Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

A hint of coconut in this creamy sweet potato pie versionEvery holiday season, I could count on my maternal-grandmother to make her homemade sweet potato pie. It was beyond good! My mom, everyone in the family and I would place "orders" with her each Thanksgiving and Christmas. When she passed in 2003 - among many things - I thought how I would miss her pies. In 2005, I decided it's time for pie again! Let me add, I'm not much of a natural baker. And, no one ever knew my grandmother's recipe. I asked her once, what was her secret , and she answered "syrup". Mind you, I had no idea how she used it. My first pie tasted like syrupy dirt...LOL. It was just awful. Didn't taste like pie at all, but more like plain baked sweet potatoes in a dry pie crust. Yuk! I used that entire year to perfect my version of SPP and added a little coconut umph to bring in new flavors to a family classic. The outcome was and is a really flavorful, sweet and enjoyable dessert! Since 2006 until today, I now get the orders from both family and friends for my sweet potato pie. No secret from me, I'm happy to share the recipe. BTW - in my trials, I've made it using majority organic ingredients and all non-organic. I prefer organic when I can. Organic is considerably more costly, but I like the flavor much better - and a hit on the purse once or twice a year for family and friends is something I can handle. But, non-organic is perfectly fine, and deliciously edible too. NOTE: Some may find this too sweet, if so, I recommend to reduce the sugar amount not the sweetened milk. Cook time includes steaming + baking.

By Dayvonne Smith
Published: Jan 21, 2014 06:33 PM GMT / 
Updated: Mar 12, 2014 03:10 PM GMT
  • Prep Time
    20 min
  • Cook Time
    85 min
  • Difficulty
    Easy
  • Servings
    8

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 to 3 medium-to-large sized organic sweet potatoes or yams (orange or dark-orange in color)
  • 2 large organic eggs (room temperature)
  • 1 cup of organic sugar
  • 1 can of organic sweetened condensed milk (this is always hard for me to find in the outer boroughs of NYC)
  • 1 stick of organic butter (salted or unsalted is fine. However, if using salted butter, omit adding salt separately)
  • 1/2 teaspoon organic ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon organic ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon organic pure vanilla extract (I prefer pure not imitation, but use whatever you can find)
  • 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon organic pure coconut extract (again, same comment as vanilla)
  • 1/2 teaspoon organic salt (use if you're not using salted butter)
  • 1 frozen 9" pie crust (I don't make crust from scratch. And, I find the organic crust really dry and too crumbly. Home make your crust if you like or use your favorite store brand. I tend to like Mrs. Smith's / Oronoque Orchard's deep dish frozen pie crusts).

DIRECTIONS

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350-degrees.
  2. Steamer: Place appx. 1.5" - 3" of water in pot and bring to boil. Sit steamer basket on top of boiling water pot. Turn down flame to simmer until you're ready to add sweet potatoes to steamer basket. Check out this site to learn how to steam without a steamer or basket (http://http//noshon.it/tips/how-to-steam-without-a-steamer-basket/).
  3. Rinse off sweet potatoes
  4. Peel skin off sweet potatoes
  5. Chop off ends of sweet potatoes & discard (discarding ends is my preference because ends kind'a creep me out. You can keep and include)
  6. Rinse peeled sweet potatoes to remove any peeled skin residue
  7. Slice up sweet potatoes into 1/4" to 1/2" slices (sliced or cut-up sweet pots steam & soften faster)
  8. Place sliced up sweet potatoes in steamer basket
  9. Cover steamer basket with lid
  10. Steam appx. 20-25 minutes (test with fork or toothpick to make sure potatoes are soft)
  11. Turn off flame, remove lid and let potatoes cool for a while (appx. 5-10 minutes) .
  12. In a large bowl add in steamed & softened cut-up sweet potato slices / chunks (try not use a metal bowl)
  13. Melt stick of butter and add melted butter, 1 can of sweetened milk and 1 cup of sugar to bowl of sweet potatoes
  14. Mix ingredients with electric blender on medium speed for appx. 5 minutes (Note: Typically, I add butter, milk and sugar first to help further cool down steamed potatoes before I add eggs. Even though eggs are room temp, sometimes when adding eggs to hot ingredients the eggs will scramble a bit when it's mixed. No one wants bits of scrambled eggs in their sweet potato pie. My eggs have never scrambled but this is my "just in case" step).
  15. Add in 2 large room temperature eggs. Mix until eggs are blended in.
  16. Add in remaining ingredients - cinnamon, nutmeg, salt (no salt if using salted butter), vanilla extract and coconut extract, and continue to blend until pie mixture is cream smooth. (small chunks and some potato strings will be visible or caught on your blender blades - that's fine)
  17. Pour pie mixture into frozen pie shell to about right under the ridge (pie will puff up a bit like a souffle when baking)
  18. Place pie in oven at 350-degrees and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until knife inserted at center of pie comes out clean (shorter bake times may result in pie filling not setting well and being slightly looser - always test as you know your oven's heat range best)
  19. Remove pie from oven, wrap with foil (plastic wrap will melt on heated pie plate), and place in 'fridge to cool - appx. 4 hours. (I wrap with foil out of habit, but wrapping is not required & only used to protect pie while cooling)
  20. I like to eat SPP cold. Feel free to eat cold or warm up and top with your fave ice cream flavor or whip cream.
  21. ENJOY!
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