Sweet Potato Pie

 

Sweet potato pie is one of the offbeat pie varieties made by filling unbaked pie shells with a mix of sweet potatoes, milk, sugar, eggs, seasonings, and spices, which are then baked in oven until puffy. The taste of sweet potatoes seems to blend properly with cinnamon and nutmeg; hence the pie often makes use of these two ingredients as the seasoning agents. Best served with a dollop of whipped cream, sweet potato pie is indeed a great treat to indulge in, especially for special breakfasts. The pie is also popularly served as a dessert with topping of toasted pecans.

 

A traditional dessert from Southern United States is popularly known and named as sweet potato pie. Mostly served at the parties of American holiday season such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, sweet potato pie recipe is quite similar to another famous pumpkin pie recipe of US. The Northern United States has brought in a slight modification in the sweet potato pie recipe, by adding flavor of marshmallows, which is used as one of the topping ingredients of the pie. The filling of the pies is usually a blend of mashed sweet potatoes, milk, sugar, eggs, and nutmeg.

 

Sweet potato, the key ingredient of the pie, is a tuber related to potato, with its origins in South America. The sweet potatoes are of various types with a sweet taste although the extent of sweetness varies from one type to another. Sweet potatoes may possess a light tan skin, slightly purple skin, reddish colored skin, or brown colored skin. Sweet potatoes with light tan skin have a mild sweet flavor, while others are very sweet. For the preparation of sweet potato pies, normally dark skinned types are chosen due to their high sweet content. By adding little amount of sugar, nutmeg, and butter to sweet potatoes, the baked pies make a fantastic treat.  

 

 

Preparation Overview

Sweet potato pie can be prepared in various ways due to its versatility to be served either as a dessert or as a side dish. It can be made in a simple manner with the help of a few spices or served as an elegant dessert after being topped with pecans. The sweet potato pie recipe suggests filing pie shell with sweet potato mix, which is then baked for around an hour until puffed. The pie is cooked when a knife inserted in the middle of it comes out clean. The pie sinks down while it cools. The variations of the pie are explained in terms of use of distinct stuffing ingredients, with sweet potato being a common ingredient in all the recipes.  A few recipes suggest combining boiled sweet potatoes with ginger, while a few recipes call for the use of nutmeg and cinnamon. Milk, either half and half milk or sweetened condensed milk, is also one of the ingredients which is combined along with sweet potatoes and spices to prepare the filling for the pie crust.

 

 

Popular Recipes

A few popular recipes of sweet potato pie have been discussed as under:

 

  • Easy sweet potato pie- The sweet potato mix is prepared by combining boiled sweet potatoes (with skin removed) with softened butter, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and nutmeg. The pie crust is filled with this stuffing mix and baked in oven.
  • Pecan streusel sweet potato pie- boiled sweet potatoes are combined with sugar, eggs, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, milk, and ginger, and filled into pie crust before being baked in oven. The pie is served as a dessert after being topped with pecan streusel, which is an amalgamation of flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg, butter, and toasted pecans.  
  • Cream cheese pie- the cream cheese sweet potato pie recipe suggests spreading cream cheese mix at the pie shell’s bottom, topping it with sweet potato mix, and then baking it in oven. It is suggested to top the pie with a mix of oats, pecans, cinnamon, flour, sugar, and butter, and bake it again for some time. The cream cheese mixture is a blend of cream cheese, sugar, and eggs. The sweet potato mix is an amalgamation of mashed sweet potatoes, salt, sugar, eggs, milk, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.
  • Gourmet sweet potato pie- pie shells are filled with a mix of spices, sweet potatoes, eggs, milk, sugar, heavy cream, butter, and vanilla; topped with toasted pecans and a mix of eggs, brown sugar, white sugar, melted butter, salt, nutmeg, and vanilla; and then baked in oven.  

 

 

 

Serving

Sweet potato pies are served popularly with whipped cream. As a dessert, they are delicious with topping of toasted pecans.

 

 

Nutrition Facts

131 g of sweet potato pie provides around 340 calories, obtained from 17 g of fat, 40 mg of cholesterol, 240 mg of sodium, 44 g of carbohydrates, and 4 g of protein.