Alright I know I can't really call myself a food blogger with the sporadic nature of my posts. But you know what, I'm trying. Finals ended last Friday and I am slowly turning back into a human being. A human being who wants to write about food on the internet for like five people to read, but whatever cause I'm going to do it anyway! In case you didn't know, I love pie. Pie is awesome. Doesn't matter what kind, just put some mushy sweet filling into a butter-laden crusty shell thing and we are in business. I've made a couple of pies over the last month or so. One was a maple pie, which I want to bake again - more successfully - and write about. But right now, I want to talk about a pie that is near and dear to my heart. One that I have made twice in the last month. I want to talk about sweet potato pie. I've always been partial to what I call paste pies - like pumpkin and sweet potato and even white potato. (Yes, pie made from what amount to mashed potatoes with sugar in them. I'll make one and post about it soon, I promise.) Potato pies are very common in Maryland, where I am from. I don't know if it's a country thing or Pennsylvania Dutch influence or what.
Wherever it comes from, I think sweet potato pie is a gift from God. Most of all, I want to emphasize the ways in which sweet potatoes beat the pants off of pumpkin when it comes to pie. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not talking trash about pumpkins here. This is a pumpkin friendly blog. And sweet potato could never replace pumpkin because pumpkin is special in both flavor and texture. However, sweet potatoes do have some advantages. #1 - they are naturally sweeter than pumpkin and so require less additional sweetener. #2 - they are cheaper and easier to make fresh, rather than out of a can. #3- mashed sweet potatoes are thicker than pumpkin puree, which makes them more versatile when trying to make a vegan pie (less need for eggs). Anyway, we've been eating them a long time in my family. Long enough that I feel comfortable playing with the recipe, which is saying a lot because, in baking, "playing with" a recipe generally means "ruining" it. That is, unless I've made it enough to know what I'm doing. So, I have two variations on sweet potato pie. One I altered the Joy of Cooking recipe (I know, shocker right?) at Thanksgiving this year and the other I mostly followed a recipe from a community cookbook and threw together out of stuff I already had to take to my friends' house for football and pizza Sunday time (one of my most favorite things in the entire world). Enjoy!
Sweet Potato/Pumpkin Pie (variation on The Joy of Cooking)
Make basic pie dough recipe, below.
Preheat oven to 375.
Glaze crust with 1 egg yolk (or milk if you prefer).
Whisk thoroughly in a large bowl 2 large eggs (or equivalent of egg replacer for a vegan pie).
Whisk in thoroughly:
1 C Pumpkin puree and 1 C mashed sweet potatoes. (To prepare the potatoes, peel and either boil or steam them and then beat with an electric beater or mash with a potato masher.)
1 C Greek Yogurt (you can use sour cream or a dairy free yogurt here).
1/2 C Milk or heavy cream (or soy milk, you get the idea)
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C brown sugar
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves or allspice
1/2 t salt
Warm the pie crust in the oven until it's hot to the touch. Pour room temperature pie filling into the crust and bake until firm, about 35-45 minutes. Cool before serving. As is usually the case with pie, it's best at room temperature or slightly warm and almost always better the next day.
Basic Pie Dough
This is the pie dough that I use for almost everything. It's easy to vary by adding nuts, increasing the butter/shortening ratio, or making more wet for a different flavor. The main thing with pie crust is to not let it get too hot and not handle it too much.
Ingredients
2 1/2 C AP Flour
1 1/4 t salt
3/4 C chilled shortening
3 T Butter
6 T ice water
Method
Whisk flour and salt together.
Cut in half of the shortening with a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingers until it's a course meal (like cornmeal).
Cut in the rest of the shortening and the butter until they make pea-size crumbs.
Stir in the ice water with a fork until all the ingredients are wet and start to pull away from the bowl.
Form into a ball, split in to two disks, wrap in plastic and chill for 10 minutes.
Roll out of the disks on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to desired shape and size. Fit into pie plate, pushing it into the bottom and trimming off any excess.
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Version 2
This recipe is a variation on one from a community cook book called The Chesapeake Collection, put together by a women's club back home. It is one of those beloved collections where people send in contributions so it reflects the true flavor of the place it's from. I love the Eastern Shore of Maryland and I really love the food that comes from it, so I am partial to this variation of sweet potato pie. I added the white potato because it's what I had on hand and I think it adds some complexity of flavor. Also the spice mixture is my own.
Eastern Shore Potato Pie in a Graham Cracker Crust
Ingredients
2 cups prepared potatoes (2 medium sweet and one medium white potato)
1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 T flour
1 C milk
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1/4 t ground black pepper
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t salt
Method
Preheat oven to 400.
Beat eggs and add the sugar, then the potato, salt, and spices. After that, add the flour, and lastly add the milk gradually. Pour into a baked graham cracker crust that has been allowed to cool. Bake 5 minutes at 400 and reduce the temperature to 350. Bake until the custard is set, about 35 minutes.
Graham Cracker Crust(from Joy of Cooking)
1.5 C finely ground graham crackers
1/4 - 1/2 C sugar, depending on sweetness of cookies (mine probably could've done without the sugar or just a couple tablespoons.)
6 T melted butter
1 t ground cinnamon
Mix crumbs, sugar,and cinnamon in a bowl or directly in the pie plate. Pour melted butter and mix until all the dry ingredients are wet. Press into the pie plate and up the sides to make a crust. One way to get it flat and even is the press a smaller plate inside of the pie plate. Bake on 400 for just about 10 5-10 minutes, just to set it but be careful not to bake it too much because it will burn when you bake it with the actual pie. Allow to cool some before you pour in the pie filling. No biggie if it's warm, just so it doesn't cook the pie filling when it gets poured in.
PS - A word to the wise. I do not recommend blogging about baking while actually baking. I just scorched a dozen chocolate chip cookies that are part of my holiday baking extravaganza. It's ok, there are about 3 dozen that I didn't burn. :)
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