I don't care for it either, but the one time I made it years ago I added cranberries and oats. They helped cut the sweetness factor.

Yeah, but with dad, there is no point in cutting the sweetness factor. He wants the sweetness factor. I just can't even figure out the texture issues with the marshmallow topping, let alone how that melds with the brown sugar, and pineapple and sweet potatoes. Maybe it needs spices??

My husband hates sweet potatoes so they are never on the table at Thanksgiving.

What I did--I looked instructions up in my 1976 Better Homes & Garden cookbook. Here is what they say:

Cut 6 medium sweet potatoes, cooked and peeled, in 1/2" slices. Layer potatoes in buttered 1.5 qt casserole with 3/4 c. brown sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 c. butter, ending with sugar and butter. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees about 30 minutes or till glazed. Add 1/2 c up miniature marshmallows last 5 minutes; brown lightly. Serves 6.

Hope this helps!!

I don't get it either, but there was an old auntie in the family who made it, so I've seen it. Toast brown mini-marshmallows forming a blanket on top. I'm guessing it's one of those 20th C. accommodations make with packaged goods like cornflakes on top of a casserole or potato chips in one. Since there are absolutely no packaged goods needed to make a good sweet potato casserole, publishing a recipe that calls for an ingredient made in a factory makes people buy your goods. Like that food dye company who boosted sales by publishing a recipe for red velvet cake where you use a whole bottle of dye to make it really really red. Since these sweet potatoes are invariably very sweet, maybe the marshmallows are supposed to be a pie-like topping in place of meringue?

I've just looked at a bunch of recipes on the 'net. Yes, you're supposed to mash. The only ones that didn't used canned sweet potatoes and a few large marshmallows rather than the blanket of little ones. The butter is for greasing the dish. Mash everything else together and top with the marshmallows.

I have to second this. My parents and my husband's Dad are gone and his mother might as well be, since she has Altzheimer's and is in a memory care unit. The recipe from Beachlily is spot on. We always used dark brown sugar. It can be cut in half very easy. Do use the fresh potatoes and then use the rest for a less sweet dish. This is what I always do. I also don't care for the marshmellows, but other do. (I also don't like the GBC green-bean-casserole).

Listen folks, let me gently remind you that I just lost my own mother nine months ago when she suddenly died one day when she hit her head in a fall while unloading groceries. I just found today the Valentine's cards she got for dad and I on her last shopping trip and never got to give us. I cried and cried. Nobody knows better than me how precious one's parents are and the time spent with one. If you think I am not missing her like crazy, guess again! So your gentle reminders to me that someday my parents will be gone and I will wish I had them back ring a little hollow to say the least!

Every holiday I would make something my mother liked that my dad hated so she never would make it just for herself, like the creamed onions I made for her last Christmas. Last year she was still alive on Thanksgiving, I made her mincemeat cookies (she was the only one who liked mincemeat), and apple cake and I still have half a jar of unused mincemeat in the fridge. I too would dearly love to make something for her too this year. And that is exactly why I am going to make the casserole with the marshmallows on it for my dad. I have no regrets, I treasured my parents while they were alive. But that ain't gonna make me LIKE the super sweet casserole . . . or mincemeat . . . or creamed onions! I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to figure out a recipe. Geeze.

I am sorry about your mother, but we had no way of knowing she was gone. To me and others it sounded like you didn't want to cook it. This is going to be a really hard set of holidays for you and I really am sorry. I have done this four times now and it never get any easier. I don't like the super sweet dishes either. My husband likes the sweet potato casserole with butter, sugar, milk, vanilla and topped with brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and pecans! I can eat it, but it tastes like desert.( I do like creamed onions.) Again, I am really sorry about your mother.

It's OK Sherry, I don't mind making it, I just don't want to EAT it and since I don't care for it I'm having a hard time figuring out how to make it taste good. Your recipe sounds like something my dad would really like!

Please forgive me if you felt offense to my post. I really didn't intend to offend. But like Sherry, it came across that you really didn't want to make it. I hope you do attempt to make it for him and I'm really sorry about your mom. You don't have to eat or like it.

Yeah, I would just make a small dish of the sweet potatoes for your Dad using that recipe that beachlily posted. So many people just love that dish. It ought to be a dessert really. I don't care for it but if I were fixing food for a crowd, I would definitely include it in the mix.

The last taste bud to go in old age is the sweet one, for many elderly, that is all they can really taste and enjoy. I recently found this out, as my dad loves sweet things and won't eat many things unless I put sugar on them. This has always bothered me, but now I know why and as he is on hospice now, I make nearly everything sugary.

There are a few things he still enjoys without sugar, like a fried egg in butter, but not much else. I put sugar on his vegetables, meat, pasta...

I just finished making the sweet potato casserole you are talking about. I peeled and cut 3 lbs of sweet potatoes. Then I cooked them in the microwave. I put them in a glass baking dish with a little water and covered with plastic and each time took about 6 minutes. So I did that 3 times because 3 lbs is a lot. Then I mashed them all with my potato masher. Then I softened a stick of butter and added it and about 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. I added 2 eggs and 1/4 cup half and half and used my mixer to beat it all together. I put all of it in a big glass baking dish and now tomorrow I will bake it in the oven with the mini marshmallows on top! I tasted the potatoes before I added the eggs and boy it tasted really good. Oh I forgot I also put in 1 tsp of vanilla. It tastes almost like pumpkin pie. I made this for the first time because the children requested it!

Joann

L, I've done it both ways, sliced and mashed. The sweet potatoes cook up soft enough that it's a toss up and will be fine either way.

I also use the recipe that Beachlily posted, because that way I can at least scrape the goo off the slices and eat those. Now, however, I've started making two separate dishes, one for those who like the sweet stuff and one for Elery and I and mother, who do not. So, we have 4 that like the sweet stuff, 3 that don't and 4 more that won't eat sweet potatoes in any form. I'm trying to sway Madi and Maci over to my side, but I think their Mom and Aunt Amanda is winning them over with the marshmallows, unfortunately.

I know you miss your Mom horribly. Hugs to you my dear friend, and to your Dad too.

Annie

Yes, I make sweet everything for my dad now too. If I hadn't wanted to make the dish I wouldn't have posted on CF asking for help on how to make it. It is just hard for me to figure out what makes it good or not. The way I like sweet potatoes is baked or roasted or in a gratin. I cook all kinds of food now that I don't like, so dad will have some home cooked foods around.

I've never had it or made it...no real reason other than it was never on either of our families holiday menu.

I do like to please as i find it never a bother if someone has a memorable dish they want...i just make a smaller casserole of that dish. I always have a can or two of an organic squash and pumpkin for pup stomach problems, so i could easily make a can and top with marshmallows. Sounds easy enough. Maybe the appeal is the toasted top? I will enjoy maybe one burnt mm if the kids have them at a bonfire. Or the appeal is just the sweet? Taste buds do change over time and medications can screw with taste buds...

I say give him what he likes and make a sliced and baked version for you. It will still give some leftovers.

All these so called traditional recipes really don't go back that far...the late 50's.

Even the history of marshmallows ...the canned soups....they needed recipes to go with 'cream of mushroom soup'...then magazines came out to push canned goods...my mothers generation with 4 kids and both of them worked.

Condolences, pinkmountain, it's especially difficult because parents are so central to the holidays.

Like you, I loathe "sweet" sweet potatoes, However, as my relative REALLY must have it, I've just roasted his potato along with the rest, dug out the flesh, mixed in brown sugar, butter and pecans and put in back in the shell. Then, topped with marshmallows, it goes in the oven to brown. To gild the lily, he pours maple syrup on top. It's very little extra work involved and everyone's happy.

I have my candied sweet potatoes in the oven right now. I do not put marshmallows on top, but if someone wanted them that way I would. Most of us like candied sweet potatoes. My husband will be able to eat them if I then mash them up. He does not care for the casserole. We like it but not as well as the candied. My husband had his second stroke almost a year ago and since then he can only eat very mashed up food. I have to carry his meals to him each day as he can not go up and down our stairs. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Sue

That marshmallow sweet potato dish is always made with canned sweet potatoes! They are sweet too. The combination is enough to set your teeth on edge!

I won't condemn the basic idea - it's nice to have some contrasting tastes on the table. The turkey, potatoes and gravy are fairly bland.

So having a tart cranberry sauce or saurkruat and something sweet, though not necessarily that sweet, makes for a more satisfying meal.

At least for us.

Happy Thanksgiving

OK so I think I am going with roasted and "smashed" sweet potatoes, mixed with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar and maybe some pineapple, and I may throw in the dregs of some vanilla yogurt I have in the fridge, topped with nuts and marshmallows and then baked. I have had "candied" sweet potatoes before, which to me is chunks of sweet potatoes in a sugar syrup sauce. I get that. What I didn't get is how the marshmallows fit in to the mix! I'll make a small casserole and hopefully dad can enjoy some of the leftovers. I'll just eat the plain roasted sweet potatoes, that's how I like them.

I like baked sweet potatoes much better than microwaved (probably because of the flavor of the caramelized sugar in the potatoes that only comes with long roasting). For the casserole, I start with baked sweet potatoes, mashed, then add vanilla and cinnamon. I think adding brown sugar is overkill, but I'd do it for your dad, if he wants that much sweetness. I'd skip the butter, eggs, and nuts, too, but the pineapple sounds like a tasty addition. Basically, it's just a mashed potato dish, not a souffle. When the casserole is nearly done in the oven, I add the marshmallows. If you're not experienced with this, LPink, be sure to watch them carefully at this point. You just want them to get toasty-brown. A few seconds too long, and they will be spilling over the edge of the pan and onto the floor of your oven. (Sad experience taught me this, a few years ago.) I think it's great that you are doing so much to make your dad happy with his comfort foods, and I'm so sorry for the loss of your mom.

My camera memory card died so I can't take pictures right now. But the sweet potato dish was a hit. Here's how I ended up making it. Didn't use an egg, and the vanilla yogurt was moldy so didn't use that., it would have been unnecessary anyway. I scrubbed four sweet potatoes, and put them in a 9 inch metal pan with a little bit of water in the bottom, and baked them at 400 degrees for just under an hour. Then I peeled them and diced them up and mixed them with about a half cup of crushed pineapple, 2 TBLSP of melted butter and 2 TBLSP of brown sugar and a heaping half tsp. of cinnamon and a tiny pinch of salt. Mixed and mashed this all together and put it into a greased 8 inch pyrex baking dish. Topped with mini marshmallows mixed with chopped walnuts, two big hand fulls. Took this to dad's house covered in foil. Baked at 375 covered for about 35 min. and then uncovered for about 10 more.

I have to say I kinda liked it and the marshmallows went well with the toasted nuts. They didn't add much other than color and texture to the top, but that was not necessarily a bad thing. It was totally a dessert though, but since I just had ham and rice pilaf and salad to round out the meal, it was fine, not too sweet under those circumstances.

L, Happy Thanksgiving to you and to your Dad. I think that casserole would make a perfectly fine dessert in lieu of pumpkin pie for the season.

That said, we're having the marshmallow topped casserole as well as a fruit salad with whipped cream and cream cheese, which is very dessert like also. Then, of course, we'll have dessert. (grin)

Annie

Sounds good, L! I hope your dad liked it.

It sounds delicious!!! Glad you all enjoyed it!!

Does sound good! I'm wondering why pumpkin pie does not have a marshmallow topping? It does seem more like a dessert.

@Annie...lol

My nephew must have the sweet fruit jello thing every year.

I never thought marshmallows were all that sweet, maybe they are, never checked. I always thought they were more for looks, like snow on top.

Sue

Laurie, I'm so glad that this worked out for you i.e. making something special for your dad. I constantly regret things I did or didn't do for my mom and now it's too late for "do-overs" so as you have learned...do it while you can.

Mustang, speaking as a mom, I'm sure yours would not want you to dwell on those regrets. Rejoice in the things you DID do and how much pleasure it gave both of you.

Thanks Nanny, I really need that thought occasionally. She was a wonderful mom of 5 who held 2 jobs. At age 44 she got run over by a semi-truck and was invilid until age 73. I cared for her most of that time.