Sweet Potato Pie

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This is a post that may be a bit late, you know, to bake a pie on the day of, but it may be a recipe to try on the next Thanksgiving day.  I don't normally make pumpkin pie myself; I find it a bit bland and not substantial.  But this year I decided to make on--with sweet potato--because I personally love that knobby root vegetable better than sugar pumpkin.

To my surprise I enjoy eating it so much that I think I'm ready to make it a tradition of baking it every year.  This one pie is a simple variety of so many out there with outrageous add-ins.  It is a strictly sweet potato with cream, milk, brown sugar, eggs, and lots of spices.  And as always, my favorite part is topping it with lightly sweetened whipped cream, yumm...

The crust recipe here is for three 9-inch pie which you can freeze after you divide the dough into three portions.  Wrap it well with plastic wrap and freeze up for a month.  I've always like having extra pie dough in my freezer anyway because I don't know always know when my pie craving strike; that way it's halfway done!

Sweet Potato Pie

Makes 12 servings

1 recipe All-Butter Piecrust, recipe follows
1 1/4 pounds sweet potatoes
1 cup whipping cream
3/4 packed brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of kosher salt

Prepare the All-Butter Piecrust as directed, except after removing foil and weights, bake about 5 minutes more or until set but not browned.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Prick the sweet potatoes all over with a fork, wrap them in foil, and roast in the oven 60 to 70 minutes or until tender.  Reduce oven to 375 degrees F.

Let sweet potatoes cool.  Peel and place in a bowl.  Mash with a potato masher.  (You should have about 2 cups.)  In a food processor combine mashed sweet potatoes, cream, brown sugar, milk, eggs, the spices, and a pinch of kosher salt.  Cover and process just until smooth.  Pour the sweet potato filling into the piecrust.  Cover edges of pie with foil (or use a metal pie crust shield).  Bake 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for 20 to 30 minutes more or until evenly puffed and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.


All-Butter Piecrust

Makes three 9-inch piecrusts

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4-1 cup cold water

In a large bowl whisk together flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt.  Using a pastry blender or your fingers, work butter into flour mixture until butter is bean-size.  Stir in 3/4 cup of the water, a few tablespoons at a time.  Squeeze a small handful of dough.  If dough is still crumbly, stir in the remaining water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Turn dough out in a mound on a work surface.  Starting with a quarter of the mixture, smear the section of the dough with palm of your hand, pushing away from the mound.  Repeat with remaining dough sections.  Gather the dough into a ball, divide into thirds, wrap in plastic wrap, and press each into a round disk.  Chill 30 to 60 minutes.  At this point, you can freeze the remaining two in a freezer bag and store for up to a month in the freezer.

Using a floured rolling pin a generously floured surface, roll dough into a 12-inch circle.  Transfer to a 9-inch pie plate and trim to 1/2-inc beyond edge of pie plate.  Fold extra dough under, even with the pie plate edges; press it together.  Flute as desired.  Prick the bottom and sides of dough several times with a fork.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line dough with a double thickness of foil; fill with pie weights or dried beans.  Bake about 20 minutes or until sides are golden and firm.  Remove weights and foil.  Proceeds with the rest of pie direction.  If wanting to have a finished pie crust, continue baking the crust after removing weights; 10 to 15 minutes more or until the bottom is golden.  Cool completely on wire rack.


Source:  adapted from Better Homes and Garden, recipe by Ian Knauer

Apple-Pear Praline Pie

Here I am, back after Thanksgiving break.  I had a great holiday with my parents and I hope you, readers, had a great time with your loved ones.  When it's time to go back to work, I wasn't so excited, but my work schedule is actually not a bad one.  In a about 2 weeks time, I'll have a winter break for two weeks!  

My husband and I finally replaced the igniter in our oven today.  I feel so giddy right now, it's like having a new oven!  For a few weeks I couldn't do any baking nor making any menu because I couldn't forecast whether I'd still have my oven or not.  I could end up having to buy a new one, which I wanted to avoid.  Now I can bake cookies!  More pies!  Make that Dutch pancakes for breakfast!  

Taking apart that old igniter was a pain though, because the old screw has lost its grooves which made it hard to unscrew.  We had to use all kinds of tools, and hoping that it wouldn't break the screw because we still had to reuse it to attach the new igniter.  In the end, the new one got installed; what's supposed to be a 15-minute job took about an hour, yeah, it's never that easy.  When I pushed the button to bake and set the temperature, it seemed like an eternity, but lo and behold, it worked right away without me having to use a fire retardant :)

To end my happy dance, I'm going to share the recipe of apple-pear praline pie.  This was the pie that I made for Thanksgiving day; it was a hit with my family, especially since it's eaten with vanilla ice cream.  My family wasn't a big fan of pumpkin pie anyway so making this was a smarter plan.  We had too much to eat, of course, and I was punished by having some extra pounds packed into my belly.  Oh well, I have 3 weeks of dieting before the food galore starts again :D

Apple-Pear Praline Pie

Makes 8 servings

1 recipe Nut Pastry

¾ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups thinly sliced, peeled tart apples

3 cups sliced, peeled pears

2 tablespoons butter, cut up

¼ cup unsalted butter

½ cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons milk or half-and-half

Preheat oven to 375F.  Prepare Nut Pastry.  On a lightly floured surface use your hands to slightly flatten one pastry ball.  Roll it from center to edges into a circle about 12 inches in diameter.  Wrap pastry circle around the rolling pin.  Unroll pastry into a 9-inch pie plate.  Roll remaining ball into a circle about 12 inches in diameter.

In a large bowl, combine granulated sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and dash of salt.  Add apples and pears; gently toss until coated.  Transfer apple mixture to the pastry-lined pie plate.  Dot with the 2 tablespoons butter.  Fold bottom pastry under and crimp as desired.  Roll second pastry circle; with leaf-shape/acorn-shaped/any shape cookie cutter, cut out shapes from second pastry circle.  Arrange cutouts on top of filling.  

To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil.  Place a foil-lined baking sheet on the rack below the pie in oven.  Bake for 50 minutes; remove foil.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes more or until filling is bubbly.  Transfer to a wire rack.

In a small saucepan, melt the ¼ cup butter over medium heat.  Gradually stir in brown sugar and milk.  Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil.  Carefully spoon over baked pie.  Return pie to oven; bake for 2 to 3 minutes more or until topping bubbles.  Cool on wire rack.

Nut Pastry

In a large bowl, stir together 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, ¼ cup ground toasted almonds or pecans, and 1 teaspoon salt.  Using a pastry blender, cut into ¼ cup shortening and ¼ cup unsalted butter, cut up, until pieces are pea size.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon ice water over part of the flour mixture; toss gently with a fork.  Push moistened pastry to one side of bowl.  Repeat moistening flour mixture, using 1 tablespoon ice water at a time, until all of the flour mixture is moistened (½ to ⅔ cup ice water total). Gather flour mixture into a ball, kneading gently until it holds together.  Divide pastry in half; form halves into balls.

Source:  Holiday Recipes Better Homes and Garden 2013