October: Sweet Potato Pie
A comforting autumn dessert and an old family favorite
A week or so after I moved into my first apartment in 1968, I called my mom to ask for my grandmother’s recipe for sweet potato pie. She dictated the recipe, which she had been making for our own family for as long as I could remember, and I used my Perkins braille writer and a giant index card to create my first accessible recipe card. I have been making sweet potato pies throughout the Fall and Winter since then, and although that recipe has migrated away from that metal recipe box to a Dropbox Desserts folder on my iPhone and home computer, I haven’t altered a thing except that now I know how to make pie crust from scratch. I don’t need to buy frozen crusts at the grocery store any more. It doesn’t matter whether you make your own crust from scratch or buy a pre-made crust at the store (The frozen crusts labeled “All Butter,” or “European” are quite good, although more costly than the kind you make from scratch in your own kitchen). The sweet potato filling is the thing! And, it is indeed a scrumptious thing!
I don’t see any reason to make only enough pie dough for a single-crust pie. My recipe makes enough for a double-crust pie (such as apple, or peach, or blueberry would be) or two single-crust 9 or 10-inch pies. If you’re making only one pie, you can store the well-wrapped extra disc of dough in the refrigerator for five to seven days, or in your freezer for several months. Thaw frozen dough in your refrigerator overnight before proceeding to make your pie.
My grandmother, whose family dug their sweet potatoes from their vegetable garden, and collected their eggs from the flock of hens who lived in the barnyard, and got their milk from the cows who grazed in the pasture and lived in the barn, made pies for eight hungry children during the Great Depression (and only when they could afford to buy the necessary sugar). She would never have made fewer than two 10-inch pies. That’s why the recipe for a 10-inch sweet potato pie that I copied onto my first recipe card called for 3 cups of milk “or a little more.” I usually make a single 9-inch pie, and I add only 2 cups of milk to the sweet potatoes, eggs, and spices in the filling recipe. If the amount of filling you make from this recipe threatens to overflow the pie dish, just ladle the extra into a custard cup or two, bake alongside the pie, and enjoy a delicious sweet potato pudding kids’ or cook’s treat while you wait for the pie to get cool enough for slicing.
Sweet Potato Pie
For the Pie Dough
Ingredients:
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
Preparation:
Remove cream cheese and butter from your refrigerator at least 20 minutes ahead of time. Use your electric mixer to cream together the cream cheese and the butter. When they’re well combined, stir in the salt and the flour, one cup at a time, while you continue mixing at medium-low speed until the ingredients come together to form a rough ball of dough in the bottom of the bowl.
Divide the ball of dough in half, roll each into a circular disc, and wrap tightly in waxed paper or plastic wrap. Put the dough away for an hour in the refrigerator. You can use that hour to bake the sweet potatoes for the filling.
When you’re ready to bake the pie, take the ball of dough out of the fridge, let it stand for about 10 minutes to take the chill off, then flatten the ball between your palms, place it on a lightly-floured surface, sprinkle the top lightly with more flour, and roll it out to a 11 or 12-inch circle. Place the circle of dough inside your pie dish, use your fingers to make a tall decorative crimped rim all around the top edge, and put the crust away in the freezer until you’re ready to bake the pie.
For the Pie Filling:
Ingredients:
2 to 3 medium-size sweet potatoes, scrubbed with a brush under cold, running water, then dried. Yield should be 1 1/2 to 2 cups of mashed sweet potato
3 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. Kosher salt
2 heaping tsp. ground cinnamon
2 TBSP. cornstarch
2 cups whole (preferably organic) milk (Almond or oat milk would also be fine.)
1 TBSP. vanilla extract
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Place the washed and dried sweet potatoes on a baking sheet. Use a fork to poke each sweet potato on top and bottom. These shallow pokes will allow the sweet potatoes to release steam as they bake, so their texture, mashed, will be perfect for pie.
Slide the baking sheet into the oven and bake for an hour. After an hour, gently squeeze the sweet potatoes with protected hands to make sure they’re softened all the way through. If you meet resistance when you squeeze, return the sweet potatoes to the oven and continue baking and checking every 10 minutes or so, until they feel squishably soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool long enough to remove the peel with your hands. Mash the sweet potatoes and set aside for a minute while you beat together the eggs and the sugar.
Using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, beat together the eggs and the sugar. Add the mashed sweet potatoes and combine thoroughly. Add a small pinch of salt, the cinnamon and the cornstarch and continue mixing to combine everything well. Then, while beating slowly, gradually add the milk and the vanilla extract.
For the Pie:
Preparation:
Set the filling briefly aside while you place a baking sheet inside the oven and preheat to 425 F. degrees.
When the oven is preheated and the baking sheet is hot, remove the pie dish from the freezer and place it on the baking sheet. (Baking the pie on top of a preheated flat surface makes for a less-soggy bottom crust. However, as I write this, common sense tells me that placing a frozen dish on top of a hot baking sheet could cause the dish to break. This has never happened to me with either a Pyrex or a ceramic pie dish, but, if you aren’t using a metal pie pan, or don’t want to take the risk with a tempered glass or ceramic dish, skip the hot baking sheet altogether and bake the pie on the oven rack. That’s what my mom and my grandmother did. Either way, your pie will be delicious!)
Ladle the filling into the crust, making sure to really FILL it to the top of the crust. If you have extra filling (which I often do) put the rest into little ovensafe ramekins for baking alongside the pie. grate a little nutmeg on top of the pie – sprinkle lightly with extra cinnamon if you want – and place the pie in the oven. After 12 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350 F degrees, and continue baking the pie for 35-40 minutes.
Test the readiness of the pie by poking a table knife a little way into the filling near the center. If the knife comes out with little to no filling sticking to it, it’s ready to take out of the oven and cool on a rack until serving time. If there’s still lots of filling coating the knife, return the pie to the oven and continue checking for doneness at five-minute intervals, until the knife comes out mostly clean.
We like to serve the pie without adornment, still warm or at room temperature. It’s also good served cold, and some people like to add a dollop of softly whipped cream.
We know that, for many people, the first pumpkin pie (or – these days – pumpkin anything!) ushers in the arrival of Fall and the beginning of the winter holiday season, but we hope you will add our sweet potato pie to your family’s autumn repertoire, and the deliciousness of my grandmother’s sweet potato pie will heighten your enjoyment of cooler weather and holiday feasts for many seasons to come.
*Variation: If your school cafeteria, like mine, from back in the day when your neighbors who doubled as lunch ladies prepared the lunches for all the children who rode the bus to school, served a pudding for dessert called “floating islands,” this variation will remind you of that old-fashioned treat. Begin by separating the eggs. Then, when you’re making the custard filling, beat together the granulated sugar with only the egg yolks. Proceed with making the filling as directed. In a separate mixing bowl, using a spotlessly clean whisk at high speed, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form (3 to 5 minutes). Then, fold the beaten whites into the filling, and after the pie has baked, the top of the pie will have the texture of meringue (or those floating islands), and the custardy filling underneath will be perfectly smooth.
-Penny