Sweet Potato Casserole (棉花糖甜薯燒)

Sweet potato casserole is a traditional side dish for a hearty Thanksgiving meal. It's nutritious, and quite simple to make! It's sweet and almost dessert-like! In fact, we treat it as a dessert dish and have just about a 3x3 square piece of it after each meal (yes, it took several meals to finish it, as with the turkey).

Did you know 1 sweet potato provides about 400% of Vitamin A you need each day? This helps with protecting your eyes and boosts immune system to fight off germs. Research also show vitamin A is also essential for healthy reproductive system for both men and women, though too much of vitamin A or anything can be counterintuitive. Just as the saying goes "everything in moderation!"

I followed a recipe from My Recipes (https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/traditional-sweet-potato-casserole) and made a few adjustments to the ingredients.

這道 棉花糖甜薯燒 是感恩節的一道傳統配菜. 營養價值高, 而且製作方式很簡單! 甜甜的很像甜點! 其實, 我們根本是把它當甜點吃 每次大概3x3英吋的大小當餐後甜點(沒錯, 跟消耗火雞一樣, 吃了很多餐才吃完)

你知道 一顆甜薯可以提供一天所需的維他命A量 4倍嗎? 可以幫助我們的眼睛維護以及免疫系統來抵抗細菌. 研究也顯示維他命A對於男女的生育系統也很重要, 不過過多的維他命A其實也可以造成反效果. 其實就是那句老話: 甚麼都攝取一些, 但不要過多!

我跟著My Recipes的食譜做這道菜 也做了些材料上的調整.

Here are the ingredients I used / 材料方面 我用了這些:

• About 2lbs of sweet potatoes (I had 3 large and 1 medium sweet potatoes) (大約2磅的甜薯, 我用了3顆大的和1顆中型的)
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar (半杯的黑糖)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt (1.5茶匙的鹽)
• 1/4 cup of unsalted butter (1/4杯的無鹽奶油)
• 1/4 cup of flour (1/4杯的麵粉)
• 1/4 cup of milk (I used 2% milk) (1/4杯的牛奶, 我沒用全脂, 用了2%脂肪含量牛奶)
• A few drops of vanilla extract (幾滴香草精)
• About half a handful of chopped pecans (I wanted to use more but ran out because most got used for making the Pecan Pie) (大約半個手掌大的碎核桃, 其實我想用更多 但家裡沒了因為大多都用在做核桃派上了)
• Mini marshmallows (迷你棉花糖)
• Cooking spray or butter for coating (一些噴霧油 [這不知道中文是怎麼翻]或奶油 只是要裹一層薄薄的油在烤盤上)

The 3-step instructions from My Recipes are super easy to follow. If someone wants to try make it at home, go check out the link above or click here. Or, continue reading and you can try the steps below.  Again, I made some adjustments and the following steps are what I did (became 6 steps 😂):

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil (with sweet potatoes placed in, water should be more than enough to cover the sweet potatoes when you placed them in before cooking). Add 1/2 cup of water after it boil, bring it to a boil again. 

Check sweet potatoes to see if they became tender. If they're tender, take them out and place in a large bowl. If the sweet potatoes are still too hard, reduce heat to a simmer and continue to boil and check every 3-5 minutes until they're tender enough for smashing (can check tenderness by using a fork to poke in the largest sweet potato, if the fork can go in and out of the middle part of the largest sweet potato then it's good to go).

2. Melt butter while still cooking sweet potatoes (I like to place butter in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave it for 15 seconds).

3. Pre-heat oven for 375 degrees. While waiting for the oven, it's time to mash sweet potatoes! You can use a fork or whatever tool you have to mash them. Add all ingredients except mini marshmallows. 

I prefer to mash sweet potatoes first, then add everything else (except marshmallows) in to mix together. Alternatively, you can mix everything together and mash all at once.

4. Pour the mixture into a bake-safe dish that's coated with cooking spray. Alternatively, just grab a butter stick and "draw" on the dish to coat.

5. Top the mixture with a layer of marshmallows. This is a fun step, just pour from the bag haha.

6. Bake in oven at 375 degrees for 10 minutes, just enough to brown the top. Don't leave the dish in the oven for too long as the marshmallows can get burnt. Serve it while it's warm, or after it's been chilled. We prefer to eat this warm. Later, if need to reheat it, we like it better to reheat in the oven rather than using a microwave because the marshmallows melt easily in the microwave (see pics below), though some people like having theirs melted! So that's entirely up to personal preference!

My Recipes網站上的3步驟超級簡單. 如果有人想要試試看, 可以直接去上面的連結 或點這邊. 或者, 也可以繼續這邊讀下去然後試試我自己調整過的步驟 變成雙倍6步驟😂.

1. 煮一鍋滾水(甜薯在鍋裡從沒滾煮到滾水 水的高度應該要高過甜薯). 水滾了之後 再加半杯的水, 再煮到滾.

檢查一下看甜薯有沒有變軟了. 如果夠軟了, 就可以盛出來放到一個碗裡. 如果還太硬, 把爐子溫度降低 繼續煮 大概每3-5分鐘檢查 直到甜薯夠軟到適合做泥的程度 (可以用叉子來叉叉看最大的那塊的中間來檢查軟硬程度 只要叉子能輕鬆進出甜薯就可以了).

2. 煮甜薯的時候, 來融化奶油 (我喜歡把奶油直接微波15秒來融化)

3. 烤箱開始預熱375度. 等烤箱的時候, 來把甜薯壓成泥! 可以用叉子 或任何其他道具 反正壓成泥就是了. 然後加入其他的所有材料 然後攪拌起來 讓他們均勻地融合在一起, 除了棉花糖喔. 棉花糖這邊還不要加. 

4. 把融合好的這坨泥倒入已經裹好油的烤的容器裡. 若不是用cooking spray, 其實也可以直接拿一條奶油然後"像畫畫一樣"塗抹底部跟四壁

5. 鋪一層棉花糖在這坨泥上. 覺得這段滿有趣, 我是棉花糖袋子拿來直接撒在泥上

6. 放入烤箱以375度烤10分鐘, 棉花糖有些微焦就可以囉! 注意別讓烤盤待在烤箱裡太久 因為棉花糖烤太久是可以焦掉的. 拿出來後可以趁熱吃 也可以全涼了再吃, 我們喜歡熱熱的吃. 之後若要加溫的話 烤箱加溫會比較好 因為微波爐很容易就會把棉花糖給溶掉 (請看以下照片), 不過也有些人喜歡棉花糖溶掉 就看個人喜歡怎樣的口感囉.

Reheated by oven, at 300 degrees for 10 minutes

Reheated by microwave, 30 seconds

Hope someone likes this, also wish everyone to have a great December! Thanksgiving just barely went by, and it's already countdowns for X'mas. Colleagues have already started wishing each other Merry Christmas and Happy New Year at the end of a zoom meeting 🎄. And tomorrow...I'll be 34 tomorrow! Boy time flies! Our family planning is about to get real (what kind of foreshadowing is this?) Hahaha!

希望有人會喜歡 也祝大家有個快樂的十二月, 話說感恩節剛走 聖誕節已經快到了. 今天的zoom會議快結束時, 同事間已經開始互相祝福對方聖誕快樂新年快樂了🎅.  而明天..我就要34歲了...時間飛好快! 我們的家庭計畫也快開始了(這算甚麼預告) 哈哈哈

💗 CM