Sweet Potato Pie

The first time I had sweet potato pie was in college at the University of Florida. I went to the Wednesday afternoon farmer’s market and spent $4 on a miniature pie from a local pie shop. At the time, the idea of a sweet potato pie struck me as odd, as a baked potato pie might, but I took a chance. What hit my mouth was an exquisite, sweet, smooth rendition of sweet potatoes like I had never tasted them before. And suddenly, just like that, I was a sweet potato pie fan (not convert, mind you, because my locally-sourced pumpkin pie is an all-time fav). Naturally, given that we’re in spooky season, I asked The Piemaker to tackle this one since I had pumpkin covered. And man, did he deliver. We made the CSA happy as well with its falltime mandate to consume 4 lbs of sweet potatoes per patron per week given the surplus. So if you’ve never tried sweet potato pie, I challenge you to give it a chance. If you’ve never made a pie from the actual vegetable/fruit and usually buy canned filling, I challenge you to give that a chance. In any event, this is a great place to start. Happy Fall! 🍂

what you need

Dough

**this is the Serious Eats pie dough recipe and we will be using it again

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

2 1/2 sticks salted butter, cut into pats

6 tablespoons (ish) ice cold water

Filling

1 pound sweet potatoes

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch of clove

heavy whipping cream

🍁

how to make it

Dough

Place about two thirds of the flour, all of the sugar, and the salt into a food processor and pulse twice to mix. Then spread the butter pats evenly across the surface and pulse until the dough just begins to come together. Sprinkle the remaining flour on the surface and pulse again until just incorporated.

Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with the water 1-2 tablespoons at a time. Using a rubber spatula, work the water into the dough so it begins to hold together. Do not overwork your dough.

Once incorporated, divide into two disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for ~2 hours. Remove from fridge, roll out on floured surface, and place in pie dish. For this pie, we did not par bake this crust.

Filling

Preheat the oven to 400 and bake sweet potatoes wrapped in foil for 45-60 minutes depending on size. You should poke your sweet potatoes with a fork and be sure to place them on a sheet pan because they tend to leak sweet stickiness all over your oven.

Allow sweet potatoes to cool completely and then puree the flesh in the food processor, lowering the oven temperature to 350. Add remaining ingredients to the food processor and puree until smooth and combined. Check for flavor.

Pour filling into the crust and bake for 50-60 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

We are partial to homemade whipped cream for topping, sometimes adding cinnamon or maple syrup for extra flavor. A torched meringue, however, would really take this up a notch.