My general philosophy on art, crafting, cooking, makeup, hair, etc. is that everything is optional. If you don't like pecans? Leave 'em out or use walnuts, pistachios, or macadamias. Don't like/can't have bacon? Leave it out or substitute turkey bacon or fakon. Don't like rum? Use a little more bourbon or leave it out. See? Problem solved.
That having been said, I was tired of not liking sweet potatoes prepared in a sweet way. I like them savory. But I had a similar recipe to this at Mr. Pirate Queen's work holiday party in 2010 that I actually liked, and I decided to try to replicate it. It's really not overly sweet, the alcohol flavor and the pecans help balance the sweetness.
3 lb sweet potato
1/2 c bourbon
1/4 c rum (I used Captain Morgan silver, it's what I have on hand, plus I like spiced rum in this)
1/4 c maple syrup (real, 100% maple syrup)
1/2 stick butter (room temperature makes it easier)
6 strips bacon, cooked but not crispy, and sliced (optional, you could also use more or less)
2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp pecan pieces (optional, also, chunk your own, or buy them halved or pieced, doesn't matter)
for the streusel topping:
1 c brown sugar
1 c flour
1 stick room temperature butter
cinnamon to taste
Parboil and then peel the sweets, depending on their weight this could be anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. Parboiling is just boiling something before you cook it another way, to bring down the cooking time and/or, in this case, to make the skin easier to peel off. Once they're peeled, chunk them into relatively even sized chunks. I think this all fit in a 9 x 13 for me, with one serving leftover to go into one of my glass bake and store dishes. I put all the other ingredients into a bowl except bacon and pecans and mixed them, then mashed it into the sweets with a potato masher. I fold the bacon and pecans in separate, just to prevent them from getting mashed up. Then, spread it around evenly into a greased pan.
This streusel topping I use for everything from muffins to pies to really anything baked and sweet. All you do is cream together a cup of some kind of sugar, a cup of flour, and a stick of butter. Easiest recipe in the world. It'll keep in a fridge as long as butter keeps, so I like to sprinkle it on some of whatever I'm cooking. I spread it all over the top of the sweet potato mixture in the pan. All you do at this point is bake in a 350° oven for 20-40 minutes, depending on how long you parboiled. It should be tender and hot through the middle, but if you overcook it, the starch will break down and they'll turn to mush.
Note: I've used uncooked bacon in this and it cooked through, but it also shrank and left pits in the surrounding potato which was weird. Honestly, for time and sanity's sake, I use precooked bacon from Costco because I can freeze it and thaw as needed more easily than most bacon.
