Sweet potatoes might be the state vegetable of North Carolina. They grow abundantly all over our state and all the varieties taste absolutely delicious.
Sweet potato pie is a great use for leftover sweet potatoes – if you ever have that problem. I have been trying to make a sweet potato pie for weeks, but every time I bake some sweet potatoes, they are promptly devoured by the children, leaving me no extras for pie.
Thankfully, over the course of a few days of sweet potato snacking, I was able to scrounge together about 2 cups of sweet potatoes so I could make this delicious pie.
To begin … Bake up some sweet potatoes. I have been getting most of my sweet potatoes from Puzzle Peace Farm in Rutherford County, NC. I have tested out every type they grow … finally, last week, I just bought a bushel of assorted sweet potatoes to be divided among any interested friends. That 50 pound bag of potatoes was emptied in a flash. (Click here to read the Puzzle Peace Farm blog post all about sweet potatoes…)
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| Sweet Potatoes From Puzzle Peace Farm |
Wash your potatoes to get all of that good dirt off of them and then stab them a few times with a fork. Lay them on a cookie sheet and let them bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 2 hours depending on their size. As soon as your house starts to smell like delicious caramelized sugars, you know your sweet potatoes are probably done. Squeeze them a bit to see if they are sufficiently soft and remove them from the oven to cool.
To make this pie, you will need 2 cups of sweet potatoes – any type will work. Remove them from their skins and mash them into a measuring cup. I had to accumulate my potatoes over a few days – sneaking them away from the kiddos one at a time.
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| 2 cups packed, mashed, cooked sweet potatoes |
And now for the recipe … I found a couple of sweet potato pie recipes in the Charlotte Observer a few weeks ago and it inspired me to try to create a crustless version. The major changes I made (aside from not having a crust!) were that I only used brown sugar, no white sugar, and I substituted buttermilk for regular milk, and I added 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and completely took out the flour.
Sweet Potato Pie (recipe modified from the Charlotte Observer)
Ingredients:
2 cups of packed, mashed, cooked sweet potatoes
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon, vanilla extract
Directions:
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| The beautiful color of sweet potatoes! |
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Beat the sweet potatoes, brown sugar, and other dry ingredients until the ingredients are gently combined. Turn mixer to high and continue beating for another minute or so, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time.
4. Add in buttermilk, butter, and vanilla.
5. Put your pan (or pans) on a cookie tray. Pour the filling into your pie pan (or pans – I used 2 mini deep dish pizza pans from Williams Sonoma and 1 small ramekin) and bake at 325 degrees for at least an hour.
6. Check the doneness of the pie with a cake tester or a fork. The tester should come out clean – if it still looks like it has not cooked all the way through, put it in for an additional 10 minutes or more.
Enjoy! This was intended to be served as a dessert but it turned out to be a really convenient side dish – especially paired with leftover turkey sandwiches. Yum.
