This is my decades-old recipe for Holiday Sweet Potato Casserole. I've always gotten requests for the recipe, or to bake up another batch. At Family Reunions this was a requested goodie. It pairs really well with ham.

1 can crushed Pineapple or Diced Pineapple, juice too.

4 to 5 fresh, medium to large Sweet Potatoes, scrubbed.

1/4 to 1/2 cup any type of raisins

1/2 cup chopped Pecans (best) or chopped Walnuts

1 entire bag large sized Marshmallows

1 can Evaporated Milk (quality brand)

1 Large Egg Yolk beaten with the Evaporated Milk (above)

1/2 stick Dairy Butter cut into pats

1 chopped Apple (Granny Smith is best!) or 1 cup Apple Butter

1/2 cup Brown Sugar (any sort)

1/2 cup Ribbon Cane Syrup or Karo Syrup (any type)

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 teaspoon Kosher or Sea Salt

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Ginger Powder or 1 Tablespoon fine diced Candied Ginger

Heat oven to 350°f

Wash sweet potatoes, wrap each one in foil and bake until tender. When you can easily squish them holding them with a pot holder, they're done. If they aren't easily smushed, bake until they are. Everybody's oven works differently. And not all sweet potatoes cook the same due to their size, variety and moisture content. It's easier to just be prepared to bake until they're tender to the touch.

Once sweet potatoes are tender, remove from oven and reduce oven heat to 325°f.

Allow tender baked sweet potatoes to cool until cool enough to handle. Or could place them in the fridge to speed up cooling.

Once cool enough to handle, peel off the skins and discard, and trim away roots and dark spots. Dark spots from being baked doesn't need to be removed, those parts add flavor. Dump the baked, cleaned sweet potatoes in a mixing bowl and smush them. It isn't exacting, you can leave some chunks, but do break the potatoes up. Some folks will be happier if the sweet potatoes are thoroughly creamed, and no chunks. Please feel free to customize this your own way. It's mostly the flavor combinations that are the addicting thing about this.

Peel, core and dice the apple and mix in with the baked sweet potatoes. Could add a teaspoon of lemon or orange juice to help prevent discoloration, but a little discoloration isn't any big issue.

Use a non-stick deep sided casserole dish, lightly rub with butter or use buttery oil spray. Can also use a buttered deep sided cast iron casserole dish.

Beat the egg yolk with the evaporated milk and add to the sweet potatoes.

From here it's simply combining all the above ingredients by folding, make sure it's well combined. Then scrape it all into the buttered casserole dish. Drop butter pats evenly across the top and bake until toasty and bubbly all the way through, more or less an hour at 325°f or until bubbly and lightly toasty across the top.

Or as we often did it, as this was made when the seasons turned cold, it was an easy choice to cover the casserole dish, and bake in a slow oven (250°f to 280°f) until almost dinner time. The added warmth of the oven helped keep our home warm. Take off the cover right before serving, turn the heat up, and bake until the top is toasty, then serve.

If you'd like to arrange some pecan halves or marshmallows decoratively across the top, feel free to. My bunch was usually too busy scooping up their portions (read: handslapping!) to notice any decorative stuff done to the tops.

Options

For an amazing and unexpected flavor twist, add some crisped and crumbled maple or applewood Bacon and mix in. Don't be shy; a cup of cooked, crumbled maple bacon is about right.

If you'd rather go sweeter than savory, drop some Caramel Cremes on the top and press in slightly, cover those with pecans or marshmallows to keep the caramels hidden. Or could simply mix in about 1/4 cup caramel sauce when mixing the casserole up prior of baking.

I must admit, I love the flavors that cooked, crumbled maple bacon brings to this, but not everyone wants exactly the same foods.

I've made this with either some fresh cranberries baked in it, or in a pinch I've used a can of whole-berry cranberry sauce. That adds a lovely tartness!

As an even further stretch of use; when you don't have enough to feed the whole family, thin what you have left with some applesauce, blend til it's a smooth sauce, or puree in a food processor. Now it can be used as a ham glaze. Cover the ham with this, then bake as you normally would. It does an amazing thing with thickly-cut pork blade steaks, country ribs, ham or even pork spare ribs, using this as the glazing sauce.