Sweet potato pineapple casserole is sweet, but not too sweet, and is topped with ALL the good stuff. It’s a perfect Thanksgiving side dish! Scroll down for video!
I didn’t grow up eating sweet potato pineapple casserole. For the first 22+ years of my life I didn’t eat sweet potatoes at all, not even the sweet potato casserole that my expert cook grandmother made every Thanksgiving. I was convinced I hated sweet potatoes, though I’m pretty sure I first tried sweet potatoes at my first teaching job, where our lunches were provided for us and we were expected to eat what the children ate. I ate canned sweet potatoes. And I liked them.
My very best sweet potato casserole story, which I mentioned once in a biscuit post, was our first Thanksgiving in our house. Philip’s sister brought a sweet potato casserole and had to brown the top of the marshmallows, so she stuck it under our broiler. In our 1970s oven. The broiler was in a drawer on the bottom of the oven. That’s right, you guys. Next to the floor. Let’s put flames right by the floor. Makes perfect sense. The top of the casserole went up in flames in less than a minute. Good thing marshmallows are tasty even when burned.
I’ve never followed a recipe to make a sweet potato casserole, but I like my potatoes fresh, not canned, and sweeteners to a minimum. The canned pineapple in this sweet potato pineapple casserole rounds out the sweetness of the sweet potatoes pretty much perfectly, though you can add a little brown sugar or maple syrup if you really feel it needs it. I don’t add sweeteners, but I could never choose between marshmallows or brown sugar and pecans, so I have to overload on the toppings.
Yield: 9-12 servings
45 minPrep Time:
1 hr, 30 Cook Time:
2 hr, 15 Total Time:
Save RecipeIngredients
- 4 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed
- 8 ounce can crushed pineapple, with juices
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream, half-and-half, or milk
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4-1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly oil the outside of the sweet potatoes. Bake for one hour or until a paring knife easily passes all the way through to the center. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and cool the sweet potatoes for about 30 minutes.
- Use a potato ricer to press out the cooked sweet potato into an 8-inch square baking pan or peel the sweet potatoes and mash the flesh into the pan. Stir in the pineapple, butter, cream/half-and-half/milk, and cinnamon (you can add a little brown sugar or maple syrup at this point if you don’t think it’s sweet enough, but I thought the pineapple made it plenty sweet). Spread evenly into the pan.
- Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the top of the sweet potatoes then follow with the brown sugar and last the marshmallows. Bake for 25 minutes then turn the oven to broil and broil until the marshmallows reach desired brownness. Serve immediately.
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