Cooking Light's Streuseled Sweet Potato Casserole

As promised, here is the recipe for the sweet potato casserole I've been making for ... oh, it must be around 20 years now. It's been so long that Cooking Light is no longer published (it used to be a fabulous magazine, and I can say that because they paid for one of my recipes once upon a time 😂). For many years after CL went defunct, you could still find their recipes at MyRecipes.com. But the site has changed dramatically and if there's a search engine there, I can't figure it out. So let me immortalize the recipe for my own sake as well as yours, adapted the way I make it. (Note: I'll be back to add pictures after Thanksgiving - the image here is one I was able to salvage from the pin I've still got saved.)

Streuseled Sweet Potato Casserole

adapted from Cooking Light

14 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 5 pounds)

1/2 cup half-and-half

1/2 cup maple syrup, preferably dark

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or 3/4 teaspoon other salt)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 batch of my Easiest Crumble Topping

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13x9 baking dish and set aside.

2. Place the cubed sweet potatoes in a large stockpot and add enough cold water to cover. Cook over high heat until water comes to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook until sweet potatoes are soft. Use a colander and drain the sweet potatoes.

3. Place the sweet potatoes in the rinsed stockpot or a large bowl. Mash the sweet potatoes to the desired consistency. If you want them very smooth, you can use a hand mixer or even a stand mixer.

4. Add the half-and-half, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and egg to the sweet potatoes and mix well. Transfer the sweet potato mixture to the prepared baking dish and spread it out evenly.

5. Top the sweet potatoes with the crumble topping. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the topping has thoroughly browned and the casserole is piping hot.

Notes:

- The casserole can be prepared and frozen for up to one month - cover with plastic wrap and then foil, and take it out to defrost the day before you plan to bake it. Alternatively, the casserole can be prepared, covered with plastic wrap, and refrigerated up to a day in advance.

- This recipe is hard to double because 14 cups of sweet potato is a lot. I don't have a bowl that could hold twice that. However, if you need less than a full recipe, I highly recommend making the full recipe and then dividing them into two 8x8 or 11x7 baking dishes. Bake one now and freeze the other for later.

- The streusel topping in the original recipe calls for 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup cold butter cut into small pieces, and 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Cut the butter into the flour, mix in the sugar, then stir in the pecans. (I don't use this version because to me the flour taste never really cooks out and I never cook with nuts because of allergies.)

- It's a casserole, not a cake, so you have some wiggle room with the cooking time and temperature - important factors when you're using the oven for a lot of other things too. Just make sure the streusel topping doesn't burn and it'll be fine.