Cinnamon Pecan Sweet Potatoes

This year for Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law asked if I would be willing to make a sweet potato dish. I said I would be more than happy to, but was a little apprehensive because I had never in my life cooked a sweet potato. In fact, I don't even like sweet potatoes. Not one tiny bit. I think they are gross. Period.

Thankfully, she gave me a recipe to work with from allrecipes.com (one of my personal favorite sites for recipes). I jumped in to sweet potato prep with both feet, making a couple of slight modifications to the recipe as I went (doubling the recipe, adding more flour to the topping for a different consistency, using whipping cream, etc.). I have to say, I gladly ate sweet potatoes this year, because with this recipe, they turned out to be delicious, even to me! Click here for the original recipe from Heather at allrecipes.com!

• 10 sweet potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 6-7 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans

1. Fill a large pot with water and heat to boiling.

2. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into cubes. Boil sweet potato cubes until just tender.

3. While sweet potatoes cook, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a large glass casserole dish (I used a 10x14 inch dish).

4. Once potatoes are tender enough to be pierced with a fork, remove from heat and rain thoroughly.

5. In a large bowl, mash sweet potatoes. Add salt, 1/2 cup butter, eggs, vanilla extract, cinnamon, white sugar, and whipping cream to sweet potatoes and mix well to combine.

6. Transfer mixture to the greased baking dish.

7. In a medium bowl, combine 1/2 cup butter, flour, brown sugar, and chopped pecans to make the topping for the sweet potato mixture. Mix with a pastry blender or fork until the consistency resembles course meal.

8. Sprinkle evenly over the sweet potato mixture.

9. Bake for about 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the topping is crisp and lightly browned.