Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole

Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole is so creamy & delicious, especially when you add streusel topping. Makes for the perfect holiday dish! It’ll go great with your Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner this year.

The holiday season is coming up real soon and we’re eager to start planning out the spreads for Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner. The main course is always easy to figure out- a big roasted turkey or some nice filet mignon steaks. The sides are where things get interesting: there’s all sorts of savory and sweet fall side dishes to pick from! One of these sweet fall recipes we’ve always been fond of is a tasty, creamy Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole.

There’s plenty of recipes for Sweet Potato Casserole to pick from but these classic, old fashioned recipes always seem to taste the best. You know the ones: Sweet Potato Casserole with marshmallows and some sort of sweet, crumbly topping. If you need a Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe, I have one of those you can consider making too!

When it comes to toppings, we’ve found that an easy streusel topping has worked out the best for us. Of course, there’s a few other directions you could take this- and we outline them down below- but we think sticking as close as you can to this Traditional Sweet Potato Casserole is you’re best bet. We wouldn’t be shocked if this was the Best Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe you can find!

Jump to:

• Why you’ll love this Easy Sweet Potato Casserole recipe
• Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole Ingredients
• How to make Sweet Potato Casserole
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Storage / Freezing
• Top tip
• Other Sweet Potato Recipes
• Other Holiday Side Dish Recipes
• Best Sweet Potato Casserole

Why you’ll love this Easy Sweet Potato Casserole recipe

• When it comes to the holidays, nothing quite beats a good Thanksgiving Sweet Potato Casserole. Even if you’re saving this recipe for Christmas, it’s still got all those tasty late-fall and winter flavors. So creamy, caramel-y, and warm with all those baking spices.
• Making Sweet Potato Casserole from scratch is way better than any sort of frozen Sweet Potato Casserole or Sweet Potato Souffle you can find. Freshly cooked sweet potatoes and toasted marshmallows- it’s hard to freeze that, thaw that, and cook it later and have it taste just as good. If you really want, you can even freeze this casserole recipe yourself and it’ll be better than anything store-bought.
• Above all, this recipe is so easy, simple, and filling. All you have to do is beat together a quick Sweet Potato Casserole filling, top it with some marshmallows and streusel, and let it bake. Low effort, low stress, but tons of flavor and super filling!

Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole Ingredients

The best part about this Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole recipe is the ingredients: you don’t need many and they’re not hard to get. For this tasty casserole recipe, here’s all you need:

• Sweet Potatoes – You’ll ideally want to use fresh sweet potatoes for this casserole recipe. Fresh Sweet Potato Casserole is going to taste way better than anything coming from a can.
• Butter – This comes out to a stick of butter plus a couple tablespoons. You’ll also need some more for greasing a casserole dish.
• Half-and-Half
• Brown Sugar – Brown sugar is going to add in some more of those caramel-y notes that you love to find in fall recipes like this!
• Vanilla Extract
• Spices – We went with a simple 50/50 blend of cinnamon and nutmeg. If you have any on hand, you could try using something like our Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice or Apple Pie Spice instead.
• Mini Marshmallows – These have worked best for us when adding the marshmallow topping to our casserole.
• Flour – Basic all-purpose flour will do the trick here.
• Oats – You can just use some quick oats here. Do not use instant oats.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Sweet Potato Casserole

I think it’s fair to call this Easy Sweet Potato Casserole- it’s really not hard to make at all! To make it yourself, here’s all you’ll need to do:

1. Bake washed and pierced sweet potatoes on foil-lined baking sheet in 400 degree oven for 1 hour. Remove and discard potato skins before placing potatoes in large mixing bowl.
2. Mash or beat potatoes together with 6 tablespoons of butter until creamy. Add vanilla, half-and-half, 1 cup of brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon and nutmeg. Mash or beat together to combine.
3. Transfer potato mixture to buttered casserole dish and sprinkle marshmallows over top. Melt remaining butter and use fork to mix with flour, oats, and the remaining brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg until crumbly. Sprinkle streusel topping over casserole before baking in 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes. Serve warm.

Substitutions

Maybe you’re out of some ingredients or can’t find them at the store- don’t worry. Here are some substitutions you can use for your Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole:

• Sweet Potatoes – As much as we love to use fresh sweet potatoes for a recipe like this, we understand if you can’t get your hands on them. In a pinch, canned sweet potatoes from somewhere like Bruce’s Yams will work. Remember to drain the syrup off before cooking with them and remember that they’re precooked- no need to bake them at 400 degrees for an hour.
• Half-and-Half – We used half-and-half to make our Sweet Potato Casserole filling. Of course, half-and-half is just a mix of whole milk and heavy cream so you can make some quick DIY half-and-half if you have both on hand. Outside of that, you could just use whole milk or something like skim milk or fat-free milk if that’s all you have.
• Mini Marshmallows – Mini Marshmallows are perfect for a Sweet Potato Casserole topping. They brown up and cook through real easy. But, if all you have are larger marshmallows, they’ll work- you’ll just want to cut them into smaller pieces before using as a topping.

Variations

Need some ways to shake our Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Casserole recipe up? Here’s a few ideas you can try:

• Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping – A lot of people love to incorporate pecans into their Sweet Potato Casserole toppings. There’s plenty of ways you can add them in. Omit the marshmallows and add some pecan halves or crushed pecans to the streusel topping to make a pecan crumble topping. Alternatively, you can drop the streusel topping entirely and replace it with crushed pecans or pecan halves.
• Savory Sweet Potato Casserole – Instead of doing the classic dessert-y sweet potato casserole, you can make it more savory. Drop all the sugar and baking spices and use herbs and seasonings like rosemary, sage, paprika, and cayenne. Instead of marshmallows and streusel, top with stuff like toasted walnuts or seasoned breadcrumbs.
• Loaded Sweet Potato Casserole – You can also try adding some tasty goodies into the Sweet Potato Casserole filling. Fold stuff like streusel topping or crushed pecans into the sweet potatoes while you’re prepping the filling. Or you can add half of your sweet potato mixture, add a layer of your extra ingredients, then top with the remaining potato mixture.

Storage / Freezing

Storage: After you’ve cooked and enjoyed your Sweet Potato Casserole, you’ll want to save those leftovers in the fridge. They’ll hold up pretty well too: expect to get a good 4-5 days out of them if you keep them covered or in an airtight container.

Freezing: If you plan on freezing Sweet Potato Casserole, it’s best to freeze it before you cook it- sort of like preparing a Make Ahead Sweet Potato Casserole. Prepare your casserole filling, add it to your greased casserole dish, then put parchment paper over the top of the casserole. Wrap tightly in foil and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months- make sure to thaw in the fridge for 24 hours and let come up to room temperature before continuing the recipe. If you’ve already cooked your casserole and want to freeze the leftovers, wrap tightly with foil and/or plastic wrap and freeze for 3-4 months. The topping will get soggy- no way around that, sorry.

Other Sweet Potato Recipes

Looking for other sweet potato recipes? Try these:

Other Holiday Side Dish Recipes

Here are some additional holiday side dish recipes: