Congratulations to Julie McCormick of Port Townsend, who won The Food Life’s little recipe contest. for her sweet potato souffle. I’ll highlight a couple more of the dessert-related recipes you shared later today and on Friday.
Here’s what Julie had to say about her recipe:
“I have been serving this with roast turkey for about 40 years, although it was originally intended to accompany a stuffed baked ham dish in the Great Dinners From Life (magazine) cookbook.
“I first made it when my then-husband and I belonged to a progressive dinner group in Ellensburg. The group of faculty wives who planned the menus picked a lot of meals from that book, which is probably very hard to find these days. I use a lot of its recipes and made a lot of things I’d never heard of before because of it. That book and Julia Child, who went on TV about that time, turned me into a bit of a foodie.
“Everyone who eats this dish loves it. It is not really sweet, but spicy, and it’s good with turkey gravy.
“It is not expected to puff up like a true souffle, so don’t be worried when it doesn’t.”
3 one-pound, two-ounce cans sweet potatoes (or the closest
size you can find) or four pounds sweet potatoes, cooked
1/2 cup butter, melted
6 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon freshly graded lemon rind (I’ve always used dried rind
from the spice section)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350.
Drain sweet potatoes (or peel fresh ones). Mash potatoes, then beat, using low speed of electric mixer to make them as lump-free as possible. Beat in melted butter. Separate eggs and add yolks to sweet potato mixture. Beat until well blended. The longer you beat, the smoother the final result. Add sugar, milk, lemon rind, ginger and salt.
Beat egg whites separately until stiff but not dry and fold into potato mixture. Turn into buttered two-quart souffle dish or casserole. Bake for one hour. Serve immediately.
