- What's up, party people?

Do you live in a house divided?

And we're not talking about football, we're talking sweet potato casserole.

Praline topping or marshmallow?

Let's settle this debate once and for all.

(jazz music) I'm Trace Barnett, and welcome to "Garden Party".

Today, we're gonna make the ultimate sweet tater casserole that combines the best of both worlds, marshmallow topping and praline topping, split right down the middle, just like the debate is in all households around the South.

To start, you're gonna use three cups of cooked sweet potato.

So I'm gonna let you in on a little secret here, and that's how to perfectly remove the skins of your sweet potato with ease.

Take your sweet potatoes and put them in a large stock pot, cover them with water and bring them to a boil.

You're gonna wanna remove them from the heat and allow them to cool once you can just easily pierce the sweet potato with a knife or a fork.

Take them off the heat, put some cool water in there, and allow them to come to room temperature.

Definitely don't try to peel them when they're hot.

But you can see here, after they cool, it's just the easiest way to remove those skins.

Ditch the vegetable peelers and definitely go for the boil method.

This works for tomatoes too.

It's a really good trick I learned from my grandmothers.

Those sweet potato skins are also perfect for throwing to your chickens or putting in your compost.

This is great for sweet potato pies, sweet potato rolls, anything you're using sweet potatoes for.

And sweet potatoes come in varying sizes.

So we're only actually using two sweet potatoes today to get our three cups.

So now that we've got our skins removed from our sweet potatoes, take a potato masher and just mash those up really well.

Now this is also gonna come when you're boiling them down.

You want them like butter soft, so they just mash super easily.

Now you want to mash those to a certain consistency where there's not any large clumps of sweet potato in there.

(upbeat music) You can also use canned sweet potatoes for this, which will save you the time of boiling them.

But I would suggest using fresh sweet potatoes, just simply because they're brighter in color, and they just, they're fresher.

That taste is really gonna translate into your casserole.

(chickens clucking) So let's start adding our ingredients to our casserole.

So I'm gonna put in one cup of sugar, just regular white granulated sugar, and two eggs, beaten, and I've just slightly beaten my eggs in a bowl beforehand just to get those nice and mixed up.

You also wanna do it just in case one of those bad eggs sneak in.

We've got a teaspoon of vanilla and a cup of butter.

And just for that little bit of flavor, I'm gonna add a pinch of allspice.

I really just love that it has that really good holiday undertone to it.

And then a third of a cup of sweet milk, which is what all the old people call just whole milk.

But you can use sweetened condensed milk here if you want, but just regular whole milk.

Give this a good stir.

And this is gonna be the base for our entire casserole here.

When you're using the fresh sweet potatoes too, they really just have that really good color that we want.

(Trace stirring) If you're using canned, you definitely want to drain all of that liquid off your sweet potatoes too.

Make sure everything's incorporated.

It's almost like making a sweet potato souffle if we just added more eggs.

So you really want to distribute that egg through the sweet potato batter so it really gives it lift when it's baking.

So it looks like our casserole is perfectly mixed and ready to go in a greased cast iron skillet.

Of course, you can cook this in a casserole dish or anything that you have on hand, but I really love a cast iron dish, because it really gives us that good color.

Pull a little bit closer here, I left my Gumby arm in my toolkit.

I like to use a rubber spatula when I'm mixing up my sweet potato casserole, because really helps to incorporate all the ingredients, but it also helps get all that goodness out of the bowl too.

Just smooth your sweet potato casserole out perfectly.

And there's also a debate on Mississippi sweet potatoes versus Alabama, and I hate to throw Alabama under the bus, but I do love a Mississippi sweet potato, especially if fits from Vardaman, Mississippi.

Those sweet potatoes just tend to have less strings than the Alabama sweet potatoes.

I've also tried growing those Vardamans here at home, and they're stringy still.

(gentle music) So now that we've got our sweet potato casserole waiting on us, let's make our praline topping.

So you want a cup of brown sugar.

I'm gonna put in a third a cup of flour and a third a cup melted butter.

Now when you're making this topping, you're gonna think when you're stirring it up, like, what in the world am I doing here, because it looks so dry, but then it'll all come together beautifully.

Last but not least, I'm gonna add just a cup of chopped pecans.

Couldn't be a praline or praline topping without a little pecans.

So just start aggressively just mixing this topping together to where all those ingredients are incorporated and it actually looks like a praline.

So this is gonna really bubble up and get candied and hard on top of the sweet potatoes, and it's so delicious.

Of course, this also sparks the beginning of our debate here and the rivalry between marshmallows or praline topping.

And we're also a house divided, but we found peace by splitting our sweet potato casserole into equal parts of both worlds.

So I'm gonna take my hands here, and this is one of those times that you want to use your hands, because we don't want to just take this whole thing and throw it directly on our sweet potatoes.

You want to break it apart ever so slightly so that it spreads good and even.

And I don't think you can really ever have too much this topping either.

Be sure to go all the way to the edges.

Now comes the classic marshmallows.

My dad wouldn't even eat sweet potato casserole without the marshmallows.

And this is one of those things where you can make this sweet potato casserole up beforehand.

You easily cover it and store it in the refrigerator for a day or two before you need to cook it.

You can put the praline topping on it while it sits in the fridge, but just omit the marshmallows until you put it directly into the oven.

The marshmallows tend to turn gummy and kind of gross and they kind of leak out, so we don't want that on our casserole.

But definitely make it ahead of time and have it waiting, ready to go when the time comes.

Alright, our sweet potato casserole is ready to go.

I'm gonna pop this in a heated 350-degree oven, and I'm gonna cook this 30, 35 minutes.

It's really gonna depend on your oven, also on your casserole dish.

You're gonna know the sweet potato casserole is ready to come out when it's nice and bubbly and ooey gooey and browned on top.

(upbeat music) That's the big question.

So is sweet potato casserole the dessert or the side?

And you know, there are people in my family, I know there's probably in yours too, where they definitely have it as a dessert.

For the most part, our family is one of the ones where we eat it with the meal, which is what I do too.

I love that savory/sweet combination on the plate, and it's just so perfect.

A bite of turkey and dip it in to the sweet potato casserole.

After holidays, there seem to be a ton of leftovers, so we'll make pressed sandwiches with all the leftovers, and that little smear of sweet potato on some french bread on a sandwich with your leftover turkey and ham, perfect.

(gentle music) Our sweet potato casserole is out of the oven and it's ooey gooey and bubbly, and to me, there's no debate.

I like the best of both worlds, so I'm gonna scoop the perfect bite, get all that good sweet tater out under there, that good crunchy praline topping, and then those marshmallows that are almost just like a campfire.

Hot and bubbly, praline versus marshmallows no more.

(Trace eating) Mm, that bite had that perfect praline crust with the pecans, and then you get that ooey gooey marshmallow with that smoky flavor as they toast on top.

I just couldn't be a better dish.

Sweet tater casserole.

The debate's settled, just do both.

(jazz music) I'm gonna settle the sweet potato debate.

What is it, say it again.

- [Speaker] Sweet potato casserole.

- Oh, it leaves my head immediately after.

So maybe all I can do, I leave my body.

Marshmallows or praline, praline topping.

And I'm not got, hadn't got it yet.

I'm gonna wash my hands.

Are the birds too loud?

Our new birds?

Really hard to do when you're filming.

I'm gonna (beep).

(jazz music) Huh.

(people chattering) (jazz music) Mm, mm mm mm, y'all, go ahead and get you a plate.

(jazz music) Mm.

♪ Do do do do doo do ♪ What am I doing?

(jazz music)