Sweet Potatoes - Ruth's Chris Style

I used to despise sweet potatoes until last year when my sister-in-law Kim gave me a recipe that changed my mind. The only other time I have enjoyed sweet potatoes is when we go to Ruth's Chris steak house for special occasions and John orders them. I always give him a little flack and say, "You ordered sweet potatoes (imagine a 13 year old girl's voice with a lot of attitude)?! It's not Thanksgiving." But guess who always ends up licking the plate...me.

So this year when I stumbled across THE Ruth's Chris recipe I was torn. Why try something new when I knew how good Kim's recipe was? Then as I looked at the recipes closer I realized they were exactly the same except for Kim's had a little milk in them which I left out last year anyway because my potatoes were already looking a little on the wet side.

These are so good and are the only way to go as far as sweet potatoes go. They're creamy with a brown sugar pecan crust. These could easily be dessert maybe even with a scoop of ice cream. You can make these up to a couple of days in advance and then bake the crust for 10 minutes before serving.

Just boil, bake, or even microwave your sweet potatoes.

Cream them together with some eggs, sugar, and butter.

Top with a brown sugar pecan crust...yum.

Ruth's Chris Sweet Potatoes
(Printable Recipe)
Source: Ruth's Chris and Kimi

Crust:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup butter, melted

Combine brown sugar, flour, nuts and butter in mixing bowl. Set aside.

Sweet Potato Mixture
3 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
(splash of milk if needed)

Note: To cook sweet potatoes first wash and dry them carefully then you can either: 1) Bake them at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes 2) Boil them for 30 minutes or 3) Pierce them with a fork and microwave them for about 15-20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a medium-size casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and butter in a large mixing bowl in the order listed. Beat thoroughly with a hand mixer for about 3-4 minutes to increase the fluffiness of the sweet potato mixture. Add a splash of milk if needed and mix.

Pour mixture into the baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes. At this point, dish can be covered and refrigerated for a couple of days.

Sprinkle the surface of the sweet potato mixture evenly with the crust mixture and return to oven for 10 minutes. Allow to set at least 30 minutes before serving.
The brown sugar and pecan crust should be slightly browned and crunchy. Makes 12 servings.