Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Bananas with Honey

Tonight is part III of our Early Thanksgiving Dinner and it features something we watched Tyler Florence make a couple of weeks ago when we went to one of his shows in downtown D.C.  He put on a great show by preparing a Thanksgiving meal for us.  He made the normal turkey, dressing, cranberries and Whipped Sweet Potato and Banana with Honey dish.  Whoa there, what did he just write?  Whipped Sweet Potato and Banana with Honey?  Yep you read that right that's what I said and if you know me you know I don't even like sweet potatoes.

Tyler promised if you make this it will forever change the way you make sweet potatoes, he said this is the ultimate in sweet potatoes.  After watching him make them I decided this is something I would have to try, after all how can you go wrong with bananas and honey.

I didn't change anything from his recipe because I wanted to sample his version exactly the way he made it that day.  The cast of characters is pretty normal with the only odd ball being those pesky sweet potatoes.

  As you can see lots of good ingredients, bananas, butter, pecans, brown sugar, starting to sound more like a dessert than a side dish for Thanksgiving.

The first thing we have to do is roast the potatoes and bananas.  Tyler told a funny story when he was preparing this recipe about the first time he went to his future in-laws house for dinner.  His soon to be mother-in-law put the sweet potatoes in the oven and it wasn't long until they starting hearing exploding sounds coming from the kitchen.  Apparently she didn't poke holes in the potatoes and they exploded in the oven.  Tyler said they had no clue who he was or that he was a chef so when this happened he said "Move over, professional chef here, let me take over."  Pretty funny story when he tells it.  Anyway the moral to the story is to always pierce your potatoes before you bake them.

If you noticed in my ramblings I said to roast the bananas too.  I'll admit I have never actually heard of roasting bananas until that day.  Tyler did explained that they will look terrible when they come out of the oven but on the inside will be sweet banana delight.  What can I say  he was right.

Once everything is roasted the banana and sweet potato goes into a mixing bowl (of course you scrape the insides out of the skins) along with the honey and butter, it just keeps getting better.

We still need to make a topping for the sweet potatoes and bananas and this is where it really reminds me of a dessert, not that that is a bad thing.   The topping consist of more butter (EGADS!), pecans, and brown sugar, a tough combination to beat over anything. 

How did it turn out?  I am giving this one a 4.75 out of 5 forks, after all it still has those pesky sweet potatoes in it.  Tyler really came up with a winner here and I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes or dislikes sweet potatoes.  This recipe turned out to be the star of the entire meal this year and will certainly find a place on our Thanksgiving Dinner table for now on.

Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Bananas with Honey
(Printable Recipe)
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

You can roast the potatoes and bananas ahead of time, then put it all together just before serving. Then heat it up in the oven.

Prep Time:20 min
Inactive Prep Time:--Cook Time:1 hr 5 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 10 to 12 servings.

Ingredients
•5 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed
•4 bananas, unpeeled
•1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
•1/4 cup honey
•Kosher salt
•1/2 cup all-purpose flour
•3/4 cup dark brown sugar
•1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Prick the sweet potatoes all over with a fork, put them in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes. Toss the bananas into the pan and continue roasting for 10 to 15 minutes, until both the bananas and potatoes are very soft. Remove the pan from the oven but don't turn the oven off.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh into a large mixing bowl. Peel the bananas and add them to the bowl along with 1 stick of the butter, and the honey. Season with salt and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until everything well combined and the mixture is fluffy. Spoon into an oven-proof serving bowl and smooth the top.

In a separate mixing bowl, use your fingers to rub together the remaining stick of butter, the brown sugar, flour, and pecans until the mixture is the consistency of coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the sweet potatoes and return to the oven. Cook for about 20 minutes, until the crumbs are golden. Serve hot.

Printed from FoodNetwork.com on Sun Nov 22 2009
© 2009 Scripps Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved