Mmmm pie. Who doesn’t love it? Crispy, flaky, buttery crust, filled with some sort of sweet deliciousness, all topped with whipped cream? I adore pie (and unlike most people, have always thought the crust was the best part).
Each year, I make several (hundred) pies at Thanksgiving, but usually I stick to Pumpkin, Pecan, and Apple-Cranberry. You know, the classics. I started thinking about other flavors of pie that are a part of many family’s traditions. Mincemeat, Sweet Potato, Caramel Pear… I realized that I have made many of those in the past, but haven’t ever tried Sweet Potato pie. I do love me some sweet starchy tubers, and I usually slather my sweet potatoes with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, so naturally, the only thing that could make this better is to stick it all in a crust!
When making sweet potatoes to snack on at home, I typically bake 4-5 pounds at a time, and then we’ll keep the leftovers in the fridge and use it to make egg hash in the mornings, or jerk chicken-stuffed sweet potatoes for dinner.
This super easy pie was made with purple sweet potatoes, which are so vibrant and gorgeous, I just couldn’t resist using them. Because purple! You could use traditional sweet potatoes as well, just know that the purple ones are a little bit drier than yellow-fleshed sweets, so your resulting pie will have a different texture.
Roast your sweets until tender throughout when you stick a fork in it (it’s done!). Let cool and peel the skin off. Then par bake your pie crust and toss everything else together. If you’re using a shallow 9″ pie tin, you will have extra filling (I put mine in a few oven-proof mugs and baked crustless pie filling).
My secret ingredient is garam masala. Why? Because I had it on hand, and with the kitchen remodel, it’s one of the spices I could find. Plus it’s such a lovely, unique flavor and slightly different from what anyone might expect, and I do love bringing something unexpected in to familiar recipes.
Let me know what you think!
- 1 baked 9" pie shell (Mine was gluten-free)
- 1 medium purple sweet potato (about 1.5 pounds), baked, cooled and peeled
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mash or blend the cooked and peeled purple sweet potatoes until fairly smooth. I like to use my stand mixer with paddle attachment.
- Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix well.
- Add the brown sugar, sugar and molasses and mix in, then add all the spices, the vanilla and the heavy cream and slowly mix to incorporate.
- Pour the filling into your baked pie crust and smooth the top with your spatula a bit. Pour any remaining filling into oven-proof ramekins or mugs.
- Bake until the pie is set around the edges, and only slightly jiggly in the center, about 45 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature, about an hour and a half. Refrigerate until serving, at least 3 additional hours.
- Combine the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and garam masala in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment. Whip until medium peaks form, then pipe or dollop on pie. Refrigerate pie until serving (or make the whipped cream right before serving).
So I love pumpkin pie, but I m drooling over this one and I don t even like sweet potatoes. Maybe I ll like them in pie form!
Try them! The texture is definitely drier and fluffier than with pumpkin pie, which is usually fairly dense and moist, but with similar spices, it’s still delicious!