Sweet Potato Pie

Baking a pie without an oven takes a little extra work, but it is worth it.

Ingredients

Filling

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
3 eggs
½ cup dry milk solids
¾ cup sugar
dash salt
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp imitation vanilla extract
½ tsp imitation maple flavoring (optional)
1 cup water

Crust

1 cup white flour
¼ tsp granulated salt
about 2 Tbsp cooking oil
cold water as necessary

Directions

First, make the crust.  Combine the flour and salt in a high-sided bowl and mix well with a strong fork.  Add cooking oil and mix with the fork to get a dough that just barely sticks together rather than crumbling.  Add cold water and mix to make a firm dough.  Mix as little as possible to prevent the dough from becoming elastic.  Roll out on a flat surface: I use a cutting board as the surface and a water bottle as a rolling pin.  Roll into a circle that is larger than the bottom of the baking pan you will use.  Transfer the rolled dough to the baking pan and center it as well as you can.  Press the dough into the bottom of the pan and work the dough up the sides about two inches.

Then make the filling.  Combine the mashed sweet potatoes and eggs in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly with a sturdy fork.  Add the remaining ingredients except for the water and again mix thoroughly.  You probably can’t completely eliminate all the sweet potato lumps, but try.  Add the water and mix until smooth.

The pie crust probably settled while you were preparing the filling.  Pull the dough back up the sides of the pan.  Pour the filling into the pan.  If you did it right, the crust should extend about ½–1 cm above thbe level of the filling.

Place the baking pan into a larger pan lined with 1–2 cm sand.  Cover both pans with a metal lid.  Set the assembly on the mbaula and place hot coals on the lid.  Bake over coals or a medium fire and replenish the coals on the lid during baking as needed.

Baking timne varies with the conditions of the “oven.”  When the pie is finished, it will be solid in the middle and a clean knife blade inserted into the center will pull out with no solids adhering to it.

Allow to cool thoroughly before eating.

Videos

Part 1

Cooking and mashing the sweet potatoes

If the video does not play, view it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/W3JQAL_IZWU.

Part 2

Making the pie crust

If the video does not play, view it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/kT7xVQpSPyA.

Part 3

Making the pie filling

If the video does not play, view it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/EqvNk0z79b8.

Part 4

Baking the pie

If the video does not play, view it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/G-mROyeTk2A.


[recipes] [barransclass]

Copyright © 2017, Richard Barrans
Revised: 14 Sep 2017; Maintained by Richard Barrans.
URL: http://www.barransclass.com/kitchen/index.html