Monday, since I was off for President’s Day, I decided to make what I’d call an elaborate meal for the husband.  The meal consisted of the following: BBQ’d short ribs, Broccoli in a homemade three cheese sauce, and the star of the meal, Maple, Pecan Mashed Potatoes. 

Usually, we bake our mashed potatoes with some cinnamon, nutmeg and butter or we’d make Parmesan mashed sweet potatoes, which are yummy.  I figured it was time for something new because sometimes my taste buds get bored with the same old things.

I found the recipe for the mashed sweet potatoes on Epicurious.com. By the way, I love that site thanks to my sister, Shani! I didn’t have any lemon juice, so I used orange juice instead. I figured that’d be fine since it’s still an acid. I think next time I will whip the sweet potatoes with heavy cream; super fatty, I know.  Heavy cream makes everything tastes better.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans (about 2 ounces)
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

  • 5 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), peeled, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix sugar, pecans and butter in small bowl. Cover and chill until ready to use. (Can be made up to 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.)
Butter 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Cook sweet potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until very tender, about 12 minutes. Drain. Let stand in colander 15 minutes. I used my Vitamix to purée the sweet potatoes.
I used my KitchenAid stand mixer to beat eggs, syrup, vanilla, lemon juice (or orange juice) and salt in large bowl. Mix in puréed sweet potatoes. Transfer sweet potato mixture to prepared dish. Sprinkle pecan topping evenly over mixture.
Bake until sweet potato mixture is set and topping bubbles, about 1 hour. Let stand 15 minutes and serve.

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