Sweet Potato Pie

Denser than pumpkin pie, dripping with Southern influence, something that my mother, Naranka Mears Zucco, ate when she was a child in Mobile, Alabama.  Sweet potato pie is denser and more silken than pumpkin pie.

Print
Mom’s Sweet Potato Pie
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Total Time
1 hr 10 mins
 
The original recipe comes from one of our first neighbors when we lived in Seaside. You can see it in the photograph. Below I’ve given the ingredients for a whole wheat pastry flour crust, you can make your own favorite crust or try a graham cracker crust, which is even more decadent. I made some candied lemon peel, which in the process creates a lemon simple syrup. So I used a tablespoon of simple syrup in the whipping cream and topped the pie with chopped candied lemon peel. It made the pie less dense and more refreshing. What do you think?
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American Comfort
Servings: 6
Author: Barbara
Ingredients
Filling and Topping
  • 1-3/4 Cups garnet yams about two medium-large
  • 1/2 cup or less white or brown sugar
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp ginger
  • ¼ tsp mace
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 half and half
Candied Lemon Peel (optional)
  • 3 lemons
  • 2 cups water
  • 1-1/4 cup sugar
  • Simple Syrup flavored with lemon optional
  • Whipping Cream
Crust for a 9” pie
  • ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 cup unbleached white flour
  • ½ cup butter
  • 2 tbsp Crisco
  • 4-6 tbsp ice water
Instructions
Filling
  1. Preheat the oven to 400. Roast the yams whole and scoop out the yam, cool. Meanwhile, prepare the candied lemon peel and simple syrup (see below).
  2. Prepare your piecrust while the yams are baking.
  3. Puree the yams, sugar, half and half and spices until the mixture is smooth.
  4. Add the 2 eggs. Puree until completely smooth.
Pie Crust

  1. Mix together the flours and salt. Cut the butter and additional fat into small cubes. In your foot processor, or by hand, mix the fat and flour until it has the consistency of flour and small peas. Remove the dough from the processor and put dough in a bowl.

  2. Using a fork, gently mix the flour with the ice water, until it begins to clump. Test to make sure the dough does not become sticky before adding more. 

  3.  The dough should be pliant, a little powdery with flour, and able to form into a ball. You will still be able to see the little globules of fat. Put the dough in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  4. Roll out the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap, rolling in each direction from the center outward keeping the dough round, until the dough is wide enough to fit your pan. Remove the top piece of plastic wrap. Fold the dough in half and gently lift it into the pie pan, unfolding it to fit. Do not stretch the dough to fit. Roll the outer lips of the pastry under, thickening the rim. Crimp the rims edge in your favorite pattern.

  5. Pour the pie filling into the raw pie crust.

Baking the Pie
  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce the heat to 350 for another 40 minutes, testing for doneness with a toothpick, or notice if the tops are beginning to crack.
  2. Cool before serving.
Candied Lemon Peel and Simple Syrup
  1. On low simmer 2 cups of water for 30 minutes or until the sugar is completely melted.
  2. Peel the lemons leaving as much white pith as possible. Cut the peels into thin slices. Put the peels in the hot syrup, and continue cooking on medium low for 40 minutes or until the peelings are more transparent.
  3. Remove the peelings from the now lemon flavored simple syrup. Put ¼ cup of sugar in a bowl. Toss in the cooked lemon peels, coating them with sugar. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Put the coated lemon peels on the parchment and bake in a warm (175 degree) oven for 1 hour. Remove and cool. Store the peelings in a sealed jar.

  4. Chop the candied peels

Assembly
  1. Whip enough whipping cream for your servings, add 1 tablespoon or more of lemon flavored simple syrup. Slice the pie, Top with a couple of tablespoons whipped cream and a dusting of chopped candied lemon peel.
Recipe Notes

The simple syrup and candied lemon peel are not necessary.