Sweet Potato Coconut Casserole - Gluten Free

Gluten Free Sweet Potato 
Coconut Casserole 

Many years ago (in the 1980's) I wanted to find a special sweet potato casserole, because I never was crazy about the candied sweet potatoes my mom fixed with toasted marshmallows on top. (Sorry mama, up in Heaven!) I don't know why I didn't like that. Maybe it's because they were canned? So I set out for a search in my collection of cookbooks. Please understand, this was before the internet and before Pinterest where you can go to find any recipes you want in a matter of seconds!

I found 3 recipes that sounded good, but I did what I usually do and took ingredients that appealed to me from all 3 recipes and came up with my own. It was the most decedent, delicious sweet potato casserole and I called it  "Sweet Potato Pie Casserole". It was absolutely deliscious and everyone lovel it, but there was one problem. It was more like a dessert than a side dish! So most people wanted it as their dessert. (Even me)

Then my youngest son, Tracy, grew up and married the sweetest  daughter in law, Ashley, who's from the south too. She's from Nashville, where my family roots go back 6 generations.  One year she brought her own sweet potato casserole to our family holiday dinner in Ohio and we love it. I did tweak her recipe a little by cutting way down on the sugar and also added a small can of crushed pineapple. This ingredient would be optional, but believe me it adds a little bit of sweetness which is great, considering I cut down on the sugar.

You CAN use the canned sweet potatoes, but I sure don't recommend that, because it's much better with the fresh ones. My family is crazy about this dish, but I noticed they didn't really want the leftovers when I used the canned. They usually fight over who gets the last of it! I didn't eat the leftovers either when I used the canned potatoes & actually threw it in the trash! That's very unusual for me because I am such a frugal person & almost never throw any food out! The secret to a good sweet potato casserole is the fresh ones. You can peel and cook them in water, bake them, or even cook them in the microwave. 

UPDATE: (November 24, 2o23)

   ***I didn't mention before that I always dreaded making this recipe because even though, it's super quick mixing everything together in like 5 minutes, I hated trying to peel and cut up the HARD sweet potatoes before cooking them! That took me forever, but this time I decided to cook the sweet potatoes (after pricking them whole) in the microwave first. And WOW, what a difference that made! I didn't even peel them first but after they were tender, I took them out of the microwave, cut them in squares, then after cooling,  just peeled the skin right off with my fingers! I'll never do this any other way again! I might try peeling then with a potato peeler first next time before putting them in the microwave. I can't tell you what a difference cooking them in the microwave made! Now I'll probably make it more often (keep reading) ***

This recipe is special because of the coconut and crushed pineapple. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that it's gluten free because I left out the flour that was in the original topping ingredients. I didn't miss it at all! But if you want to, you can putt a little regular flour (or GF flour) as part of the topping.
I hope you try it! If you do, please let me know what you think.

Sweet Potato Casserole
with Coconut

Main Ingredients:
3 lg sweet potatoes 

(cooked and mashed) OR 1 lg can sweet potatoes (about 4-5 cups mashed) Fresh sweet potatoes make this taste SO much better. It's worth the extra work. (Read my comments between the ***'s!)

½ cup milk or cream
½ cup melted butter
½ cup sugar
1 cup coconut
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained (this is not in Ashley's original recipe, but I put it in because I saw it in a recipe on TV and it is delicious-a touch of sweet since there's not a ton of sugar in the potatoes.

Topping
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup chopped pecans
Dash of salt

Mix all of  the main ingredients together with a mixer and put in a casserole dish.
Then mix topping ingredients and spread over the top.
Bake in 350º oven for 30 minutes.