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Who doesn’t love a sweet and savory treat that can double as a dessert?? That is exactly what homemade sweet potato casserole with homemade mini-marshmallows and cinnamon pecan streusel gives you!

Homemade Sweet Potato Casserole has always been my favorite thanksgiving dinner side dish! This casserole gives that southern comfort / nostalgic feeling that many of us crave around the holiday season.

The Best Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe

A neighbor of mine brought over a bunch of fresh sweet potatoes for me recently so I decided to whip up my favorite easy sweet potato casserole recipe to share with you!

This sweet potato casserole takes a traditional family recipe and tweaks it just a little bit with homemade marshmallows and a homemade cinnamon streusel topping.

Ingredients:

4-5 Sweet Potatoes
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Cinnamon
¼ cup Brown sugar
1 Egg
¼ cup Butter
1 cup Marshmallows (Homemade Recipe)
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Streusel Topping (Homemade Recipe)

**Note: If you are making homemade marshmallows, make them ahead of time as they take a few hours to set up.

Directions:

STEP 1- Peel and Slice

Use a peeler or a paring knife to remove the skin from the potatoes. You don’t have to peel the sweet potatoes, but it makes for a much better casserole texture if you do.

Slice the potatoes into medallions. This will help them to boil through much more quickly than whole sweet potatoes and they will be easier to mash.

Raw peeled sweet potatoes cut into medallions

Use the leftover peel and end pieces for compost or as a treat for your livestock.

STEP 2- Cook the Sweet Potatoes

Boil the potato medallions in a large pot of water on the stove top. This should only take about 30 minutes if you sliced the potatoes. Use a fork to check for tenderness.

You could also bake the potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees F for about an hour. The peels slide right off using this method.

STEP 3- Mash or Puree

Drain the potatoes and move them to a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer bowl.

Use a potato masher or a fork to mash the sweet potatoes. You could also use a blender, food processor, electric hand mixer, or stand mixer for this step.

Just be sure to add enough water to keep the mixture moving if you choose a blender or food processor.

STEP 4- Cream Sweet Potato Mixture

Cream the mashed sweet potatoes together with the vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, egg, brown sugar, and melted butter.

STEP 5- Add to Casserole Dish

Pour or spoon the sweet potato mixture into a 2-quart casserole dish or a cast iron skillet. Smooth over the top with a spoon.

sweet potato casserole mix in a white casserole dish

STEP 6- Bake

Bake at 350 degree F for 20 minutes to heat the sweet potatoes through. Make your homemade cinnamon pecan streusel topping during this time (see recipe).

STEP 7- Add Marshmallow Topping

After baking, sprinkle homemade mini-marshmallows across the top of the sweet potato casserole. *My homemade marshmallows are made with the natural sweetness of maple syrup.

sprinkling homemade marshmallows on top of sweet potato casserole

STEP 8- Add the Cinnamon Streusel Topping

Make a simple Cinnamon, Pecan, and Brown Sugar Streusel for a crunchy topping.. Use it to evenly top the marshmallows. *See this recipe for topping ingredients.

STEP 9- Finish Baking

Bake for another 15 minutes to toast the topping. Keep an eye on it to make sure the marshmallows turn a golden brown, but don’t burn.

Make Ahead Sweet Potato Casserole

You can make this traditional sweet potato casserole ahead of time to reduce stress on baking day. Do steps 1-5 and put the casserole in the fridge instead of baking.

Take it out of the refrigerator 20-30 minutes before you bake because cold sweet potatoes take much longer to reheat than room temperature potatoes. Pop it in the oven.

You can make the homemade marshmallows and cinnamon streusel ahead of time as well, just don’t add them to the casserole until you get to step 7 on baking day.