This is Daniel’s mother Elsa’s traditional Thanksgiving side dish. I’m posting it in July because I’m about to post a way to make a similar but non-baked dish if you crave something like this (and/or have sweet potatoes to use up) in hot weather!
We had made the original recipe many times, referencing a copy Elsa had typed long ago (with an actual typewriter!) on a small sheet of paper. We’ve learned that it works fine in a 9″x9″ or similar size pan if you don’t have a 10″x6″, and that the “broil” step can be accomplished at the same 350-degree setting; it takes just a few minutes.
Daniel recently typed up the recipe for our recipe binder, as follows:
Elsa’s usual recipe: easy and satisfying. I’ve replaced the margarine with butter, because, butter!
1 20-oz can pineapple slices
2 17-oz cans yams (sweet potatoes)
1/4 cup flour
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1 cup miniature marshmallows
Drain pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup syrup. Line sides of 10″x6″ baking dish with pineapple, slightly overlapping the slices. Arrange yams in the center. Pour pineapple syrup over yams.
Combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; stir in nuts. Sprinkle over yams.
Bake at 350 for 25 min. Top with marshmallows. Broil until lightly browned.
Serves 6 – 8.
Just a note on terminology: ever since I learned the difference between “yam” and “sweet potato” several years ago, I find it confusing when they are both used in a description of a dish.
That’s a good point. Both this recipe and the other one use sweet potatoes, although they probably would be tasty made with yams, too. Here is an explanation of the difference, and of why Americans started calling sweet potatoes “yams” some of the time. I used “yam” in the name of this recipe because of tradition, and in the name of the other recipe because it’s a take-off on this one.
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This sounds yummy. I just started a gluten free lifestyle and will try to modify this. Thanks for sharing!
If you just leave out the flour, it will be gluten-free, right? The flour makes the topping thicker but isn’t important to the flavor. So you could make it a slightly more juicy dish, or thicken the topping with something else such as another kind of flour or cornstarch.
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