Prep Time: approximately 20 minutes
Total Time: nearly 2 hours counting the time to bake yams.
1. Pierce the skins with a fork or knife in several places. Bake the yams at 375° F directly on a rack in the center of the oven. No need to preheat. Tip: in order to save clean up from dripping yam syrup, place foil on a rack below the rack with the yams. Bake until very soft and dripping with syrup, about 1 1/2 hours. If the yams are soft but not dripping, they are not done.
2. Let the yams cool enough to handle. Peel the yams.
3. Stand each orange upright; without cutting through to the orange flesh, cut a very thin slice of peel from the top and bottom of each orange so it will stand firmly on each end without rolling around. Reserve any slices of orange peel to plug up holes that may occur in the orange shells you're about to make. Cut oranges in half.
4. Over a bowl to catch the juice, carefully scoop out orange halves with a spoon, creating little orange shell "bowls". Save the insides and juice. With your fingers, lightly butter the insides of the orange shells. (Sometimes a hole occurs in the stem end of the orange shells; if this happens, place a slice of the reserved orange peel on the inside of shell to cover the hole, or plug it up with a small piece of orange.)
5. Place orange shells in the cups of a muffin tin or in a baking pan surrounded with crumpled aluminum foil to keep them upright; set aside.
6. Preheat oven to 350F.
7. Discard any orange seeds and the white pith from the orange's fleshy insides.
8. Combine orange insides with the remainder of the ingredients (including the yams) and mix well with a high speed mixer until creamy. Mix in Pecans.
9.Taste and adjust ingredients if necessary; if you're using fresh baked yams, the flavor and texture varies greatly, so you may need to add additional salt, butter, brown sugar, or cinnamon.
10. Refill the orange halves with the yam puree.
11. Bake 350F for 25-30 minutes
12. If not using marshmallows: ; garnish each with a pecan half and serve hot.
If using marshmallows: remove from oven, top with marshmallows, return to oven and bake 350F 10-12 more minutes, or pop under the broiler, until marshmallows are lightly browned. Garnish with pecans and serve hot.
Creative variations:
A. If you don't want to make the orange shells, you can bake the yam-orange mixture in a buttered casserole dish using the above baking times and temperature. But baking it in the orange cups eliminates having to wash a sticky, marshmallow-ey baking dish, so it's worth it!
B. Use 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg or 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinnamon.
C. Use 3-4 Tablespoons maple syrup, or 2-3 Tablespoons corn syrup, or 2 Tablespoons molasses instead of the brown sugar. (Depending on the yams, you may need a little more, so always taste before baking.)
Yield: 8 servings
Submitted by "Chef" Sonya R.
