Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

We always enjoy this delicious pie every holiday season, and although we will serve pumpkin pie too, the sweet potato pie remains the family favorite because everyone tells me how they love the rich and smooth flavor of the spices and how light the texture is, but I'll have to admit that by the end of the evening both pies are always gone.

Sweet potato pie is a traditional side dish or dessert in the Southern United States. It is often served during the American holiday season, especially at Thanksgiving, and is similar in many ways to pumpkin pie. Marshmallows are sometines added as a topping, but this was adapted more in the Northern United States than in the South.

It is usually made as a large tart in an open pie shell without a top crust. The filling consists of mashed sweet potatoes, milk, sugar and eggs, and flavored with spices such as nutmeg. Other possible ingredients include vanilla or banana extracts. The baked custard filling may vary from a light and silky, to dense, depending on the recipe's ratio of mashed potato, milk and eggs.

Orgin of the Sweet Potatoe. Sweet potatoes are native to the tropical parts of South America, and were domesticated there at least 5000 years ago. Austin (1988) postulated that the centre of origin of I. batatas was between the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico and the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. The 'cultigen' had most likely been spread by local people to the Caribbean and South America by 2500 BC. Zhang et al. (1998) provided strong supporting evidence that the geographical zone postulated by Austin is the primary centre of diversity. The much lower molecular diversity found in Peru-Ecuador suggests that this region be considered as secondary centre of sweet potato diversity.

The sweet potato was also grown before western exploration in Polynesia, where it is known as the kumara, remarkably similar to the Quechua kumar in Peru and Nahuatl kumotl in Mexico. Sweet potato has been radiocarbon-dated in the Cook Islands to 1000 AD, and current thinking is that it was brought to central Polynesia circa 700 AD, possibly by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back, and spread across Polynesia to Hawaii and New Zealand from there. It is possible however, that South Americans brought it to the Pacific. The theory that the plant could spread by floating seeds across the ocean is not supported by evidence. Another point is that the sweet potato in Polynesia is the cultivated Ipomoea batatas, which is generally spread by vine cuttings, and not by seeds.

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Putting the pie crust in the pie pan for my sweet potato pies. You could use a store bought pie crust or use your favorite pie crust recipe. To make the pie crust from scratch see step by step instructions here

Sweet Potato Pie filling ready mixed and ready to pour into our two pie crusts.

Filling the pies and ready to go into the oven.

The two pies for the recipe baking at 350 for about 45 to 50 minutes.