Old-Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole

By Marian Burros

Updated April 29, 2026

  • Craig Lee for The New York Times
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
2 hours
Rating
4(3,590)
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This version of the classic Thanksgiving side dish forgoes the traditional marshmallow topping for a generous sprinkle of brown sugar, butter and pecans. You get crunchy, soft and sweet all in one glorious bite.

Featured in: On Thanksgiving, What's a Chef to Do?

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings

  • 4 medium-large sweet potatoes (about 3 pounds)

  • 6 tablespoons brown sugar

  • ¼ cup orange juice

  • ¼ cup heavy cream or whole milk

  • 3 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • ½ teaspoon salt

FOR THE TOPPING

  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened slightly

  • ½ cup dark brown sugar

  • ¾ cup chopped pecans

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

52 grams carbs; 33 milligrams cholesterol; 390 calories; 8 grams monosaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 20 grams fat; 6 grams fiber; 247 milligrams sodium; 4 grams protein; 24 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    To make the casserole, heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake sweet potatoes until very tender, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Remove and let cool. Reduce heat to 350 degrees.

  2. Step 2

    When potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in half, scoop out flesh and mash until smooth. You should have about 4 cups. Using a hand mixer, mix in brown sugar, orange juice, heavy cream, butter, vanilla and salt. Place in a casserole dish.

  3. Step 3

    To make the topping, combine the butter, brown sugar and pecans. Sprinkle over sweet potato mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
3,590 user ratings
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Comments

mk

How far ahead can you bake the sweet potatoes? Thank you!

SpomerE

Can this be made ahead of time?

Bea

Why all the sugar? There is sugar in the orange juice and sweet potatoes are already sweet. I am going to make this without added sugar in the main part of the dish and half the amount of sugar recommended for the topping. Has anyone tried that yet?

Mary B

This is delicious! This was my first time making sweet potato casserole, and I was nervous about such an iconic dish. Everyone loved it and asked what the secret was. I added a pinch of paprika, but otherwise made it exactly per the recipe.

kyle

I used an 8x8 casserole pan and thought it worked well. We cooked per the recipe except we didn’t have OJ, so we doubled the heavy cream. It tasted great. Yes, lots of brown sugar…but this isn’t a dish we’ll have all the time and we served with a main and other side dishes so we spread out the calories!

kes

I absolutely love sweet potatoes and have cooked them every way imaginable. This might be my favorite recipe. Somebody drank the last of the orange juice that I bought for this recipe so I substituted about the only thing I had which was sugar free ginger ale. I also roasted the sweet potatoes 1h 30m instead of 1h 20m. They were beautifully carmelizing.

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