I'm on a sweet potato kick these days. As a kid, I never really had them and, as such, never made them for anyone else. But recently I've been all about ipomoea batatas. I've baked them. I've boiled them. I've microwaved them into submission. I've turned them into fries. I've paired them with fish. I've run the gamut. Until today, however, I hadn't actually tried sweet potato pie.
Determined to put these beautiful root vegetables to work, I got started.
And the smells! Oh, the smells! As I combined the amazingly orange potato mash with all the butter and all the cinnamon and all the ginger and -- mostly importantly -- the almond extract, I was sent swirling into some cosmic sweet potato heaven. Now I love them more in all their tender, tuberous glory.
The recipe below yielded a lot more filling than I expected. I filled a pie and still had more than half leftover. So I filled a bread pan with alternating layers of graham cracker and filling to create some sort of casserole-type-thinger-majigger.
The gross leftovers may be my fault, however. I bought 2 sweet potatoes, one of which was absurdly large (I'm talking like a child's football). The recipe called for 2 pounds and, not having a kitchen scale on me, I decided to throw it all in. Following the rest of the recipe rather precisely, though, I wound up with a great, rich taste -- which tells me my proportions can't be too out of wack.
While the taste was great, I did have some issue with the pie firming up. Choosing to cook it longer, the top got a little too firm (at least too firm to look like a typical pumpkin or sweet potato pie). Nonetheless it still seemed a little mushy in the middle before I refrigerated it overnight.
Things I would do differently next time:
- Avoid the graham cracker crust. Despite my love for the simple graham cracker crust, this crust seemed to absorb all of the butter from the sweet potato and thus become part of the sweet potato mixture. This was significantly better after I refrigerated it, but I think a different crust (like pastry or even filo) would hold up better.
- Don't cook it as long. Because my pie hadn't firmed up after 30 minutes at 350 degrees F, I kept it in for another 10 minutes. In hindsight, I might add a teaspoon of cornstarch and take it out after the recommended time.
Ingredients
Filling
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/4 pound butter, softened (4 sticks)
2 eggs, separated
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup evaporated milk (I used soy milk instead)
1/4 cup white sugar
Graham Cracker Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
To make pie
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Boil sweet potato(es) whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until thoroughly soft. Remove the skin. Mash up the sweet potatoes with a fork until all chunks are gone. If your sweet potato wasn't fully soft, microwave it for a few minutes.
While the potatoes boil, combine all ingredients for the graham cracker crust. Press over bottom and sides of a pie pan. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Put in freezer until ready for filling.
In a mixing bowl, combine the sweet potatoes, butter, egg yolks, brown sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon, almond extract and evaporated milk. Mix together well.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; add 1/4 cup sugar and fold into sweet potato mixture.
Pour into pie shell and bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until firm. The pie may puff up like a souffle near the end of the bake time, but it will shrink once it's removed from the oven.
UPDATE: Refrigerating this pie overnight does wonders for it. If you can refrigerate this pie overnight and follow the directions above precisely, don't make any of the changes I recommended. It really allows it to set and pulls out a lot of the spicy flavors. Delicious.
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