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Classically Southern sweet potato pudding is a must-have for your holiday dinner table. Rich, earthy sweet potatoes mixed with evaporated milk and eggs until creamy, then topped with a nutty brown sugar pecan crumble and baked until crisp and hot. This is everything you love about Thanksgiving baked into one incredible dish!

Sweet potato pudding in a casserole dish

What Makes This Recipe So Good

No offense to grandma’s classic Thanksgiving turkey or holiday ham, but… It’s no real surprise that the side dishes and desserts are the actual stars of a holiday dinner. Set this pudding dish out on the table and watch it disappear in no time! It’s similar to a Sweet Potato Casserole, but so much better.
The flavors and textures in this recipe are absolutely unbelievable. Rich, smooth, creamy sweet potato topped with crisp, crumbled pecans and brown sugar.
This is a great recipe to make into individual servings for a fancier presentation. Just portion the sweet potato pudding into individual ramekins instead of one large dish, top with the pecan crumble, and bake.

Key Ingredients

Sweet Potatoes – If you’re short on time or energy, or just want the holidays to be a little simpler, you can use canned sweet potatoes here. Just don’t use any that have added sweeteners, because they’ll throw off the other flavors in the recipe.

Pecans – Usually a dessert superstar in their own right, pecans add a delightful crunch and nuttiness to the sweet potato pudding. If nuts aren’t your thing, you can skip them and just stick with the brown sugar crumble.

Evaporated Milk – This is what makes the pudding SO rich and creamy. Since evaporated milk has the liquid evaporated out, it’s thicker than regular milk, though not as thick or sweet as condensed milk. If you only have regular milk at home, you can make evaporated milk yourself just by simmering regular milk over medium-low heat for roughly 20-30 minutes until reduced. You’ll need roughly 2 cups regular milk to yield 1 cup evaporated milk.

Chef’s Tips

For an even deeper, richer flavor, add a little cinnamon, nutmeg, or pumpkin pie spice to the crumble topping and/or the sweet potato pudding mixture. YUM!
If your brown sugar topping is browning too fast, cover the baking dish with aluminum foil to keep it from burning.

Overhead view of sweet potato pudding in a casserole dish

You’ll Love These Holiday Recipes

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Sweet Potato Pudding

Prep: 15

Cook: 1

Total: 1 15

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Ingredients

For the Topping

▢ ⅓ cup all-purpose flour see Notes
▢ ⅓ cup brown sugar or Brown Swerve or coconut sugar
▢ 3 tablespoons cold butter cubed
▢ ½ cup chopped pecans

For the Sweet Potato Pudding

▢ 2 pounds sweet potatoes rinsed, peeled, and diced into even 1" chunks; see Notes
▢ 1 cup evaporated milk
▢ ½ cup sugar or granular Swerve or coconut sugar
▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
▢ 3 large eggs

Equipment

medium bowl
Fork
Large pot
Colander
Large bowl
Hand mixer or stand mixer
2-quart baking dish, greased

Instructions

For the Topping

Place all-purpose flour, brown sugar, cold butter cubes, and chopped pecans in medium bowl. Use fork to mix and mash mixture until crumbled, similar to streusel topping. Place mixture in fridge until ready to bake.

For the Sweet Potato Pudding

Add diced sweet potatoes to large pot and cover with water. Bring water to boil over high heat and boil 15 to 20 minutes or until sweet potatoes can be pierced with tines of fork. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
Drain sweet potatoes then transfer them to large bowl. Add evaporated milk, sugar, and vanilla extract. Using hand mixer or stand mixer, mix ingredients together until just combined.
Add eggs, one at a time, to sweet potato mixture, mixing after each egg until just combined, then adding next egg. Repeat until all eggs have been incorporated.
Transfer sweet potato mixture into greased baking dish. Top with brown sugar pecan mixture, spreading topping out into one even layer.
Place dish in oven and bake approximately 30 minutes or until topping is crisp and crunchy. Serve warm.

Notes

Sweet Potatoes: The amount of potatoes you’ll need depends on their size. 2 pounds of sweet potatoes will be approximately 4 large sweet potatoes or 5-6 medium sweet potatoes.
Make it Gluten Free: Use gluten-free all-purpose flour.
Make it Dairy Free: Use coconut milk and dairy-free butter.

Recipe yields approximately 8 servings. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.

Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving. 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 8. Result will be the weight of one serving.

Nutrition Information

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.

Sweet Potato Pudding

What Makes This Recipe So Good

Key Ingredients

Chef’s Tips

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