Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

These Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes taste like a classic sweet potato casserole but it’s such a fun new way to serve it as individually stuffed boats instead. They have just enough sweet and rich flavor, they have a great blend of textures, and the trio of layering will leave everyone impressed! 

Individual Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Baking sweet potatoes twice takes a little more time, but is well worth the effort. Orange flesh sweet potatoes are baked until nicely tender, then they are hollowed out into boat-like shapes. From there, the sweet potato filling is mashed and blended with butter, cream, maple syrup, and a hint of spices.

Once perfectly combined, return the mashed sweet potatoes to the skins, cover them with a pecan streusel topping, and bake until it’s satisfyingly crisp. And last but not least they are finished with melty, broiled, and beautiful browned mini marshmallows.

Such a treat to enjoy year-round, not just on Thanksgiving! Is this dessert or a Thanksgiving side dish? You decide.

These are made with a medium sweetness to them but you can easily adjust it to taste by drizzling in more maple syrup as you mix.

As a side note to clarify (because I always get questions on this) yes you will be using sweet potatoes here, not yams. So much confusion around this labelling but you can see the differences here.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes Recipe Ingredients

• 5 medium (12 oz each) sweet potatoes
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter (well softened), plus 3 Tbsp unsalted butter (melted)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup, or more to taste
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt, then more to taste
• 1/2 cup (56 g) chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp (39 g) light brown sugar
• 1 cup mini marshmallows

How to Make Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

1. Heat oven, prepare baking sheet: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed 18 by 13-inch baking sheet with a sheet of aluminum foil.
2. Bake sweet potatoes until tender: Pierce each sweet potatoes several times with a fork. Place them on prepared baking sheet and bake until soft, about 50 to 70 minutes.
3. Remove potatoes from oven and let cool slightly. Leave oven on at 375 degrees.
4. Prepare the streusel topping: Meanwhile make the topping. In a medium mixing bowl whisk together pecans, flour, brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Pour in 3 Tbsp melted butter then stir with a fork until evenly moistened.
5. Scoop out sweet potato flesh: Slice each sweet potato in half through the length. Scoop out the flesh of 9 of the halves into a large mixing bowl while leaving about a 1/4-inch rim of sweet potato around each. Spoon out all of the flesh of the last sweet potato (no need to leave a rim) into the bowl (discard the last skin).
6. Place the 9 hallowed-out sweet potato skins on a foil-lined baking sheet.
7. Mash or rice the sweet potatoes: Pass sweet potato flesh through a potato ricer or food mill if you want them completely smooth, otherwise just mash well with a potato masher.
8. Add flavorings: Add the softened butter, heavy cream, maple syrup, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir to blend well and add a little more salt (up to 1/4 tsp) as desired.
9. Fill sweet potato skins with mashed sweet potatoes: Spoon the mashed sweet potato mixture back into the 9 hallowed out sweet potato skins and spread even.
10. Top with streusel, bake: Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over each sweet potato. Return to oven and bake 10 to 15 minutes until topping is crisp and golden brown.
11. Remove from the oven then move the oven rack up about 6 inches from the broiler.
12. Add marshmallows then broil: Sprinkle the marshmallows evenly over the potatoes (you may have to press slightly so they don’t roll off). Heat the broiler, then place the baking sheet with the potatoes under broiler and keep there very briefly until marshmallows are golden brown – this may only take about 10 seconds (or up to 1 minute) so don’t walk away!
13. Serve them warm.

How to Make Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes in Advance

If you want, you can definitely prepare these ahead of time. To do so:

1. Bake then mash the potatoes, mix with flavorings and return to their skins. Cover and refrigerate.
2. Make the streusel and refrigerate separately.
3. Bake them 10 minutes at 375 covered with foil, then uncover, add the topping and bake about 10 to 15 minutes longer (they should be fully heated through).
4. Finish with marshmallows as directed.

Helpful Tips

• Use sweet potatoes that are similar in size so they finish baking about the same time.
• Try to find potatoes that are about 12 oz each, because once split in half they make for nice individual servings at 6 oz each.
• If you want a smoother mashed sweet potato filling then pass the baked filling through a ricer or food mill or even blitz in a food processor.
• Don’t walk away when broiling! This is standard to pretty much any recipe when broiling but especially here. These little marshmallows could burn unbelievably fast if not removed quickly.
• Wait to bake the stuffed potatoes until you are almost ready to serve them so they’ll be warm. They definitely taste best warm.

Possible Baked Sweet Potatoes Variations

• Use walnuts in place of pecans.
• If you only have salted butter it will work just reduce the salt in the recipe to 1/4 tsp.
• Increase the sweetness in the mashed sweet potatoes as desired (by adding more maple syrup or brown sugar).
• Add 1 tsp vanilla for more sweet flavor.
• Try with other autumn spices like ginger, allspice, cardamom or cloves.
• Rather than toasting marshmallows in the oven you can toast them with a kitchen torch.
• Or finish with a homemade marshmallow topping (like that used here). Pipe over the tops once they’re complete (rather than using mini marshmallows) then toast with a kitchen torch.

More Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes

• Baked Mac and Cheese
• Corn Casserole
• Green Bean Casserole
• Mashed Potatoes
• Stuffing

Print Recipe

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Servings: 9

Prep30 minutes minutes

Cook1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Ready in: 1 hour hour 40 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 5 medium (12 oz each) sweet potatoes
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, well softened
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup, or more to taste
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt, then more to taste

Streusel Topping

• 1/2 cup (56 g) chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp (39 g) light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup mini marshmallows

Instructions

• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed 18 by 13-inch baking sheet with a sheet of aluminum foil.
• Pierce each sweet potatoes several times with a fork. Place them on prepared baking sheet and bake until soft, about 50 to 70 minutes.
• Remove potatoes from oven and let cool slightly. Leave oven on at 375 degrees.
• Meanwhile make the topping. In a medium mixing bowl whisk together pecans, flour, brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Pour in 3 Tbsp melted butter then stir with a fork until evenly moistened.
• Slice each sweet potato in half through the length. Scoop out the flesh of 9 of the halves into a large mixing bowl while leaving about a 1/4-inch rim of sweet potato around each. Scoop out all of the flesh of the last sweet potato (no need to leave a rim) into the bowl (discard the last skin).
• Place the 9 hallowed out sweet potato skins on a foil lined baking sheet.
• Pass sweet potato flesh through a potato ricer or food mill if you want them completely smooth, otherwise just mash well with a potato masher.
• Add the softened butter, heavy cream, maple syrup, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir to blend well and then taste and add a little more maple syrup or salt if desired.
• Spoon the mashed sweet potato mixture back into the 9 hallowed out sweet potato skins and spread even.
• Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over each sweet potato. Return to oven and bake 10 to 15 minutes until topping is crisp and golden brown.
• Remove from the oven then move the oven rack up about 6 inches from the broiler.
• Sprinkle the marshmallows evenly over the potatoes (you may have to press slightly so they don't roll off). Heat the broiler then place the baking sheet with the potatoes under broiler and keep there very briefly until marshmallows are golden brown - this may only take about 10 seconds (or up to 1 minute) so don't walk away!
• Remove from oven and serve while the twice baked sweet potatoes are warm.

Notes

Alternatively you can toast the marshmallows with a kitchen torch, just be very careful as they can ignite quite easily and need to be blown out quickly.

Nutrition Facts

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Amount Per Serving

Calories 372 Calories from Fat 144

% Daily Value*

Fat 16g25%

Saturated Fat 8g50%

Trans Fat 1g

Polyunsaturated Fat 2g

Monounsaturated Fat 6g

Cholesterol 32mg11%

Sodium 247mg11%

Potassium 692mg20%

Carbohydrates 55g18%

Fiber 6g25%

Sugar 18g20%

Protein 4g8%

Vitamin A 27186IU544%

Vitamin C 5mg6%

Calcium 79mg8%

Iron 2mg11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutrition values are estimates only. See full disclaimer here.

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Author: Jaclyn