Purple Sweet Potato Pie with Maple Cream

I’m pretty sure that if we go through the recipe index here at The Lemon Apron, there are more versions of pumpkin pie on the blog than any other pie!

And that says a lot, since Jim is a huge apple pie fan, and I am a huge rhubarb fan.  But pumpkin, well, I just can’t get enough of that creamy texture come Autumn, the best season of the year.

So let’s take the classic Autumn custard pie and turn it into something with a bit more sparkle!  And let’s turn to the southern US states for their classic, Sweet Potato Pie.

Sweet Potato Pie

Okay, let’s admit it, sweet potato, once roasted or boiled and mashed, is pretty well a dead ringer for pumpkin purée.  So of course it can be transformed into a pie.  And thanks to its inherent sweetness, it is just natural to want to turn it into some sort of dessert.  It’s really so easy.  Boil the potatoes, drain and add them to a food processor with a bit of the cooking water to help mash them into a smooth purée.  Use what you need for the pie, and use the rest to fill ravioli, gnocchi, or just add some fun seasonings like salt, pepper, chilli powder, harissa powder, and cayenne and eat as a fun mash.

The purée will get blended with evaporated milk, sugar, eggs and spices, and next thing you know you are filling a par-baked pie shell with a wondrous filling.  Bake and top as desired.  If we are going traditional southern, then marshmallow or meringue is the topper.  But I’m happy with a sweetened whipped cream.

Kicking it up a Notch with Purple Sweet Potato!

First off, the colour!! But let’s not forget the health benefits of purple sweet potatoes.  High in beta-carotene, anti inflammatory properties, and antioxidants (even higher than blueberries!) which are great for your immune system.  The purple comes from anthocyanins, a flavanoid which is also present in blueberries, red cabbage, cherries, plums etc. In addition to the antioxidants, purple sweet potatoes are high in vitamin C, fibre and potassium and are also lower on the glycemic index than regular potatoes.  So yes, they are healthy! I use Stokes, a particular potato developed by a farmer in North Carolina, which have taken the veggie world by storm. Okinawan purple sweet potatoes, a Japanese variety, have a purple flesh, but their skin is more creamy coloured.  So chances are, if you find dark purple fleshed sweet potatoes, they are probably Stokes.

Just peel, cut the potato into rings and place in a pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and let them simmer till tender.  A knife should be able to slide in easily.  Save that blue water, it has flavour and colour! Place the slices into a food processor, and purée.  Add just enough of the reserved water to help the potatoes blend into the texture of pumpkin purée, but not any thinner. Better to have the mash a bit thicker than too thin.

Details About This Recipe

I used Zoë Bakes recipe as the jumping off point.  I have tried several sweet potato pie filling recipes through the years, and this by far is my favourite.  The result is creamy but not runny, firm but not stiff. 

I use my Perfect Pie Pastry recipe, these days substituting a cup for cup gluten free blend for the AP flour.  You will need 1 half of the full recipe to fill the pie shell, and approximately half of the second round to make the amount of pie cut-outs I show here.

Zoë’s recipe will fill a large, deep dish pie shell.  It does result in a more impressive rise so that each slice has more presence.  Even with using a deep dish pie plate, I did have enough filling leftover to fill two ramekins with the custard (for midnight snacking!).  So I will say this: if you don’t have a deep dish pie plate, feel free to divide the filling between two average 9 inch pie shells.  Then you will have one to eat right away, and one to freeze (see below for instructions on how to freeze a baked custard pie).

Or you can halve the filling recipe for one  pie.  Yes, this means dividing 3 eggs in half.  How do you do this?  Easy: just whisk three eggs together in a measuring cup.  Use half of this mixture for the pie filling, and save the rest for scrambled eggs the next day!

If you look up Zoë’s recipe here, you will see that it is a showstopper due to the fabulously mile high stacked meringue piped to look like one of Esther William’s bathing caps (yes, I am old enough to remember our mothers wearing bathing caps when swimming! Check out a great Esther Williams movie from the 40’s or 50’s to see her caps in action!)  I am not that talented or patient.  Plus, once the meringue has been added to a pie, for best results it really does need to get eaten relatively quickly.  If I know that the pie I am making is for a group, then I will top it with meringue. Other than that, I turn to sweetened whipped cream, which I can make and then store separately and spoon on as needed.

Using Pie Pastry Cookies for Decor

So if we aren’t topping off this pie with impressively piped meringue, how do we make it pretty?  I turn to my trusty pie crust cookies.  Since I am already making a batch of pastry, I just use some of the remaining pastry to cut out cookies, usually with a cookie stamp which adds instant texture and pattern.  Using leaves is my favourite.  And how to make them look even more whimsical?  Before placing them into the fridge to chill, you will roll up small sections of tin foil and place the pastry cookies over them in fun ways.  This will help them bake up to look like windblown leaves.  And having them rounded in fun ways also makes them easy to drape over the baked edge of any pie you are making.  Brush with egg wash and  bake in a 375F oven till golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.  Keep an eye on them, you will find that some may finish baking before others.

Final Thoughts

Since Pie season is in full swing, make up a few batches of my pie pastry, and store the rounds in the freezer.  When thawing out a round that will be used for cookie cut-outs, you can make all the cookie cut outs, and freeze some un-baked ones for another pie, or sprinkle the cut-outs you won’t need for the pie with sugar and cinnamon and bake as cookies for nibbling.

Storing: Since custard pies contain milk and eggs of some sort, refrigerated is required. These pies usually taste fine chilled or brought back to room temperature. Once completely cooled, wrap some foil around the pie.  If not completely cooled, condensation on the surface will occur.

Freezing: If you want to bake one (or two pies) to freeze here are the directions, from Southern Living:

How to Reheat Sweet Potato Pie

If reheating directly from the freezer, place the frozen pie on a baking sheet and heat at 300° for 40-50 minutes. If your pie has a pre-baked crust, keep the pie loosely covered with foil covered until the last 10 minutes. If your sweet potato pie has thawed in the refrigerator, place the chilled pie on the baking sheet and bake at 300° for less time, for about 30 minutes, again keeping the edges of the crust covered. Insert the tip of a knife into the center of the pie to see if the pie has warmed up. 

Have fun with purple sweet potatoes!  They make for a showstopper of a pie, and also are awesome mashed, roasted or smashed! And eat some purple pie!

Love Jen

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Purple Sweet Potato Pie with Maple Cream

A velvety textured sweet potato pie just got way more festive because it's purple! The texture is a joy, and finishing with a maple syrup scented whipped cream makes this a showstopper of an autumn pie.

Course Dessert

Cuisine North American

Keyword maple syrup, pie cut outs, pie pastry, purple sweet potato, whipping cream

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Chill time for crust and baked pie 4 hours

Servings 8

Ingredients

• One 9-inch deep dish crust, see link below for recipe, plus pastry cookie cut outs, see Notes
• 680 g purple sweet potato puree, or 1 lb 8 oz, see Notes below
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 12 ounce can evaporated milk, or 354 ml
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup sugar, or more if potatoes aren't as sweet as you'd like
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• egg wash for crust

Whipped Cream topping

• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 cup whipping cream

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 325°F. Have either one large deep dish pie plate with par-baked crust, two regular sized prepared pie plates, or one pie plate and ramekins ready.

2. Combine the sweet potato puree with the spices.

3. To make the filling: In a large bowl, whisk together the sweet potato puree, evaporated milk, sour cream, sugar, salt, extracts and eggs. Pour into the blind baked pie shell and paint the edge of the crust with the egg wash.
4. If you have more filling than will fill the pie shell, pour the remaining filling into one or two ramekins and bake along side the pie.

5. Bake the pie for about 60-70 minutes for deep dish pie (will take less time if using a smaller pie shell) or until the edges of the filling start to puff and the middle is set, but still slightly wobbly. Let your eyes and not the timer be your judge here.

6. Cool completely, about 3 hours. The pie will be easier to cut once completely cool or refrigerated.
7. When the pie comes out of the oven, turn the heat up to 375F. Place the pastry cut outs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush lightly with an egg wash. Bake on the centre rack, till golden brown, between 15-20 minutes. Once cooled, decorate the pie as you desire.

To serve with Whipped Cream:

1. Whip the cream with a hand mixer or stand mixer and whisk attachment. Start on slow speed, graduating to high speed. Once it starts to thicken, add the maple syrup. Once fully whipped and stiff peaks are achieved, top the pie, or else store in a sealed container in the fridge till needed.

2. See blog post for more details. If baking two regular sized pies, instructions for freezing one are in the blog post.

Recipe Notes

To find my Perfect Pie Crust recipe, click here.
To partially bake, preheat the oven to 400F. Line a pie plate with the pastry, and crimp as desired. Dock the pastry with a fork and chill while the oven is warming up. Line the pie shell in the dish with parchment and fill with weights or baking beans. Bake on a rack set at the lower third of the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment and return the pie shell to the oven. Bake another 5 minutes OR until just turning golden and the inside is dried out. Set aside till needed. If it puffs, just use a tea towel to push the pastry back down, creating new holes if needed for the steam to escape.

The original recipe calls for one large deep dish pie shell.  If you don't have one, use two regular pie plates, or extra ramekins for any remaining filling.  The size you use will affect baking time, start checking around 45 minutes for regular sized pie plates.  See blog post for freezing one pie if baking two.

To make the sweet potato purée: Peel and cube two larger (or 3 medium) orange sweet potatoes (or 4-5 Purple sweet potatoes) and place them in a pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to medium and let the potato pieces simmer till tender. A knife should slide in easily through the potato. Drain, saving 1/3 cup or so the potato water. Place the drained potato into a food processor and blitz till broken down. Add the water if needed, 1 tbsp at a time to help loosen the potato mixture and whiz till a smooth texture like pumpkin purée is achieved. You may only need 2 tbsp at the most, depending on how much potato you are actually blending up. Weigh out 680 grams (1 lb 8 oz) of the purée to use for the pie. This is about 2 1/2 cups but Please get a scale. I weigh the potatoes before peeling to make sure I have plenty to reach the final weight of the purée needed.  Better to prepare too much, you can eat the leftovers with dinner or in soup.