Baked Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet Potatoes are a very versatile ingredient that is often kept on the back-burner. These delicately sweet tubers are a powerhouse of nutrition too, giving you all the more reason to cook with them. Baked Sweet Potato Fries are my absolute favorites – if you haven’t tried them yet, I urge you to do so! However, this tempting Sweet Potato Pie that comes from Susan aka Foddblogga, is a recent favorite too! The original recipe comes from Bill Smith, the nationally renowned owner and chef of Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. YOu can find it in Nancy McDermott’s cookbook called Southern Pies. I love the fact that he uses sweetened condensed milk to make the pie filling – it makes the pie rich and smooth, giving it a dense texture and a wonderful feel when you bite into a piece.

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients
1 ready-made 9-inch pie crust
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups mashed, cooked sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds)
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 tsp lemon extract or vanilla extract

Method
Preheat the oven to 350 F and set the pie crust outside to thaw, if using frozen one.

In a small bowl, combine flour cinnamon, allspice, cloves, baking powder, and salt and use a fork to stir them together well.

Place the sweet potatoes in a medium bowl and beat them well, using an electric mixer at medium speed or a whisk or big wooden spoon. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the sugar and beat to incorporate it completely into the sweet potato-egg mixture. Add the spice mixture, milk, butter, and extract, and beat at low speed to combine everything evenly and well.

Pour the filling into the ready-made pie-crust and place it on the lowest rack of the oven. Bake until the edges puff up and the center is fairly firm, wiggling only a little when you gently nudge the pan, 40 to 50 minutes.

Place the pie on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel and let cool to room temperature.

Once cool enough, slice the pie into wedges, and serve with a side of whipped cream; it tastes great even if served plain, with a cup of tea or coffee.

This pie would be great on any occasion, and using a ready-made pie crust makes it simple to whip it up. However, if you believe in baking from scratch, here’s a post I wrote earlier about How to make a perfect Pie crust.

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No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake
Traditional Pumpkin Pie
Orange Pecan Pie