Mashed Sweet Potatoes Brulee are seasoned with with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg topped with a caramelized brown sugar crust.
Mashed Sweet Potatoes Brulee
Sweet potatoes are a must for Thanksgiving and this dish will be a hit on your Holiday table. It’s easy to assemble a day ahead so it’s ready to pop in the oven on Thanksgiving day. Serve it alongside your turkey, Chicken Sausage and Herb Stuffing and Cranberry Pear Sauce, a must!
With Thanksgiving around the corner, I’ve been testing so many Thanksgiving recipes from side dishes to leftovers these past few weeks. This is one we made a few years back that we all loved! It’s the dish that finally turned me into a sweet potato fan and is always on my holiday table. Previously I only enjoyed them as sweet potato fries, or in a sweet potato pie, but now I love them so many ways.
Variations and Tips
- To make it dairy free swap the butter and milk out for vegan butter or coconut oil and nut milk.
- If your dish can’t go under the broiler, a brulee torch can be used to caramelize the sugar instead.
Make Ahead Tips
To prepare ahead, make the mashed sweet potatoes the day before, then re-heat them before topping with sugar and broiling. Once you broil them, you’ll want to serve them right away. If you are bringing them to someone’s house, don’t add the brown sugar topping until you are ready to serve.
More Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes
- Easy Cranberry Pear Sauce
- Chicken Sausage and Herb Stuffing
- Maple Glazed Butternut and Brussels Sprouts
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
- Spinach Gratin
Mashed Sweet Potatoes Brulee
Ingredients
- 5 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and boiled until soft (6 cups cooked)
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
- 3 tbsp whipped butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup unpacked light brown sugar
Instructions
- When the potatoes are cooked and soft, combine them with milk, butter, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl and mash or puree until smooth.
- Spoon into a 9 x 9 or 11 x 7-inch baking dish. Bake at 350 covered, until heated through, about 20 minutes. If making ahead, and baking from the refrigerator, add more time as needed until the center is hot.
- Preheat the broiler.
- Sprinkle 1/2 cup brown sugar evenly over top.
- Broil about 6 inches from the flame until the sugar melts and becomes caramelized, careful not to burn. About 2 to 3 minutes.
- Let it stand until the melted sugar hardens (about 5 minutes).
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Photo credit: Erin Alvarez
Delicious. A huge Thanksgiving Day hit! I cooked and mashed the potatoes the day before then refrigerated and finished them in the morning. Fantastic.
I’ll try this but I’d bake my sweet potatoes and then scoop out from the skins after they’re cooked. Roasting yields do much more flavor than boiling IMO.
This was absolutely delicious! But I don’t understand your listed calories – 5.5 pounds of sweet potatoes alone would be more than the 1400 calories you have listed for the whole dish. And then once you add in everything else it would be way above. Any insight?
Can you make this ahead and freeze and would you cook at 350 and then freeze and do the topping the day of once defrosted or freeze before cooking at 350 and then freeze?
I love this at Thanksgiving. I add some chopped pecans to the sugar crust on top. Yum!
Omg!!! Made these for Thanksgiving and they were a huge hit!!! My FIL can always tell when something is “healthy” but he raved about these and even came over today to see if he could take some additional leftovers home!!!
Awesome!!
LOVED this. I’m the only one who eats sweet potatoes (small family), so I roasted a sweet potato last night, then assembled and baked it today. I used a French onion soup bowl (oven-safe). I did “wing: the spices since it was just one potato, but it came out great! This is my new go-to sweet potato recipe for Thanksgiving. Thanks!
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Silly question but if using slow cooker method cook sweet potatoes whole in skin wrapped in aluminum foil in the slow cooker then after cooked remove from the skin and add the rest of ingredients Per recipe and put into a dish and use my blow torch for the Brulé part? Trying to free up oven/stove space. Thanks.
Good thinking –
it’s an excellent idea – I’m going to try it your way. My only concern is if you still use aluminum foil for cooking – the metal seeps through and is absorbed by the food.
Does this need to be served immediately after broiling or can it be more like room temperature? I usually like to be out of the kitchen with my guests before we sit down to eat and don’t want to worry about remembering to put it in the oven – or take it out!
Does anyone know approximately how many people this serves? I am going to make it for thanksgiving and we have about 27 people so I have to figure out my math. 🙂
This makes 14 servings.
Are you going to recalibrate your ww points for the new purple plan?
Yes, I am working on it. 🙂
GINA when baking in the oven before broiling the dish what is the temperature in the oven. It’s not listed.
I came here with the same question! I’m guessing 350….We’ll see…
Anyone confirm the baking temp yet?
350
Did 350 degrees work out? I’m making it now! Thanks.
350
What’s the oven temperature for step 2?
When making mashed sweet potatoes, boil them in their skins, let cool on a rack and the skins slide off with ease. Mash and finish your recipe!
HI, I just have a stupid question. Is it 5 sweet potatoes 1/2 lb each or 5 and 1/2 lb sweet potatoes?
5 1/2 lbs
Is there a way to make this in the slow cooker – wanting to make this for my company’s pot luck.
Sure you can keep it warm but to get the brulee on top in the slow cooker you would have to use a torch.
Silly question but if using slow cooker method cook sweet potatoes whole in skin wrapped in aluminum foil in the slow cooker then after cooked remove from the skin and add the rest of ingredients Per recipe and put into a dish and use my blow torch for the Brulé part? Trying to free up oven/stove space. Thanks.
Can the sweet potatoes be cooked in the slow cooker? I usually use your recipe for it.
Sure
If I make the sweet potatoes ahead of time and assemble them the next day, can I mix everything and bake in oven until warm and then do brown sugar broiling part right before serving?
Any tips/direction?
Thank you!
Yes, prep everything then bake until heated through, adding the sugar just before serving.
I made these last year and they were a bit runny. I'm assuming just add less milk?
Also, it was hard to get the crust right – some parts where melted while others were burning – does anyone have any tips? I placed the oven on Broil and had it in the middle rack. The sugar was sprinkled pretty evenly as well.
Alisa – I know this was a year ago, but in case anyone else has this question, I thought I’d chime in. I have a little kitchen torch that would be great for filling in any non-crisped sections. They’re under $20 and I use mine for creme brulee mostly, but sometimes we just sprinkle sugar on banana slices and crisp that up.
It’s possible the broil function on your oven isn’t even.
This post for sweet potato brulee might be 3 years old – but I made this today and it was a total hit with everyone! I boil my SP whole then peeled, mashed with the ingredients, gave it a quick run under the broiler and made a 45 min trip to Aunt's house.. they were perfect!
Looks good, but when I calculate the calories I get 200 per serving dividing the recipe by 14. Are you sure your calculation is right?
If I make ahead, the next day when I bake them how long should I cook for and what temperature? thanks
I made this recipe using 5.5 lbs of sweet potato. There is no way that it would have all fit into a 9×9 or 11×7 dish. Flavour was amazing and nobody could believe that it wasn’t loaded with calories. The volume made me think that it should have been five sweet potatoes at 1/2 lbs each.
Browsing your site for Thanksgiving recipes. This looks awesome. Thinking of making potatoes in the crock pot. This way I can assemble just before the turkey is done, then pop this in the broiler for a cpl minutes. Always a challenge trying to getting everything done at the same time.
This is very good, I found just a slight bit too much milk so add slowly….
This was a hit! I made this yesterday but as a mistake used butternut squash (precut from TJ's) rather than sweet potatoes. Everyone still raved about it and I thought it tasted really good. I think as long as you have the brulee, it's all good!
Gina, I agree, this is the best sweet potato casserole ever. I baked my potatoes, then peeled and mashed. Only had fat free milk in the house, but it worked just fine. The brulee topping sets this one apart. My extended family loved it. Thanks for another great recipe!
I made it! I always feel so proud when I actually make a recipe I saved. I baked the sweet potatoes which helped the flavor I think. I found that the potatoes peeled easier after I let them cool a bit. I made the potatoes the night before and served them at a Thanksgiving potluck. Will be making again for our actual thanksgiving =D
i made this with almond milk and it was even sweeter. great recipe!!!
I love sweet potatoes with marshmallows. I actually add a little orange juice with all of the above ingredients. Gives it a little citrusy tang.
Has anyone ever cooked/baked with soy milk? I was wondering if I sub. soy for the cow's milk, called for, if it would be ok?
Looks yummy and so easy!! Definitely want try this very soon!! I have some sweet potatoes on hand right now!! I absolutely love your site! I've been sharing with friends & strangers!! lol…Keep on posting low-fat, low-calories recipes!
I usually make Joanna Lund's version called Maple Sweet Potato bake where you slice canned sweet potatoes (18 Ounce size) and in a bowl mix log cabin maple syrup (I use Trader Joes agave and maple syrup blend, 2 tablespoon Splenda 3 tablepoons chopped Pecans and 2 tablespoons light margarine. THis recipe also sounded good so I am going to try it.
Had this for dinner tonight and it tasted wonderful. I will have to make again because I royally messed up the potato cooking process. I tried to bake and scoop them out instead of boiling. Shouldn't have done it. My potatoes where lumpy. But still tasted delicious.
I find peeling, cutting into chunks then steaming makes them taste better without being watery from boiling.
I made this for the family tonight! Very good and much lower in points then my traditional sweet potato casserole. Thanks!
I'm so happy I found a great tasting alternative to the typical high calorie dish found at every Thanksgiving dinner each year. This was just as good! I think I'll volunteer to make this every year instead of skipping out like I usually do. Sweet potatoes are so sweet naturally so they really don't need all of that sugar. 🙂
Also blogged about it here (with another recipe from your site!):
http://mrsgaeul.com/2012/01/06/lazy-wednesday-meal-chicken-and-white-bean-enchiladas-with-creamy-salsa-verde/
Thanks!
I'm a lazy cook. Any chance you can use canned yams so you won't need to peel, chop or cook the potatoes?
My favorite dish at Thanksgiving, and now I'm making it for our Christams dinner as well.
I made this tonight, and it was loved by the entire family! My 6 yr old boy had THREE helpings!! We had it alongside sautéed brussel sprouts and roast chicken.
I made this and the pumpkin pie dip for Thanksgiving and both were BIG hits! All of the men at the table said they didn't like sweet potatoes before we ate, but all said this recipe was awesome!
Thank you so much for all that you do, I'm finally enjoying cooking and I'm obsessed with this site =)
Made this for Thanksgiving with my extended family – and EVERYONE raved! No one even suspected that they were *gasp* healthy!! Thanks Gina!
Tried these last night & they were AMAZING! The crunchy brulee top was so fun and new. The only change I made was to roast the sweet potatoes rather than boil them. I feel like it brings out their natural sugars better, but it can be messy!
So glad everyone liked them!
This was my favorite dish from Thanksgiving – we used a propane torch on the brown sugar topping just to show off a little bit! Thanks Gina!
These are awesome! (I'm just sayin….if you haven't heard…HA!) just made for Thanksgiving and hubby…inlaws….nieces & nephews loved 'em! I put the SP in rammicans (about 2" deep) instead of the baking dish, so everyone had their own individual SP! Keep up the great work!
Gina, I made this today for Thanksgiving and made a couple of changes, used very little butter (didn't have any in the house) and used skim milk because that's what I had. I roasted te sweet potatoes rather than boil and then added some vanilla and orange extracts, a couple tables spoons of sugar free syrup, and some cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice Used a hand mixer to whip them and then topped with the brown sugar. Everyone raved. They were amazing and I will certainly make them again and again! 🙂 Thank you for a great webstie!
Low or high shouldn't matter.
When you put it to broil should the oven be on high or low???
Thank you MeganB & Gina for answering my question! 🙂 CAN'T WAIT to make this!!!!
Thank you!! You too!!
I would reheat the potatoes on the stove adding a touch of milk if it seems dry, then pour it into the casserole dish and proceed as directed.
Hi Gina! I am a Follow-The-Recipe-To-A-T sort of cook, so I apologize if this is a silly question!
I plan on making the sweet potato portion the night before. So I'm wondering… how long, and at what temp, should I plan to bake the sweet potatoes before adding the brown sugar and broiling?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hi Gina,
I wanted to let you know that I absolutely LOVE your website. A good friend told me about your recipes and since I am trying out a healthier lifestyle I thought I give it a try. I have made several of them now and each one has been delicious! My family loves the meals I have been making. Thank you so much! I can't wait to try this one out for Thanksgiving. We love sweet potatoes. Thank you once again and Happy Thanksgiving!
In the US mainland, yams are sweet potatoes. In other parts of the world, a yam is a different tuber (see Wikipedia). I prefer brulee made under the broiler but have always used white granulated sugar. I would assume that would work as well here and might solve some folks melting problems. The white sugar caramelizes under the broiler or the, ugh, torch.
Made this recipe for a Thanksgiving potluck. So good & so many compliments!! Thanks
Laurie, you have to do it pretty quickly so it doesn't melt.
I bet this would be great with butternut squash.
Laura, any milk would work.
Emily, you could use yams too!
Ok, so do you really use sweet potatoes or do you use yams? The sweet potatoes that you get around here are always so…white, they are never orange like that…so I usually will use a yam.
Has anyone tried of adding some raisins? I thought that sounded good. Maybe even golden raisins, but I wasn't sure how I could add them so they would be plump and juicy! any ideas? 🙂
Can you use unsweetened soy/almond milk to make it without milk
Could you substitute butternut squash for the sweet potatoes?
This was delicious! I halved the recipe and put them into small ramekins that were individual servings.
Amazing. We had an early thanksgiving today and I made these – delicious and a huge hit even for a ew that don't like sweet potatoes. Made the cranberry sauce too which was delish.
Hi Gena,
What I'm I doing wrong. I could not get the brown sugar to harden. I tried the broiler method and then my daughter used her culinary torch and still it wouldn't crisp up.The potatoes were yummy though.
Splenda brown sugar should work, but I've never tried caramelizing them so not sure if it will work like sugar.
I think it would freeze ok as leftovers.
The broiler won't heat it so if you plan on making it the night before, you'll want to put it in the microwave or oven before broiling.
Does the broiler get them hot enough inside? If you make them the day before would you reheat in microwave before adding sugar and broiling?
Is this something you could freeze?
These were AMAZING!! They almost taste like candy. 🙂 So good.
Gina,
Can you use Splenda brown sugar? I love this because its sweeter than brown sugar and I use less of it but I was wondering if it would still brown on top?
Darlene B
I made this last night and it was YUMMY! (even though I messed it up). I steamed my sweet potatoes in the microwave and they ended up being a bit dry, so I will try the boiling method next time.
This looks so good. I am going to try it.
I made this recipe as soon as I saw it on the website. Hands down one of the most delicious things I have made. Tastes just like pumpkin pie and feels a little like you are having dessert with your meal! Thanks so much for posting it
That sounds awesome! Great idea, Gina! I also love sweet potatoes with spicy barbecued pork dishes. Sweet and spicy seem to complement each other so well. I have often had sweet potato fries with crock pot barbecue. Do you think this would make a good side for spicy pork chops? I'm one of those people that eats turkey on Thanksgiving and sometimes Christmas, but that's it (other than deli turkey of course.) Please let me know if you have some other main course meat dishes you think it would work with.
The only way I've ever enjoyed sweet potatoes is with lots and lots of sugar in a sweet potato pie or sweet potato casserole. I really want to like sweet potatoes because they're so good for you…you know, when you don't add a cup or so of sugar.
I made these tonight. YUM! Dh and I both loved them! I'll definitely be making this again.
So glad you all liked it.
If you make this before you get there, it will still taste good, but the brown sugar melts on top, it won't have a crispy topping.
This is a side dish you eat with turkey.
Made this tonight so delicious! Thank you!
is this a desert?? or do you eat this with the turkey???
Yum, this was delicious! Loved the crunch of sugar on top!
looks delicious!
I made this tonight along aide your pork chops and apple sauce. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Even my husband to doesn't love pork or sweet potatoes loved it! You're my hero!
Help! This looks fabulous! But as a not very experienced cook, what happens if you do add the sugar before a half hour car ride? I am thinking about taking these over to my mother-in-laws for Thanksgiving, but I wouldn't be able to cook the top when I get there. Thanks to anyone who replies…
We made these the other night for a dinner party of 4. Instead of cooking the whole thing, we did individual ramekins and torched the sugar just before serving. They were delicious, but the brown sugar actually *burned* – as in blue flames that I had to blow out! Instead of the attractive caramelized sugar look, I had charred brown sugar. I may use turbinado next time; never had that one catch fire!
Note: Even the scorched sugar tasted fine; it was just the presentation that suffered.
You can use sweet potatoes or yams, whatever you prefer. They look alike, sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. The darker-skinned variety often called "yam" in error has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a vivid orange, sweet flesh. Yams are sweeter and would be wonderful. The whiter sweet potato isn't as sweet, you probably don't want to use that for this recipe.
This only broils for 2 minutes, I had no issues with it in the oven. You could use a cooking torch instead, although I think that's more work.
I have the same question Patti has above regarding which ones to really use: sweet potatoes or yams?? Confused since the yams are more orange-like and the sweet potatoes are more white-like. Help please! Thank you, Gina!
Gina,
This looks amazing! I am a very eclectic cook with training on Polish/Irish/Italian/Southern cooking. I am trying out for the show MasterChef on 11/19/2011 so I will definitely be keeping your recipes in my back pocket to bring good low fat cooking to the forefront! Thanks Gina!
Ok I have a question. I have seen yams and sweet potatoes. And when I bought the sweet potatoes the inside is less orange than the yams. So which one do you use. Because I heard yams are really sweet potatoes just different name. Which ones are which. I noticed the sweet potatoes have a purple peel and the yams were a little more on the brown/orange side. So again which ones do you use.
I'd make this if I wasn't orange at the moment.
Gina what brand of light butter do you like? I tend not to like ones that taste like margarine. Thanks 🙂
Question – what is the best bake-ware to broil with? I was reading online that you should not place glass under a broiler…do you think corningware would work, or should I look for a different type before the big day?
Oh my. That looks absolutely wonderful! And the nutritional info is too good to be true. 🙂 Thank you for sharing this!
Is there another way to get the brown sugar browned instead of broiling? This looks fantastic!
I stumbled across your site via drooling on Pinterest and I am completely in love with your cooking! I started WW at the beginning of the year and stalled out over the summer because I was bored with what to make for dinner. NOT ANYMORE!!! Thanks for all your delicious food and fantastic photography of it. I come here everyday for eye candy!!
I've been making these for 30 years. This was my mother in law's best recipe, and I get requests to make these every year! (Of course yours are a tad lighter!!!)
The other addition that I never leave out, is drained, crushed pineapple! MMMmmmm, i'm salivating just now I can almost taste them!
Awesome idea! Love the way it is a lot lighter than many (most) of the THanksgiving side dish options around
bookmarking this one for sure!
I love sweet potatoes, there is always a dish at Thanksgiving on my table!
Hot Dam, this looks good! Bookmarked!!!
Beware of Microwaving food! You are ZAPPING the NUTRIENTS right out of it, the very things you are trying to use in your body.
These sounds so yummy!
I live in Japan with no orange sweet potatoes:( I think I will definitely try canned. I usually boil and slice the potatoes and pour brown sugar, butter, etc on them and bake them but this sounds good too!
Looks like you are winning the shape contest! Good luck!!!
I like pecans on top of anything!
Bananas, that's different! I can see that being good though!
Beth, I'm sure it all tasted good together!
You could use canned potatoes, but I think fresh would taste so much better!
Has anyone tried this with an actual cooking torch? My hubby just got one and LOVES to use it so this could be a good role for him for T-giving…
Hey Gina,
Can you use canned sweet potatoes?
Jenna
I LOVE that you can make this ahead. Pretty perfect for Thanksgiving!
I am so going to make this! It looks delicious. I wish I was having it tonight!
These look so YUMMY… I'm going to make them for Thanksgiving 🙂
Fantastic idea burlee-ing the top!
I'm making this tonight and my son and husband have an end of the season baseball party to go to during dinner. So….it's for leftovers tomorrow for them. I sure hope it microwaves well tomorrow for them. It won't be the same I'm sure but that's ok! I'm serving it with some grilled chicken and an arugula, goat cheese, toasted walnut salad. ha that really doesn't all go together but I don't care!
This looks fantastic!! I bet my kids will even eat this! Thank you for all these great recipes! You help to make cooking so fun!
I've been dreading the holiday season, but this recipe gives me hope! Can't wait to try it
I can be a bit of a purist, but we take mashed sweet potatoes, add NOTHING to the puree. Put it in a baking dish and top it with sliced bananas. Competely natural. No sugar except what is naturally found in the sweet potatoes and bananas. If you broil the top, it'll brown up and bit. It is always a hit with my family!
I have made a recipe similar to this for years and love it. Here in the deep south of Louisiana for a little added flavor we add chopped fresh pecans on top. So much better than that marshmallow stuff.
Can't wait to try this skinnier version!
Such a great idea! I love the marshmallow topping but brulee sounds like a fun change of pace.
that looks soooo good. can't wait to try it.
fabulous idea to spice things up
Oh my goodness. I have to try this and I have to try this now!
I love this idea as an alternative to sweet potatoes with marshmallows which as much as I try, I just can't seem to like. Going to try it out this week.
How did you know I have TONS of sweet potatoes from my CSA???
My sister last night made mashed sweet potatoes by peeling and roasting them. I'll have to tell her about this brulee recipe. 🙂
I should add that I hate the taste of microwaved white potatoes but find the SP is perfect!
I eat SP all the time, but never boil them. I pierce them with a fork and throw in the microwave for 4-6 minutes depending on the size. The skin peels away in one or two pieces once its sliced and its ready to mash with a fork. I am pretty excited to try this recipe at Christmas, as Canadian Thxgiving has passed already.
Looks delicious! I'd probably throw some marshmallows on top lol
Then it's just like an ordinary "candied yam" nothing new there.
OMG!! Yum!
Yes, boil them like you would make mashed potatoes.
YAY! First to leave a comment 🙂 These look delicious! How do you cook them until they are soft? Boil them in water?
Boil them if you have to – but they retain the most flavor if baked. Throw them in with the turkey – or let them cook overnight in a low oven. You can even cook them the day before.
Best way to cook them is to steam them!
Best way to cook them is to steam them!