 Sweet Potato Pie Topped With Pecans |
Making a sweet potato pie is very easy. For instructions on making your own pie shell, see How to Make a Pie Crust. Before preparing the pie filling, partially blind bake a ready made pie shell or hand made pie shell, as the pie shell will not fully cook before the pie filling cooks.
Using a vegetable peeler, remove the skin from the sweet potato and wash it under running water. The best way to cook the sweet potatoes for making the pie is to use a steamer pot. I have a really nice little stainless steel steamer pot that is designed to fit several different size pots. I paid $1.49 for it at Saks. Fill a pot with a few inches of water, turn on the burner, and place your steamer pot over the pot of water. Slice the sweet potatoes into the steamer pot and cover with a proper fitting lid. When the sweet potatoes are fork tender, remove the steamer pot, empty the water in the pot down the sink and dump the sweet potatoes into the now empty pot. If you are like me and do the washing up by hand, you will use as few pots as possible. Using a hand masher, cream the sweet potatoes, slice some butter into the sweet potatoes, and then finish mashing them. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste and one egg and mix together well. Fill the pie shell with the sweet potato mixture and top with some chopped nuts; I used pecans for this particular pie; however, walnuts are good as well. Cover the pie with aluminium foil; making sure it does not touch the filling, during the early stage of cooking to avoid burning the pie shell edges. Remove the aluminium foil in the last stage of cooking. When the pie is done; has firmly set, remove and place on a cooling rack to cool before serving.
