Creamy Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Posted: 10/20/22
Updated: 12/11/24
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Rich, cheesy, and super creamy scalloped sweet potatoes are unbelievably delicious. Thin slices of sweet potatoes are smothered in a thick garlic herb cream sauce seasoned with fresh thyme and topped with bubbly, melty parmesan cheese. This is one holiday casserole your family won’t be able to get enough of.
🍠 What Makes This Recipe So Good
- Tired of the same old sweet potato dishes made with brown sugar and cinnamon and topped with an ooey gooey marshmallow topping that always makes you feel like your veggies are more dessert than side dish? You’re in luck! This amazing scalloped sweet potato dish pairs tender sweet potatoes with a garlicky cream sauce and a topping of golden, melty parmesan cheese. While there’s a natural sweetness from the potatoes themselves, it’s complimented beautifully by the rich savory sauce.
- It’s a simple side dish that’s super easy to make. Since it’s a casserole-esque dish, it does take a little bit of time in the oven, but you can easily move on to prepping other holiday dishes while it bakes. When you come back, voila! A gorgeous, tasty sweet potato showstopper, all ready to serve.
🥔 What’s the Difference Between Scalloped Potatoes and Au Gratin Potatoes?
A lot of people use the names interchangeably, but they’re actually different dishes. And technically… these are more au gratin sweet potatoes than scalloped sweet potatoes.
Traditional scalloped potato recipes don’t include cheese, relying instead on the potatoes and the cream sauce to know you off your feet. Without that top layer of cheese, the edges of the potatoes show through in the final dish, giving you that classic “scalloped” appearance. More modern versions of the dish have started incorporating cheese, though, which is why we didn’t shy away from using it in our recipe.
Au gratin potatoes traditionally do include cheese. In fact, the cheese is usually sprinkled through the layers of potatoes AND added on top for good measure. Also, the potatoes themselves are usually slicer a little thinner. It’s also not uncommon to see an au gratin potato dish topped with breadcrumbs or crumbled crackers or something with a little crunch.
🥘 Chef’s Tips
- The thicker the potatoes, the longer the bake time. Also, if you cut your potato rounds really unevenly, they’ll cook at different speeds, which means you might end up with both over-done and under-done potatoes in the same dish. I recommend using a mandoline slicer if possible as it’ll keep the potatoes thin and completely even way better than a sharp knife would. Just be really careful with a mandoline – no one needs to lose a fingertip around the holidays.
- Enhance your scalloped sweet potatoes absolutely any way you like! Use more or different fresh herbs. Add a little gruyere and sprinkle on a little chopped bacon or diced ham right before baking. For really over-the-top creamy potatoes in every bite, wait to arrange the potatoes in the baking dish until after you’ve prepared the sauce. Add the sauce and the potato slices to a large bowl and stir or toss to coat, then arrange everything in the baking dish and top the potatoes with the remaining sauce.
More Sweet Potato Recipes You’ll Love
- Hasselback Sweet Potatoes
- Air Fryer Sweet Potatoes
- Sweet Potato Waffles
- Frozen Sweet Potato Fries in the Air Fryer
- Sweet Potato Soufflé
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Creamy Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Thinly sliced sweet potatoes smothered with a creamy garlic herb sauce and topped with melty, bubbly parmesan.
servings
Ingredients
- 3 pounds sweet potatoes peeled, sliced into uniform ⅛-inch thick discs
- ½ cup butter
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour see Notes
- 2 ½ cups heavy cream at or close to room temperature
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- ½ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper more or less to taste
- ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese see Notes
- sprigs of fresh thyme optional, for garnish
Equipment
- Paper towels
- Cooking spray
- 9×13 baking dish
- Small saucepan
- whisk
- Aluminum foil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit. Lightly grease 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.
- Separate sweet potato slices and pat slices completely dry with paper towels. Arrange sweet potato slices as desired (see Notes) in lightly greased baking dish. Set dish aside.
- Heat small saucepan over medium heat. When saucepan is warm, add butter and let melt completely, swirling saucepan occasionally to coat bottom in butter.
- When butter is melted, add minced garlic and sauté 1 to 2 minutes or until garlic is fragrant.
- Sprinkle ¼ cup all-purpose flour over top of garlic butter mixture. Whisk quickly until flour is fully incorporated, and continue whisking 2 to 3 minutes or until roux develops golden brown coloring.
- Remove saucepan from heat and slowly pour in heavy cream. Whisk to incorporate, then return saucepan to heat and continue whisking until heavy cream and roux are fully combined. Reduce heat under saucepan to low and simmer cream mixture approximately 5 minutes or until thickened.
- Once cream sauce has thickened, remove saucepan from heat. Add chopped thyme, salt, and pepper and whisk until spices are fully incorporated.
- Pour cream sauce evenly over top of sweet potato arrangement in baking dish, then cover dish with aluminum foil.
- Cover potatoes with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove foil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese all over top. Bake for another for 10 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbly. Insert fork into center of sweet potatoes – potatoes are ready when fork inserts easily and smoothly.
- Carefully remove baking dish from oven. Let dish rest 5 to 10 minutes, then garnish with sprigs of fresh thyme if desired and serve warm.
Notes
- Use a mandoline for super easy and uniform potato slicing. Just watch those fingers!
- Arranging Sweet Potatoes: Slices can be placed in any arrangement you desire – horizontally in rows, vertically in columns, in a large spiral, or overlapping concentric circles, or even in an intricate design if you feel adventurous. You can also lay them flat or line them upright and leaning against each other. If you stack the potatoes or overlap them a lot, I recommend first adding them to a large bowl with the prepared cream sauce and stirring until the potatoes are fully covered. After that, arrange them as desired. This ensures every bit of the potatoes is covered with the sauce.
- Make it Gluten Free: Use gluten-free all-purpose flour.
- Parmesan: For best results, grate your own parmesan cheese from a block. Pre-packaged grated and shredded cheese contain added fillers to prevent clumping, which also prevent them from melting like they should.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 434kcal | Protein: 6g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Total Carbs: 32g | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7g | Net Carbs: 28g | Vitamin C: 5mg | Cholesterol: 95mg | Sodium: 361mg | Potassium: 534mg | Calcium: 147mg | Iron: 1mg
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Hello! I’ve tasted a recipe very much like yours and it’s delicious!! Unfortunately, I lost the recipe, so I’m happy to have found this! Is it possible to make this ahead, maybe a day or two? Have you tried freezing it? Thanks for your advice.
Hi, Christina! We haven’t tried freezing it, and while I’m sure it would freeze fine, I can’t guarantee that the texture won’t change during the freezing, defrosting, and reheating processes. It could end up very mushy and/or grainy. If you try it, please let us know how it turns out!