A week or so ago, I baked three beautiful sweet potatoes in the oven. I had rubbed them with a little olive oil and kosher salt and cooked them at 350 until they were soft and tender to the touch. They would have been delicious served with a slab of country butter – if I had just remembered to serve them. But I forgot, left them in on the counter behind a pot of collards and found them when we were cleaning up after dinner.
Damn!
Well, I could always zap them in the microwave and serve them the next day, but I had an inspiration. I would try my hand at a sweet potato pie.
I have always loved sweet potato pie. Some of the ladies from the church baked them at pot luck dinners years ago and I have since preferred sweet potato to pumpkin pies given the choice. I poked around some of my cookbooks, made some adjustments and came up with this recipe for Southern Sweet Potato Pie.
2 or 3 large, baked sweet potatoes
6 T butter
1 ¼ C light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 can evaporated milk (about a cup)
1 t vanilla extract
1 t cinnamon
½ t nutmeg ¼ t salt
First, you have to bake a bunch of potatoes, forget to serve them and leave them on the counter. The next evening, peel the forgotten potatoes and discard any gnarly parts, like the tops and bottoms. Next, mash the potatoes until smooth. In a separate bowl, cream the butter (room temperature) and sugar until fluffy. Next, add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Finally, add the dry ingredients and mix with a blender.
Pour the sweet potato mixture into an unbaked pie crust and cook at 350 for 50 minutes.
These pies are so good, it might make you forget to serve baked sweet potatoes for dinner more often.