Topped with a brown butter pecan streusel, Baked Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole is a side dish worthy of your Thanksgiving table!
The flavors of Thanksgiving
I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner for many years. It is my favorite holiday. Its message is simple and heartfelt. Share a beautiful meal with people you care for and give thanks. It is a meal that is personal to every family. There are the traditional dishes that are important to them. Maybe it is a recipe passed down through generations. Or it is a dish native to their home country. But it could be a new recipe for an old favorite, just begging to be made, ready to take its place on the menu, year after year.
There are the sides that almost everyone wants on their table - stuffing (or dressing, depending on where you live), mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes. But why not change it up a little this year. Instead of the marshmallows, try a topping of brown butter and pecan streusel.
Natural Affinity
Sweet potatoes and apples have a natural affinity. Both have an inherent sweetness. But sweet potatoes have a little earthiness that pairs nicely with the tanginess of Granny Smith apples. This side dish becomes a little more complex with a different depth of flavor.
Bake both in the oven to concentrate the natural sugars. Mashed together, the apples help to lighten the texture of the sweet potatoes.
Maple syrup
The complex flavor of maple syrup certainly adds sweetness to the casserole. However, there is a caramel note in the syrup that is particularly well suited for sweet potatoes and apples. There isn't the overly cloying sweetness of sugar in the casserole. The syrup provides what I consider a natural sweetness that pairs well with the other ingredients.
Prep work
It is always a day of marathon cooking. Logistics need to be considered - when will a dish go in the oven and will it fit? This casserole, all of it or steps can be prepared the day before. I generally prepare the whole casserole the day before and take it out of the fridge, 45 minutes or so, before baking. But you can make just the streusel one day before or even days earlier and freeze it until you need it. Bake the apples and sweet potatoes the day before and assemble the casserole on Thanksgiving. You have a lot of options.
Streusel
The first step in making the streusel is browning the butter. This is one of my favorite flavor boosters for recipes. The nuttiness provides complexity to recipes. The only difficult part of browning butter is knowing when to say when. Pull the butter off the stove and pour it into a bowl when it has a golden color and the residue on the bottom is brown. Not dark brown - you may taste some bitterness. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan - the residue is the prize.
It is important to remove the butter from the pan as soon as you take it off the heat. There is carryover cooking and the butter will continue to get darker if left in the pan.
Combine all the dry ingredients - flour, oats, brown sugar, and salt. Add the brown butter and stir until everything is coated. This recipe makes 2 ½ cups, more than you will probably need. Freeze it!
Line the sheet pan
When it is time to bake the sweet potatoes and Granny Smith apples, line the sheet trays with foil or parchment paper. It will save you time when cleaning up!
The sweet potatoes go in the oven for 50 minutes. This is an approximation. It all depends on the size of your sweet potatoes. Also the width - some are long and some are rounder. Give the potatoes a squeeze at the 45-minute mark to assess their doneness and adjust your cooking time. You want them to be soft enough to be mashed.
Cook the apples for 20 minutes. Again this is an approximation. How big is the apple? The apples will start to disintegrate as they bake. You will see the flesh and juice spreading out from the peel. That's fine. Just pour it all into a bowl. I scrape any remaining apple from the peel.
You can bake these when you first start the potatoes or at the end. Makes no difference.
Assembly
Make sure to generously butter your baking dish.
Once you have peeled the sweet potatoes (they stay hot for a while!), add them to the bowl with the apples. Mash everything together. How chunky is up to you. Some people like to have discernable chunks. Others like a finely mashed casserole.
Combine melted butter with maple syrup, salt, pepper, ground nutmeg, and lemon juice. The recipe benefits from just a small amount of acid. Use fresh nutmeg if you can - it can make a big difference.
Add the butter/syrup mix to the sweet potatoes and apples and stir. Spoon the filling into the prepared pan, smoothing it out into the same thickness throughout the pan.
Sprinkle the streusel on top, covering the whole surface. I could eat the streusel by itself (a tasty snack)!
The casserole bakes for 1 hour- 40 minutes covered with foil and the last 20 minutes without. The streusel will be crunchy and brown and the internal temperature should be about 165 degrees. This casserole retains its heat for a while. It can sit for 10-15 minutes while you are finishing other cooking tasks.
A play in textures
Creamy in the middle and crunchy on the top, the Baked Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole is a worthy side dish. It is definitely a traditional favorite in my home and is anticipated every year.
But what part of Thanksgiving dinner is not anticipated? The smell of cooking food that you know will be delicious is one of my favorite childhood memories.
Other Thanksgiving recipes -
https://tenpoundcakecompany.com/classic-sausage-and-herb-stuffing
https://tenpoundcakecompany.com/fall-harvest-salad
Baked Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole
Equipment
- baking dish
- 2 sheet pans
- skillet
Ingredients
Brown Butter and Pecan Streusel
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, browned
- 1 cup all-purpose flour 5 ounces/133 grams
- 1 cup chopped pecans 3.6 ounces/102 grams
- 1 cup oats 3.2 ounces/100 grams
- ½ cup brown sugar 2.5 ounces/68 grams
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Sweet Potatoes and Apples
- 5 sweet potatoes 3 pounds/1330 grams
- 3 Granny Smith apples 1½ pounds/730 grams
- ¼ cup melted butter 4 tablespoons
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
Brown Butter and Pecan Streusel
- Place a full stick of butter (8 tablespoons) in a small skillet. With the heat on medium, let the butter melt. You will see a lot of bubbles and the milk solids will rise to the top. Occasionally scrape the bottom of the pan to see if any of the milk solids are turning brown. Soon the white bubbles will turn into a foam on top of the butter. At this point, the butter should be turning a nutty brown color and a lot of brown residue is on the bottom of the pan. Pour the butter into a container off of the heat along with the brown bits. The color of the butter will continue to get darker because of carryover cooking. Let cool while continuing with the rest of the recipe.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, chopped pecans, oats, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Add the browned butter, stirring until all dry ingredients are coated. Makes 2½ cups.
Baked Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole
- Preheat oven to 375 °.
- Generously butter a baking dish and set it aside.
- Cover the sheet pans with foil. Prick the sweet potato with a fork on all sides, about 8-10 times. The sweet potatoes will leach some liquid as they bake. The foil will prevent them from sticking to the pan. Put in the oven for 50 minutes.
- Core three Granny Smith apples and cut in half. Lay cut side down on the sheet pans. Place in the oven when the sweet potatoes have baked for 30 minutes.
- After 50 minutes take both sheet pans out of the oven. The apples will appear to have almost melted. Remove the peel and remove any cooked flesh that still adheres to it. Place the apple flesh and all that is on the sheet pan into a medium-sized bowl. If there is any juice from the apples, pour that into the bowl as well. The only thing you are not using is the peel.
- When the sweet potatoes have cooled enough to handle them, remove and discard the peel. Put the sweet potato in the same bowl as the apples. Mash together. How chunky is up to you.
- Combine ¼ cup of melted butter, ¼ cup of maple syrup, 1 ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, ½ teaspoon of ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon of ground nutmeg, and ¼ teaspoon of lemon juice.
- Add the butter mixture to the mashed sweet potatoes/apples. Once completely mixed, spoon into the prepared baking dish.
- Crumble the streusel on top of the sweet potato/apple mash. Cover the entire surface. You will probably have streusel leftover. It can be frozen and used at a later time.
- Cover the baking dish with foil. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.
- After 40 minutes, remove the foil and put the baking dish back in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. Make sure the streusel has browned and that the interior of the casserole is 165 degrees. If it is not, put the baking dish back in the oven. Check after 5 minutes to see if the top is brown.
- The casserole can sit for 10-15 minutes before serving. It retains its heat for a while.
Notes
Nutrition
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