With Thanksgiving just two weeks away, it’s time to start formulating a plan for a great day and a delicious, successful meal. This year, my family is hosting 16 guests, a departure from our normal routine of traveling to different relatives’ houses for the holiday. I’m really looking forward to serving Thanksgiving dinner in my own dining room, and roping my kids into helping out with the preparation. We’ll do typical Southern fare: two turkeys, (one fried and one brined and roasted), pan gravy, old-fashioned cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, scalloped oysters, fresh green beans with almonds and lemon peel, squash casserole, yeast rolls and several desserts.
My favorite dish as a kid (not including dessert) was always the sweet potatoes. It must have been the marshmallow topping. Similarly, my kids feel like a sticky topping of toasted marshmallows is essential to holiday yams, and they’d be pretty peeved if I left it out. So I happily embrace it with this recipe of sweet potato soufflé in orange cups. But I do like to keep the sugar in the mashed sweet potatoes to a minimum. Fresh local sweet potatoes don’t need a lot of tampering anyway.
Here’s how:
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Sweet Potato Soufflé in Orange Cups
Servings: 12
12 medium sweet potatoes, roasted, cooled and flesh removed
6 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
¼ cup maple syrup or brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
6 fresh navel oranges, sliced in half, flesh neatly removed and reserved for another use
Mini-marshmallows or Pecan Crunch (recipe below) for topping
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, add the cooked sweet potatoes (preferably still warm) and the next five ingredients. Blend with a mixer on low until just smooth. Do not overbeat. Fill each orange cup with the sweet potato mixture and top with mini marshmallows or Pecan Crunch.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until thoroughly heated and slightly brown on top.
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Pecan Crunch
½ stick unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup Louisiana pecans, coarsely chopped
Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl, blending carefully to incorporate the butter. Spoon the mixture on top of each stuffed orange cup, covering carefully.
Maggie Heyn Richardson is a regular 225 contributor and the creator of Spatula Diaries. Reach her at hungryforlouisiana.com.