Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes With Marshmallow Pecan Streusel
Sweet potatoes baked, scooped, mashed with butter, cream cheese and cinnamon, then packed back into their skins and baked again under a buttery pecan streusel with browned mini marshmallows alongside it.
Servings 8 halves
Ingredients
For the Potatoes
- 4 medium sweet potatoes 8 to 10 oz each, similar size
For the Filling
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 2 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar packed
- 1 tablespoon whole milk only if needed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the Pecan Streusel
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar packed
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes
- ½ cup pecans roughly chopped
For the Marshmallow Top
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
Instructions
Bake the Potatoes
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Scrub and dry the sweet potatoes, then prick each one three or four times with a fork.
- Set them directly on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet, unwrapped, and bake for 55 to 70 minutes, until a paring knife slides into the thickest part with no resistance and the skins have begun to wrinkle. Do not wrap them in foil.
- Cool on the pan for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven to 375 degrees F.
Split, Scoop and Mash
- Slice each potato in half lengthwise. Scoop the flesh into a bowl with a tablespoon, leaving about a quarter inch of flesh against the skin so the shells hold their shape.
- Add the softened butter, cream cheese, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and salt to the warm flesh. Mash with a fork or potato masher until creamy but still slightly textured. Do not use a food processor.
- Add the milk a teaspoon at a time only if the filling seems dry. Taste and adjust the salt.
Make the Streusel
- Whisk the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl.
- Add the cold butter cubes and rub them in with your fingertips until the mixture is rubbly with pea-sized clumps. Stir in the chopped pecans.
- Refrigerate the streusel while you fill the shells, at least 10 minutes.
Fill and Twice-Bake
- Arrange the eight shells close together on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment or foil. Divide the filling among them, mounding it gently so it sits just proud of the skin.
- Spoon the cold streusel over about two-thirds of each half, pressing lightly so it stays in place. Leave one end of each half bare for the marshmallows.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for 18 minutes, until the streusel is set and the pecans smell toasted.
- Crowd the mini marshmallows onto the bare end of each half and return to the oven for 4 to 6 minutes, watching closely, until they puff and brown.
- Rest on the pan for 5 minutes before serving so the filling firms up.
Notes
- Never foil-wrap the first bake: trapped steam makes wet flesh and a filling that runs out of the shells.
- Leave a quarter inch rim: scooping down to bare skin makes the shells collapse.
- Keep the streusel cold: warm streusel spreads into a paste instead of baking into clumps.
- Stagger the toppings: streusel bakes for 18 minutes, marshmallows for 4 to 6 at the very end, in their own zone.
- Make ahead: fill the shells up to 2 days ahead and refrigerate covered, keeping the streusel cold and separate. Add 5 minutes to the streusel bake from cold.
- Freezing: freeze filled but untopped shells up to 3 months. Bake from frozen at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes, then top and continue.