Brown Butter Sweet Potato Casserole

By kayjayjohnson

Ingredients

• 5 lbs sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup salted butter, diced into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• Topping
• 2 1/4 cups crushed corn flakes (begin with about 5 cups and crush to about 2 1/4 cups)
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (I used pre-chopped pecan chips to save time)
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup salted butter, diced into 1-inch pieces
• 3 cups miniature marshmallows

Details

Adapted from cookingclassy.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pierce each sweet potato several times with a fork and transfer to a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake about 1 hour, or until very tender when pierced with a fork. Meanwhile brown 1/2 cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally (for stages of browning butter see notes below).

Remove potatoes from oven and reduce oven temperature to 350. Cut each in half and scoop out flesh into a large mixing bowl. Mash potatoes with a potato masher. Pour in 1/2 cup browned butter, using a rubber spatula to scrape excess butter from pan, add granulated sugar, 1/4 cup light-brown sugar and salt then using an electric hand mixer set on low speed, blend together until well combine. Add in eggs and mix until well blended, then pour in milk and mix until well blended. Pour mixture into a buttered 13 x 9 baking dish and spread into an even layer.

Brown remaining 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan. Pour crushed cornflakes into a mixing bowl, along with chopped pecans and 1/4 cup light-brown sugar and mix to combine. Pour browned butter over mixture and toss to evenly coat. Spread mixture into diagonal rows over mashed sweet potato mixture leaving about a 1 1/2-inch gap between rows. Bake in preheated oven (350 degrees) for 30 minutes, then remove from oven and spread marshmallows between rows of corn flake topping. Return to oven and bake until marshmallows are lightly golden about 8 - 12 minutes (I didn't brown mine much because I like the contrast of color between the white of the marshmallow and golden brown of the corn flake topping). Serve warm. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.

Stages of browning butter: butter will first melt, it will become lemony yellow and after a minute or two it will begin to splatter a bit, then it will foam and begin to smell nutty, then little brown specks will begin to appear in the center of the golden foamy bubbles - this is when you remove it from heat. I wait just a few seconds for a generous amount of specs maybe a 2-inch circle before removing from heat. Color wise it should go from a yellow, to golden tan, to an orange-y toasty golden brown. I personally like to push it to the limit before removing from heat to get a really nice browned flavor, be sure you don't take it off too early while also not waiting too long.

Note that if you are making this in advance to refrigerate then bake the following day, don't add the corn flake topping until baking or it will become stale. Also I'd recommend placing cold casserole in cool oven and let it preheat with oven.