Sweet Potato Pie

I'd been thinking about it since the Obama rally, that it was something I had never tried. I know it's supposed to be a lot like pumpkin pie, but think about it: sweet potatoes are so good you can just back them and eat them with a bit of butter. Roast pumpkin? No thanks.







So then the write up in the FYI section of the Scar was the tipping point. I ended up straying pretty far from Ollie's recipe once I'd done further research, but the decision to try my hand at sweet potato pie to take to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow was made.







I used two tubers that totaled 2 lbs exactly. Instead of boiling them, I baked them in the microwave. Ollie warned against boiling too rigorously because they'd soak up water and make the filling runny. So why boil them at all?





Plus, her recipe only called for 3 tablespoons of evaporated milk. So I didn't boil and used the whole 5oz can of evaporated milk.

Also, her recipe only used cinnamon and nutmeg, where I used a more pumpkin pie-esque blend.



So, without the shuck & jive, here it is:

2 lbs baked sweet potatoes, mashed

Beat in (one ingredient at a time, beating until smooth after each ingredient):
2-1/2 sticks softened butter
2-1/2 cups white sugar
4 beaten eggs
5 oz can evaporated milk
4 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. freshly ground cloves
1 tbsp. lemon extract (supposed to be 2 tsp., but I accidentally overflowed the measure and guessed at the third teaspoonful)
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

Thaw two Pet-Ritz frozen pie shells while all this mayhem is committed, then prebake them for nine minutes at 350ºF. Spoon the filling in (I had so much filling I used a bread pan to handle the overflow) and bake for one hour.



The house sure smells good. The pies don't look as pumpkin pie-esque as I expected, but I think that's the baking powder. All those bubbles lightening the texture. It might be terrible, it might be great. Either way, as Dr. Goddard would say, we learned things today.