Sweet Potato Stacks with Maple Browned Butter & Crispy Sage

Thinly sliced, elegantly stacked, expertly baked and crowned in a maple-infused browned butter? Now that’s what I call a sweet potato queen! Traditional sweet potato casserole could easily have its place at the dessert table; one ½-cup serving has more sugar than a slice of apple pie (and I’m not even counting the extra marshmallow topping you’ve dolloped on top). Rather than cover those already-sweet potatoes in a blanket of streusel and sugar, these stacks lean on browned butter, a hint of maple syrup, crispy sage and nutty pecans.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 12-24 sage leaves
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Melt butter in a small skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Add sage. Cook 8-10 minutes or until butter is golden brown and fragrant, swirling occasionally. Place sage leaves on a paper towel-lined plate. Stir in maple syrup. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375º. Thinly slice sweet potatoes (using a mandolin if you have one) into ⅛-inch thick (or thinner) rounds. Combine sweet potato slices, oil and salt in a large bowl; toss well to coat.

Layer slices into muffin tin coated with cooking spray, stacking slightly above the rim of each cup.

Bake at 375º for 25-30 minutes or until potatoes are tender in the center. If tops of potatoes start to brown too much, cover loosely with foil.

Let stand 5 minutes. Run a sharp knife around rim of each cup, and lift potato stacks from cups using a spoon or thin spatula. Transfer to a serving platter.

Drizzle each stack with 1 teaspoon browned butter mixture; sprinkle evenly with pecans. Top each stack with one or two sage leaves.

Serves 12

SECRET INGREDIENT: Browned butter is a single-ingredient secret weapon in the kitchen; stir in a touch of maple syrup, and you’ve got yourself a spoonful of liquid gold. But watch the butter carefully; that gold can tarnish and burn quickly if you aren’t paying attention.

PRO TIP: If you have one, use a mandolin to slice the sweet potatoes. When stacked all together in a muffin tin, the tin acts like a mini-oven, creating crispy edges and buttery-soft middles. Make sure you buy potatoes that are less than about 2.5-3” in diameter so each round easily fits into the muffin cups.

Sidney Fry is a two-time James-Beard-Award-winning food and nutrition writer who loves creating simple, healthy recipes and thoughtful, actionable content for the hungry consumer. A healthy living proactivist, Sidney is also a registered dietitian nutritionist, recipe developer and mama of three based in Birmingham, Alabama.