Sweet Potato Souffle Celebrates Halloween and Birthday

Halloween in our neighborhood became a potluck this year with 17 neighbors joining us on the front patio to hand out Halloween candy to the Trick or Treaters. Many neighbors came in costume or wore hats to celebrate the season. The children were so excited to dress up, loved the attention and had only one house to go to on the block to fill up their bags with candy.

Since we had just harvested sweet potatoes from the Master Gardener class, my contribution to the potluck was Individual Sweet Potato Souffle pg 172 from Tastes & Treasures. This is one of Rancho de la Osa's recipes and I can understand why they like it. It was a big hit with the Halloween crowd at the party. I made two recipes because I had purple sweet potato as well as orange ones and the colors are so vibrant. It was also a birthday celebration for my girlfriend so the Individual Sweet Potato Souffle doubled as a birthday cake with candles.

Individual Sweet Potato Souffles pg 122

4 lbs sweet potatoes
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
6 tablespoons self-rising flour
1 (12 ounce can evaporated skim milk, or 1 1/2 cups heavy cream)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 teaspoon orange extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the sweet potatoes until tender. Maintain the oven temperature. Peel the sweet potatoes. Place in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Beat in the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating constantly. Add the flour, evaporated milk, salt and flavorings and beat well. Spray eight 4 ounce individual ramekins with cooking spray. Fill halfway with the sweet potato mixture. Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the souffles comes out clean. Cool in the ramekins for 10 minutes. Invert onto serving plates or serve in the ramekins. Garnish each souffle with a pecan half.

Serves 8