Posted by Elena on Dec 25, 2012 | 0 comments

Merry Christmas! Enjoy Sweet Potato Pie!

Charlie Brown: “…my trouble is Christmas. I just don’t understand it. Instead of feeling happy, I feel sort of let down.”

Lucy Van Pelt: ” You need involvement. You’ll need to get involved in some real Christmas project…”

From a “Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965).

Merry Christmas to Everyone! I definitely do not feel ‘sort of let down’ on Christmas, like Charlie Brown from an epic Christmas cartoon, but I do get a bit nostalgic. Since all my family lives in another country, sometimes I feel it is not fair that we are all so far apart. I know that everybody is grown up and have families and kids of their own, yet I still hope that one day we all get together on some holiday, like Christmas.

Christmas tree is lit up, the gifts are unwrapped, happy wishes are exchanged, and I am ready for my cooking adventures. This year I decided to get involved into a small project of mine, baking a sweet potato pie. That was my husband’s wish and I got excited myself, too. I surely ate sweet potato pie, served elsewhere, and thought of it as of a traditional dish on Halloween or Christmas, but nothing more. So, I decided to prove wrong and approach to making this sweet thing with my little knowledge on cooking. First and foremost, ingredients. I could not just go and buy some crust. I needed organic crust! I do believe in everything written on packages, and if it says, no artificial ingredients, organic, etc etc – it automatically makes my taste buds happy.

I found such crust in Nutrition S’Mart. Sweet potato was sold out in 2 stores I dropped in, so I had my last hope for the third one, and found it there. I had other ingredients in my cupboards and the fridge. So, get ready and make sure you have 2.5 hours to spare for this project. Well, it is all worth it if you want to impress someone you love!

Ingredients:

- 9 inch pie crust, unbaked

- 3 large sweet potatoes. See below how I cooked it. It should yield 2 1/2 cup mashed sweet potato.

- 4 tbsp organic butter, melted.

- 7 tbsp brown raw sugar for baking mixture in a pie and 3 tbsp brown raw sugar for baking potato. In most recipes online it is recommended to use a total of 1 cup brown raw sugar. I wanted to make it less sweet. FYI: 1 US cup = 16 US tbsp. I used 10 tbsp, so it is ideal for those, who watch sugar intake. If not sure, you may taste it for sugar (mashed potato) before you add raw eggs.

- 3 organic eggs

- 1 cup organic milk

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

- 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Cook sweet potato and mash it or bake it in the oven, and then mash it. Or see how I did it.

Having read several recipes, I realized that sweet potato should taste better when baked. I have also read, that it takes much longer for it to be cooked than a regular potato. Trying to save time, I decided to peel it, slice it and place it on the foil in one layer. I poured over some vegetable oil on top. I dissolved 3 tbsp raw brown sugar in water and poured over it, too. I also sprinkled some ground nutmeg and cinnamon. I thought, evaporating water will cook potato faster. Well, it took one hour at 350F anyway:-) After the first 30 minutes I turned over the potato. It may take less when you do it, since ovens are different. Check it after first 25-30 minutes, and if the bottom is soft and the top is hard, turn it over and continue until it is done.

When the potato is ready, take it out of the oven and mash it to make 2 1/2 cups. I used a mixer and it is probably the best way for a smooth pie. Then I added melted butter and 7 tbsp brown sugar. Continuing using mixer, add 3 eggs to the mixture, one egg at a time. Stir in 1 cup milk, vanilla, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Once your mixture is smooth, pour it into a frozen pie crust and bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes. You may use a test of a toothpick: when inserted near center, it comes out clean. I baked for an hour and it came out very soft, but cooked inside, not marshy.

Let your pie cool a bit. When right out of the oven it will be high, but then it would go down. You may decorate it with some pecans and serve it with whipped cream. Enjoy!

Place peeled sliced sweet potato on a foil in one layer, add some vegetable oil, and pour over some water with dissolved brown sugar.

Ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and brown raw sugar

After 30 minutes of baking, turn over potato slices.

After 1 hour sweet potato slices should be cooked and soft. Mash them and measure 2 1/2 cups.

Have ready melted butter (on the stove), vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, brown raw sugar, 1 cup milk and 3 eggs to stir into a mashed sweet potato.

Adding melted butter to mashed potato.

Add one egg at a time, using the mixer on a lowest setting.

Obviously, you need to mix everything using a bigger bowl, not a measuring cup:-)

Pour the mixture into a frozen crust and place it into the oven, heated up to 350F. Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until the toothpick is clean when inserted into the center of the pie.