Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie

Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie

I love pies, don't you?  Cakes are okay too, don't get me wrong.  But biting into a pie is like taking your mouth to a party!  The textures, tastes and contrasts make it a very popular desert option on most menus.

Holidays in my childhood home meant pies.  Usually apple and pumpkin for Thanksgiving, pumpkin and mincemeat for Christmas.  My father's mother even got her nickname from her popular rendition of the stuff - Nanny Pumpkins.

With all that history behind me, you'd think I'd be gearing up to make the traditional desert too.
Usually I do make at least pumpkin.   Mincemeat is usually a vegetarian version - recipe coming soon!
Jack had even asked about pumpkin pie.  We talked about it.  I was even planning on making it.
But did I?

Well......no.
As fate would have it, I'd completely forgotten to get pumpkin, canned or otherwise, during the holiday food shopping trip.  I did however have an overabundance of Beauregard Red yams and even a few cans of Princella's in the pantry....so guess what kind of pie got made?

Having covered pie crusts in a previous blog entry, I'll skip all but a few important details.
1) Make sure everything is cold - water, flour, shortening, salt......bowl and rolling pin too!
2) Spread waxed paper over your rolling surface - clean up is a lot easier!
3) Don't overwork the dough!  Let it rest in the fridge between steps!
4) Don't add all the liquid at once!  Watch for subtle changes as you mix!

Once your dough is prepped, let it rest in the fridge before rolling it into the pie pan.

Cooked yams in the bowl

Rather than boiling the yams, I wash them, score them with a knife and microwave them.  Depending on how many you're using (four being the minimum), cooking time (on HIGH setting) could be anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.  Good rule of thumb is to check after 10 minutes.

Oh! Make sure you have enough piecrust for 2 pies!

Once the sweets are done, scoop out their innards into a bowl and let them cool slightly.


BOURBON SWEET POTATO PIE

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Place a cookie sheet on the shelf being used for baking, this will help cut down on spill-over.

Hand mixing the yams

NOTE: Due to yam's fibery nature, I've found it better to use a food processor rather than a hand mixer for making this pie. But if you don't have one, mix it a lot and check the texture often!

2 cups cooked sweet potatoes or 1 1/2 can cooked sweet potatoes
2 eggs well beaten
1 1/4 cup milk (or liquid from canned sweets with 3 1/2 Tablespoons of powdered milk blended into it)
2 teaspoons bourbon
3/4 cups brown sugar (or 2/4 cups brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar)
1/4 teaspoon salt o substitutes (optional)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
4 Tablespoons melted butter

Bourbon, milk and eggs

Food processor

Combine all ingredients in the food processor if you have one. Otherwise, put the yams in a mixing bowl and have at it! Hand mixing may take about five minutes or so. Food processor at high setting may take about three to four minutes.  Check the texture.  If it's still a little "stringy," process it for an additional two minutes.  That should take care of it.

Place pie crust in pan and pour this mixture into it.  This mixture is enough for two pies, so prepare two shells.
Once the pies are poured, place them on the cookie sheet in the oven.  My oven is wide enough to fit both pies on one shelf.  If yours is not, use two shelves or-even better-cook one pie at a time.

Let the pie bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees then immediately lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake it for an additional 50 minutes.  Then its done! Let cool on a wire rack for a bit...if you can wait that long!

Time for pie!

Please feel free to share your ideas, memories and recipes on this site via the comments box.  All credit will be given where it is due...and I promise to try the recipes too!
Enjoy!

Pie in the Sky

There's nothing like a basket (or so) of fresh harvested apples! 

Jack's sister has a great back yard filled with seasonal fruits and flowers.  Among these is a wonderful apple tree and we've been blessed with some of its bounty.

All the way home from our visit, the fruit's aromatics teased my senses.  I envisioned pies, cobblers, cakes, cookies, breads and ciders.....roasts with apples, chops with apples, chicken with apples....stuffings, sauces and relishes - to say the least, I had a lot on my mind!

I wanted to make something to bring to Jack's family Thanksgiving dinner....using the apples would make it even more special.  I asked him what he thought and Jack voted for apple pie.  It was up to me to decide which type of pie, crust and so on.

Some may wonder what I mean.  "Apple pie is apple pie, right?"

Well, yes and no.  There are different types, different ways to make it, different crusts.   For example, maybe instead of just plain old apple I might want to throw in some raisins and walnuts....or maybe pears.   I

Baked Pie

may want to make it with a crumb topping, or lattice, or plain old slit-top pie crust, or even just go crazy and make the crust with cereal.  I may even make a "Cookie Pie,"  which is a pie with a thin "cookie" top crust.  For that matter, maybe make the whole crust like a cookie.....who knows?


As far as the fruit goes, I don't peel the apples before pie-ing them.  But if you have digestive problems perhaps you should peel them.

There are a lot of ways to make an apple pie!  Do I make it in a paper bag?  Do I put plain apples in a pie shell, lattice the top and pour sugared, thickened liquid through the lattice before baking?
The sky's the limit!

I decided to try a few different recipes, after we had plenty of apples!

This first one is a standard double-crust pie.  I'll be doing another pie crust in a couple of days, so watch for it! The pie crust is the most complicated part.  Common rule of thumb is to keep everything cold, cold butter, cold liquids, heck even cold bowl and rolling pin!

PIE CRUST 1
 
Chill butter and liquids before you begin. 
2/3 cup + 2 Tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons liquid  (Try using apple juice (or other fruit juice) instead of water)

2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves

Preheat oven to 450 Degrees
Place a cookie sheet in the oven.

Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and cloves into a large bowl. Stir until evenly mixed.   Cut 1/2 of chilled butter into dry ingredients using pastry knife, mezzaluna or two table knives until it reaches a cornmeal state.  Add the remaining butter and continue cutting in until it looks like cornmeal with large bits in it.

Filled Pie ready for oven

Add liquid a little at a time, stirring with a fork, add more liquid until dough, when squeezed in hand, stays together.  Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the flour to absorb all the moisture.

Dust a dry, clean surface with flour.  I use a large sheet-cake pan; plenty of working room and no flour mess on the counter.  Some people roll their dough out in between layers of waxed paper.  If you do, just be sure to dust it with flour first! Otherwise it'll stick.

Pie filled, extra crust around edge

Working quickly roll dough to 1/4 "  thick or smaller. While rolling, turn the dough one-quarter turn at a time to keep rolling even.  When you've reached the desired thickness, roll the dough over the pin and unroll it over the top of a pie pan.   Make sure to leave a little overhang of dough around the edges, this will be part of what crimps the pie together.

For filled fruit pies, pierce bottom of crust before filling it.

APPLE PIE FILLING

Mixing the apples, sugars and spices

5-6 apples cored and sliced
Juice of one lemon
1 cup sugar (mixed brown and white)
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1 Tablespoon butter

Crimping the pie edge

Mix apples with lemon juice, corn starch, sugars, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg until apples are evenly coated.
Fill empty pie shell, dot top with butter .  Cover with top crust.
 Fold the excess bottom crust over the top crust edge then crimp using your fingers or a fork.

Venting the top

Pierce the top with a knife to vent the pie. Place pie on pre-heated cookie sheet in the oven.
Cook for 15 minutes at 450 degrees then lower heat to 350 degrees and cook for 50 minutes longer.
If your oven is slow, rotate the pie once during 350 degree cooking.  Pie will be done when top crust is golden brown.

This is just one recipe.  More to come!
Please feel free to share your pie recipes, thoughts and ideas!
Enjoy!

Cutting into pie