Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Sage, Brown Butter, and Gruyere

Do you have some extra sweet potatoes leftover from Thanksgiving? I know I do and I know exactly what I am making with them. The recipe below is a great way to use sweet potatoes as a side dish with your meal. Sweet potatoes are extremely nutritious and should be incorporated into your meals each and every week. I know we eat them quite a bit in our household. If we have any kind of potato dish, I make it with sweet potatoes instead of regular white potatoes.

Now, a lot of people like sweetened sweet potato dishes but this is  most definitely a savory type sweet potato dish. This is why it is a big hit in my house. Definitely try this one out! These will be served with some grass-fed beef ribeye steaks and fresh cut up strawberries and blackberries.

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Sage, Brown Butter, and Gruyere Cheese
Serves: 4 if you only eat one half of a potato or 2 if you eat a whole potato
Adapted from: http://www.pink-parsley.com/2011/11/twice-baked-sweet-potatoes-with-sage.html

Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed and dried off
4 tablespoons light butter - I use 3 tablespoons and find that to be enough
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs or plain panko breadcrumbs - I use panko breadcrumbs
4 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped or 1/2 teaspoon dried sage - I use dried sage
salt and pepper for seasoning - I omit the salt
1/4 cup freshly grated Gruyere cheese
2 teaspoons real maple syrup
2 tablespoons fat free sour cream or fat free plain greek yogurt - I use fat free sour cream
pinch of red cayenne pepper for some spice

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-Place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and place in preheated oven for 30-45 minutes. You will know they are done when you can stick a fork all the way through them. You don't want them overcooked so just check periodically.
-Remove from the oven and allow to cool enough for you to handle them
-Cut each potato in half lengthwise and scoop out the filling. Place filling in a medium sized bowl. Mash with a potato masher or an electric mixer until smooth.
-In a small nonstick skillet, melt butter over medium heat, whisking constantly. When the butter is a deep golden brown color and has some dark brown specks in it, remove from heat immediately.
-In a small bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoon of melted brown butter, 1/2 the dried sage, and salt and pepper. Set aside.
-To the bowl of mashed sweet potatoes, add the remaining brown butter, the other 1/2 of dried sage, shredded cheese, maple syrup, cayenne, and yogurt or sour cream and combine well.
-Take the contents of the bowl and start filling the sweet potato skins that you scooped out of originally.
-Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture on top of each potato half and return to oven for 10-15 minutes.
-Serve

Enjoy! :)