The Great Sweet Potato Pie-Off

Where I grew up Thanksgiving was most certainly not synonymous with pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie was something Yankees ate for the holiday, and if we ever saw one, (like the Thanksgiving when my best friend's mother was puttin' on the dog to impress her son's new North Carolina in-laws), it came out of a box marked Mrs. Smith's.

Come to think of it, Thanksgiving in Middle Georgia didn't mean turkey back then either -- but rather two large, fat hens perched atop a pan of soupy cornbread and biscuit dressing, and baked until the dressing was just dry but still spongy to the touch. Turkeys came later, along with instant mashed potatoes and gravy made with Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, and then the whole holiday went to hell. But that's another blog entry.

This one's about the pies. On Thanksgiving we expected, we anticipated, and we ate that most plain and elegant of southern holiday desserts, sweet potato pie.

Not to be confused, as they invariably are, with yams, sweet potatoes are an indigenous American crop which, if the legends of our forefathers are to be believed, might have been served at the very first Thanksgiving celebration. They've been a staple in southern kitchens ever since. My maternal grandfather, who farmed well into his 70s, planted a big field of them every year, plowed them out of the ground with a mule, (the tractor "cut them up too bad"), and stored them in a mound of earth covered with a thick layer of pine straw, digging them out as needed all winter long.

There's a good chance you've never eaten an actual yam. Native to Africa, and somewhat similar to the sweet potato in shape and color, (though yams tend to be much larger), it's understandable, if not propitious, that the kitchen slaves conflated the two. They are, alas, not the same. I ate yams in Belize and found them dry, with a chalky texture, and bland. If you were expecting a sweet potato, you probably wouldn't like them either.

I'm ever the traditionalist when it comes to the sweet potato pie I serve at Thanksgiving, but my faith was shaken this year when I found a new recipe for a version of the dessert with a hint of citrus and a marshmallow meringue topping. As fortune would have it, we had a week-before-Thanksgiving potluck at the office, and I seized the opportunity to test them on the most discerning of audiences. (Except for Art. Every year he brings a Crockpot full of 'Lil Smokies floating in off-the-shelf barbecue sauce, and everybody loves them. I hate you, Art.)

In the interest of full disclosure, I used packaged refrigerated pie crusts for this experiment; not recommended for your best shot, but a reasonable option if you ever catch yourself making two pies from scratch on a weeknight. There are lots of good pie pastry recipes out there, including elsewhere on this blog, so I'm not going publish the pastry particulars. I do suggest, however, that you bake the pie crusts at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes and allow them to cool completely before filling, as a hedge against a soggy bottom. Also when baking the filled pies it's a good idea to cover the exposed crust with a pie shield or aluminum foil wrapped around the outer edges of the plate, to prevent over-browning.

For the traditional recipe I went with Edna Lewis' Sweet Potato Pie from her classic cookbook, "The Taste of Country Cooking." (For simple yet refined southern style food, you simply can't go wrong with Edna.) The second recipe comes hot off the pages of the 2011 issue of "Southern Living: Our Best Holiday Desserts." Each recipe makes one deep-dish 9" pie or two smaller ones.

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets and make your pies!


Edna Lewis' Sweet Potato Pie Filling

2 cups cooked sweet potatoes, mashed and sieved
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (fresh grated if possible)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium eggs, separated
2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup melted butter
1 2/3 cups milk (room temperature)

Bake the potatoes until soft (microwave is fine if you're in a hurry), peel, mash and put through a potato ricer or food mill.

Combine potatoes, sugar, salt, egg yolks (slightly beaten), vanilla and melted butter. Mix thoroughly. Add milk and stir well.

With an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites to the frothy stage. Then stir them into the potato mixture.

Pour the mixture into the pastry lined pie plates and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

Allow to cool completely. Serve plain or with whipped cream or creme freshe.


Sweet Potato Pie with Marshmallow Meringue

1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3 cups cooked, mashed and sieved sweet potatoes
1 cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (fresh grated if possible)

Bake the potatoes until soft (microwave is fine if you're in a hurry), peel, mash and put through a potato ricer or food mill.

Stir together melted butter, sugar, salt and eggs. Beat until well blended. Add sweet potatoes and remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed.

Pour mixture into pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for at least one hour, (even better, let it cool overnight), before topping with Marshmallow Meringue.

Marshmallow Meringue

3 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow creme

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

With an electric mixer, beat egg whites with vanilla and salt until foamy. Gradually add sugar, a bit at a time, and beat until peak form.

Beat marshmallow creme into egg white mixture 1/4 jar at a time. Beat until smooth (about 1 minute) and spread on top of cooked pie.

Bake at 400 degrees for 6 to 7 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned.

AND THE WINNER IS?!


To my surprise, and somewhat to my chagrin, the meringue topped pie was the hands down favorite. Ultimately I had to admit that I liked it best too.

That's not to say that the classic sweet potato pie wasn't good. It was very good, but with a softer, more custard-like texture than the denser and creamer, (great mouth feel!), meringue topped version. I also liked the brightness the lemon added to the flavor of the pie; and the marshmallow meringue topping, well, who could find fault with that?