No holiday would have been complete for our family without a sweet potato pie and sweet potato fluff. Louisiana has an abundance of these great tubers. Many families buy them by the box and that is several pounds of these orange root vegetables. I recently bought a box and have made a few pies. I have plans for some more desserts and of course, I will share with my sweet potato loving neighbors!

You do not dare wash the dirt off of the sweet potato until you are about to cook with them. It sort of protects it. Daddy grew his own “irsh” potatoes. Years later, I realized he was saying Irish potatoes. All I know was that they grew underground. Daddy laid out pine straw on the barn floor and laid all the potatoes there for the winter. We would take turns running out to get some when Momma said they were needed.

A sweet potato pie is an easy pie to make. All the filling will go into the mixer. Then it will be poured into the partially baked crust. I always blind bake my crust because Momma said it would not be raw on the bottom as she called it. You give it a head start.

I love to use the Pillsbury pie dough. They come two to a box. They are as flaky as any crust Momma ever made. I use the second one for embellishments that I can create with my cookie cutters. I also like to use pie vents to create a pie that looks a bit different.

Hope you like my pies. I certainly hope if you have never tried a sweet potato or sweet potato pie, you will make it happen.

Don’t forget that you can soften your sweet potatoes in two different ways. You can peel and boil them. Chop in small pieces to soften faster. The second way is to put them in a pan in the oven after you have pricked with a fork and let them bake. The peeling will just come right off.

Traditions like sweet potato pies are important to me because they conjure up such wonderful memories of those long-ago holidays surrounded by my family – old and young. I take a bite and close my eyes. I see everyone sitting in the kitchen laughing. I miss them. But I know I will see them again one day.

Yield: 12

MOMMA'S EASY SWEET POTATO PIE

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Moist sweet potato pie in a flaky pastry.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes 45 seconds

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes 45 seconds

Ingredients

CRUST

• 1 box Pillsbury Pie dough (2 crusts)
• 1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 teaspoon water

FILLING

• 2 1/2 cups peeled and boiled sweet potatoes
• 1/4 cup butter, room, room temperature
• 1 can condensed milk, 14 oz.
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions

CRUST

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Roll out the first pie dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper.
3. Lay in the pie plate. Conform to pie plate and trim evenly around the pie.
4. Flute the edges.
5. Please a round piece of parchment in the bottom. Place pie weights, or dried beans or rice on top of the parchment.
6. Bake about 5-6 minutes. Remove from oven and remove weights and parchment. Slip pie crust back in the oven for about 2-3 minutes.
7. Remove and cool.
   

FILLING

1. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes in small pieces and boil until tender. Another option is to bake the sweet potatoes in the oven until soft (about an hour.)
2. Lower oven to 350 degrees.
3. In a mixer, add sweet potatoes and beat until smooth.
4. Add butter and condensed milk and continue to beat. Scrape down the sides with a spatula.
5. Add eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt. Beat until combined. Scrape bottom and sides with a spatula to ensure thorough combining.
6. Pour into the pie shell.
7. Use the other pie dough to cut out leaves or other shapes to lay on top of the filling for decoration. On these pieces paint with egg wash (yolk. and water)
8. Bake 4-50 minutes.
   

Notes

I always use these Pillsbury crusts.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

12

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 296Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 72mgSodium: 195mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 1gSugar: 25gProtein: 6g

Nutrition information can vary for a recipe based on factors such as precision of measurements, brands, ingredient freshness, or the source of nutrition data.

“Traditions are our roots and a profile of who we are as individuals and who we are as a family. They are our roots, which gives us stability and a sense of belonging – they ground us.

– Lidia Bastianich