Hold onto your Thanksgiving hats, I have a real treat for you today! This side dish is bound to become the next red-carpet star at your holiday table. It’s roasted and slightly sweet. Perfectly fall-spiced. Topped with generous amounts of buttery, cinnamon-y, pecan & oat filled streusel bites. Can be made ahead. AND, it can be altered to be gluten and refined-sugar free, if necessary. Do I have your attention now? I thought so. Let me introduce you to my beloved Maple Pecan Sweet Potato Streusel.
I LOVE everything about the Thanksgiving meal. From the brined turkey (because PLEASE brine your turkey, friends…it’s just so. much. better. that way!), to the apple and sage stuffing and gravy to the pies and Maple Pecan Sweet Potato Streusel…GAHHHH! Can Thanksgiving just be every day?!
How It All Began…
This Maple Pecan Sweet Potato Streusel started out on my Thanksgiving table many years ago and has morphed over time, just like the majority of my cooking skills.
Making The Sweet Potato Mixture
What started out as just mashed, roasted sweet potatoes topped with butter and maple syrup has become a legendary side dish around here.
That Streusel Topping
Ahhhh, streusel. Those chunky, buttery bits of pecans, cinnamon and oats bake up into crunchy goodness atop this dish. Streusel is what my holiday dreams (and every day dreams) are made from. Yours should be, too.
The streusel bites that top this unbelievable side dish are filled with butter, cinnamon, pecans, oats and maple syrup. Then we generously place blob-fulls on top of the roasted sweet potato mixture. Once it’s baked, it’s quite possibly the best side dish you’ll EVER taste.
Wait. Did I just say “blob-fulls?” Is that even a word?
Actually, it’s 2020. Anything goes. Blob-fulls it is.
If you want to get real crazy, go ahead and double the streusel part of the recipe below and layer this dish up for something extraordinary. One half of the sweet potato mixture + 1/2 of the streusel blob-fulls, then the remaining sweet potato mixture and the remaining streusel bites will knock this dish out of the ball park. We typically don’t make it that way, but I have on occasion and it’s a sincere knock-out.
The VERY BEST Side Dish
As the years have gone by, I reflect on those first Thanksgiving dinners I hosted in my little galley kitchen over a decade ago. I am so thankful for the culinary skills I’ve learned over the years. These years have helped me not only become a much better cook, but a much better host. I now know how to time things well so we’re not eating at 10 p.m. (ooops!), prepare dishes ahead and enjoy the time with my family! This Maple Pecan Sweet Potato Streusel will be a dish that helps you do just that!
If you’re still looking for fall recipe inspiration, be sure to check out:
- Spiced Pumpkin Bars with Brown Butter Frosting
- Spiced Apple Hand Pies with Maple Butter Drizzle
- Candied Roasted Sweet Beet Salad
- Bacon Pecan Pie Squares
- Indian-Spiced Butternut Squash Soup
Be sure to follow me over on Pinterest, too, if you haven’t already! It’s a great way to keep up on all of the recipes I post here.
Happy Thanksgiving friends!
Until next time…Eat Well. Travel Often. Love Much.
XOXO
Maple Pecan Sweet Potato Streusel
Delicious roasted sweet potatoes are swirled with real maple syrup and all the Fall spices, then generously topped with a buttery, cinnamon-y, pecan-oat streusel. Go ahead and double the streusel if you wish, you can never have too many crunchy bits on top! An absolutely divine side dish!
Ingredients
- Sweet Potato Filling:
- 4 medium to large sweet potatoes (about 4 lbs. total)
- 2 tsp. real vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (make sure it's fresh!)
- 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup salted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 2 eggs
- Streusel Topping:
- HINT: double this part if you plan to make it a layered side dish
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour OR Cup-4-Cup Gluten Free Flour substitute
- 1/2 cup brown sugar OR coconut sugar
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 8 T. cold, salted butter, diced
- 3/4 cup pecans, chopped and divided
- 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
Directions
- Step 1 Oven to 400 F. Pierce the washed sweet potatoes with a few holes (to allow steam to escape) and place on a baking sheet in the oven for about 1 hour or until the sweet potatoes are done and tender.
- Step 2 Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven when they are done roasting. Slice them in half lengthwise and allow to cool.
- Step 3 Reduce the oven temperature to 350 F.
- Step 4 Make the streusel topping: Combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. Using a fork or mashing tool, add the 8 T. of diced, cold salted butter and mix in the butter until the butter pieces are about the size of peas and you no longer have big pieces throughout the mixture.
- Step 5 Add the maple syrup, 1/2 cup of the chopped pecans and the old fashioned oats to the streusel topping mixture. Mix to combine. NOTE: As the butter warms up while working with it, it will become more of a dough-like mixture, do not worry. We will put spoonfuls on top of the sweet potatoes so it will even out.
- Step 6 Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop all of the potato out of the skin and place in a separate large mixing bowl.
- Step 7 Add the maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, heavy cream, melted butter and eggs to the sweet potatoes and thoroughly mix until it’s all combined. NOTE: I like using a potato mashing tool to get all the lumps and bumps out, but it doesn’t have to be super smooth like in mashed potatoes, just somewhat smooth and the other ingredients combined.
- Step 8 Spray or butter a 9 x 13 baking or roasting dish (or one of a fairly similar size). Spread the sweet potato mixture out into the prepared dish.
- Step 9 Using a spoon, dot rounded teaspoon-fulls of the streusel mixture evenly on top of the sweet potato mixture. NOTE: If you are going to layer this as I discussed in the post above, you will spread 1/2 of the sweet potato mixture in the prepared pan then top with 1/2 of the streusel mixture. Then repeat with remaining sweet potato mixture and streusel mixture. (Doubling it and layering it will take it next level, for sure!)
- Step 10 Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add the remaining 1/4 cup of chopped pecans to the top and bake an additional 10-15 minutes, checking to make sure the pecans do not burn.
- Step 11 Remove from the oven and serve warm. It is also absolutely, insanely delicious cold right from the refrigerator for breakfast in the morning. I know it sounds weird, but just trust me on this one!
- Step 12 Enjoy!
