Recipe: Baked Candied Butternut Squash

Recipe

Baked Candied Butternut Squash

Serving Size: 8
Preparation Time: 1:00

Choose a squash with a thick neck and a short belly, as all the meat is in the neck. Split and seed it. Put it a glass pan with 1/4 inch of water, double cover it with saran, and microwave it fro 20 minutes, until it is tender. You can put in a covered pan with water in a 400 F oven and it will steam in about the same time or a little longer. When it is fork tender it is done.
Drain it and let it cool, and when you can handle it, the tan skin will scrape off with little trouble. Much easier than using a potato peeler when raw (which certainly works).
Mash it with butter season it with salt and cinnamon to taste, and put it into a buttered oven dish. A dash of dark rum contributes interest to the mix. Babancourt Haitian is what I use.
Drizzle the remaining butter over it, and sprinkle the top with brown sugar, using more or less to taste. You can also use Maple Syrup instead of brown sugar. You can also omit the sugar, or just put a little in with the mashed squash.
Bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes until a crust forms from the melted sugar.

Serving Ideas: A festive dish. Under NO conditions put marshmallows in it.

Notes: Take care in serving right from the oven. The baked sugar gets very hot