksgiving.
Made this for Thanksgiving, Delicious! Followed recipe exactly.
I was looking for a new sweet potato recipe for Thanksgiving that was not so sweet. We really enjoyed this recipe. I did not change anything, except due to a diabetic in the family I used brown sugar Splenda. No one could tell and the casserole was delicious. I will make this one again.
OMG! This was by far the best sweet potato casserole I have ever tasted. My husband doesn’t care for yams or sweet potatoes in general, but even he liked it. I turned on the broiler and left it in the oven for four extra minutes at the end of baking. The pistachio nut crunch on top gives it a special flair. (This might even rival the sweet potato pie, although it is not super sweet.) You can taste the sweetness, but it’s not overbearing. I made one substitution. I did not have buttermilk, so I used “light vanilla yogurt” instead. When I make it again in the future I’m going to continue to use the light vanilla yogurt because it was just wonderful and I wouldn’t want to change a thing.
Fortunately, I had all the ingredients except the Garnet Yams and the pistachios in my kitchen at Thanksgiving. I decided to substitute pecans for the pistachios, and this dish came out perfect. Although Covid19 kept us at home, my husband and I enjoyed cooking a small turkey, dressing, home-cooked cranberry sauce, green beans, and this delicious Sweet Potato Casserole! Thank you for sharing, Chef John!
Came out great. Used coconut sugar,pecans, split maple syrup with honey and used almond flour. Delicious
We loved this recipe! I substituted pecan pieces for the pistachios and the casserole was more like pie. Amazing!
This was very good and i will add to my regular Thanksgiving menu with a couple tweaks. I added almost double the maple syrup and found that next time I will add just a bit of brown sugar as well (it was just not quite sweet enough but still VERY edible) also I will use pecans next time. I did use the pistachios this time and again it was very edible but i think the sweeter pecan is preferred over the salty pistachio in this recipe. Great recipe though, as always i love your recipes, thanks for sharing.
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was a hit. Not too sweet, but allows the wonderful flavor of the sweet potatoes to shine.
Wonderful dish! Savory counterpoint to the Thanksgiving meal.
Followed recipe exactly but split into 2 casserole dishes one with sunflower seeds and one with pistachio topping with the same mix of butter b sugar flour my daughter hadhas a nut allergy nut
We make this every year for thanksgiving, and it’s always a major hit. Do it just as the recipe says—it’s perfect!
Everyone LOVED this! I used purple sweet potatoes, which happily don’t lose their color when cooked. It made for a really eye-popping dish, especially when cooked in a clear glass pan. We used a combination of walnuts & hazelnuts for the topping due to allergy issues, and it was fantastic.
Absolutely amazing! This dish will be my go to now for special occasions or just when I feel like sweet potatoes. Made as directed. Yum. Thanks chef John!
Always a hit at potlucks and family gatherings!
After 20 years of the much-too-sweet usual mashup of sweet potatoes, white and brown sugar, and pecans, I wanted something different. That recipe was just so sweet, even when I cut the white sugar down to 1/4 cup. This recipe by Chef John was magnificent and our table of 20 at Christmas dinner asked me to bring it every year. It has a wonderful flavor. The pistachios – oh my! I did not change one thing. Thank you, Chef John.