Thanksgiving Dessert: Sweet Potato Pecan Pie Recipe
This year, my mom assigned each one of my sisters with something to bring. My younger sis and myself are in charge of desserts. I first tried a sweet potato pecan pie at a Friendsgiving, and it was so good! Immediately, I knew this was the dessert I would contribute this Thanksgiving with my family.
Not going to lie, finding an “easy to do” recipe for this was hard. I thought about reaching out to my friend who had hosted the Friendsgiving, so she can ask HER friend who brought the pie, for the recipe. By this time though, it was already too late as I had ran out of time. Side note, I tested out the pie on a Tuesday first since i’ve never made a pie in my life. The recipe below is the “perfected” version. I also gathered ingredients from 2 different recipes, one of which is vegan, and the other was a regular recipe.
Sweet Potato Pureé Filling Ingredients
3 Sweet Potatoes
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp cornstartch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
lightly salted water (optional)
Pecan Dressing Filler Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons corn starch
pinch of salt
1 pre-made or pre-paired pie crust
Note: You can switch up the milk to the milk of your choice especially if you are lactose intolerant. We used 1% milk. You can also use the butter of your choice, as well as type of sugar. These items are easy to replace with what you normally use everyday.
Also, if you use more than 3 sweet potatoes, you may need to alter the amount of ingredients to taste. We used 4 sweet potatoes in our second attempt, and added extra coconut sugar and cinnamon for example and tasted as we mixed to make sure it was just right.
INSTRUCTIONS
Sweet Potato Pureé Filling
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Poke the inside of the pie crust with a fork or toothpick along the bottom. We used a fork for our first attempt, but our second attempt the pie-crust cracked in which we then used a toothpick.
We started off by making the sweet potato pureé filling. If you can find the canned pureé at the store, it’s possible to skip this step. We were not able to find it, so we decided to make it from scratch. I honestly enjoyed measuring and seeing how much of the ingredients go in versus had I bought the can of pureé.
First, peel the sweet potatoes, slice them, and boil hot water. Once the water is hot, put in the sweet potatoes. This should take about 20minutes or until soft. Next, Drain the water and put the sweet potato in a bowl.
An alternative version to this is to put the softened sweet potatoes into a blender or food processor.
We decided to mash the sweet potatoes ourselves. We mashed them, and as we started to mix the sweet potatoes, we also started adding in the other ingredients. We added ingredients and mixed until the sweet potato was no longer chunky and more pureé style. Once it was good to go, we poured in the sweet potato filling into the pre-made pie crust.
The pre-made pie crust, we bought it at H-E-B, but there are recipes in which you can make your own pie crust as well. Honestly, the pie tasted just fine with the pre-made pie crust.
Pecan Dressing Filler
In a plastic bowl, we added all the ingredients, Mixed them together, and heated a decent sized pan to warm up the pecan dressing. What this does, it turns in what will look like a “watered” down syrup into a thicker syrup. So just to reiterate, after you input the ingredients to create this pecan dressing, you cook it on the stove for at least 10ish minutes or until it looks more like a thicker syrup. Then, once its ready, you spread this pecan dressing filler on top of the sweet potato filler.
Bake the pie in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until it appears a bit firm. Allow for it to cool for about 2 hours or until it’s not longer warm. We chose to taste ours after 2 hours and the pie was pretty intact when we cut it. Ideally, letting it cool, then moving it to the fridge overnight for 8 hours, will guarantee the best results.
Don’t forget to top off your piece of pie with whip cream! Enjoy!
-Vanessa