Sweet Potato Pie - Week #11

I had strong intentions of starting this post with a line to the effect of, "I've eaten my last pumpkin pie!"  After having done my usual research of sweet potato pie recipes, I really thought that I was going to love this week's pie and that it would replace pumpkin as my favorite holiday pie forevermore.  Alas, it wasn't to be.  Not that I disliked the pie that I eventually found myself eating on Saturday afternoon, but it wasn't the magical moment I was hoping for either.

I am still uncertain whether to blame my disappointment on the recipe, or perhaps on some of the mistakes that I know I made.  I have a feeling that eventually I'll give this one another try although I am not in a hurry.

Shopping

I know nothing about sweet potatoes (-os, oes...?, where's Quayle when I need him?).  Then again, a mere 11 weeks ago I knew absolutely nothing about baking or pie making, and now I... know slightly more than absolutely nothing about baking and pie making.  Anyway, how am I supposed to pick the right sweet potato from amongst the multiple varieties when all of the recipes just call for n cups of cooked and mashed sweet potatoes?  What's the difference between a yam and a sweet potato?  Anything?  They look pretty similar to me.  As I'm sure you can guess, my fatal flaw might have been virtually my first move this week.  I had to pick something, so I ended up buying a couple of pounds of Red Garnet Yams.  They looked like sweet potatoes to me.  Someone more knowledgeable than I can choose this moment to comment about how I had already passed the point of no return down the road to hell with my choice of yam/potato.  Believe me, I'm listening.  

Crust

As per usual, I made slight modifications on the standard crust recipe.  My modifications this time were to reduce the overally amount of fat -- I used roughly 2/3 the amount in the recipe -- and to use half vodka and half water -- I have been pretty consistent with using only the vodka the last few crusts.  Nothing too exciting happened, although I did think that the dry ingredients reacted a little bit differently with the water than the alcohol; it seemed to be absorbed more quickly and completely.  The end result was a flaky, but slightly more dry and tough crust.  I'll keep experimenting.

On a far more exciting note than crust recipes, this week was my first opportunity to use one of my new pie making toys.

This pie shield (thank you, big sister):

Filling

As instructed, I was sure to bake and not boil the taters.  That process went pretty seamlessly if I do say so.  Not unlike watching paint dry, this watching sweet potatoes bake.  The peeling and mashing I managed to pull off without incident either.  It was not harder than it sounds.  A reasonably bright monkey could do it.  In this case, a moderately bright monkey did.

I chose to use this recipe, and since many of the other recipes recommended adding a couple of tablespoons of brandy or bourbon, I did that too, using the two tablespoons mentioned here.  If I am to try this pie again in the future, I won't be adding the liquor.  Everyone who tried the pie (ok, that is a sample size of two) thought that it added a "bite" of sorts, but didn't add any meaningful flavor.  In fact, it kind of stood apart from the other flavors of the pie and was a distraction rather than a nice complement.

I watched this pie baking closely because I was concerned about how the additional liquid (the brandy) would impact how long it took to set properly.  In the final analysis, I think that was a mistake.  It would have been better if I hadn't been so on top of this pie, pulling it out of the oven as soon as it seemed finished.  5-10 extra minutes of baking would have done it some good.  I wouldn't say that it turned out undercooked, but I just think it would have been served well to have baked off a little bit of the excess moisture.  Keeping with my recurring theme:  live and learn.

On a high note, I think that the pie shield did its job exceptionally well.  As you can see in the pictures that follow, the exposed crust did not burn although the pie was in the oven for nearly an hour.  Hooray for the pie shield!  It's some kind of Festivus miracle.

Pictures

Sweet Potato pie and her best friend, pie shield

An evenly baked crust

I forgot to mention that I whipped up some whipped cream as well (by hand again.  I think I'm committed -- or should be committed).  Dedicated readers will note that I spiced up the whipped cream with a little nutmeg and cinnamon as suggested long, long ago.  Very good!

I suppose that I would be remiss if I failed to mention the ongoing feud over cheesecake that is happening on my precious pie blog.  Please feel empowered to vote your conscience, but remember that the poll question does not offer an option for voting based on some perceived torture of poor, simple Simon.  I'm saving my lowly vote in case I need to break a last minute deadlock.

I'll be posting again shortly with next week's pie.