Makes 15 squares
YouTube instructional video is at the bottom
What you’ll need
3 large to medium sized sweet potatoes
Large eggs
Evaporated milk
Sugar
All-purpose flour
Salt
Unsalted butter (Cold)
Butter flavored vegetable shortening (Cold)
Vanilla extract
Lemon extract (Optional)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
All Spice
Tools you’ll need
Hand mixer
13 x 9-inch metal pan
Parchment paper
Food Processor
Pastry cutter
Rolling pin
Spatula
Preparation of pie crust
Step 1- Add 2 cups All-purpose flour, 4 to 5 tablespoons sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (Cold), and 6 tablespoons butter flavored vegetable shortening (Cold) into a food processor. Pulse mixture until butter and shortening is cut into the flour.
Step 2- Transfer mixture into a large bowl. Add 1/3 cup or 7 tablespoons cold water and stir until mixture starts to come together. From there form the mixture into a dough using your hands and knead it a few times. Wrap dough with plastic wrap and place into fridge for 30 minutes.
Step 3-Lightly butter the bottom and sides of baking pan. Add parchment paper into baking pan. Cut each corner of parchment paper going toward the inside of the baking pan. This will allow the parchment paper to fit inside of the baking pan.
Step 4- Lightly flour surface of table and add dough on top of the table and press dough down with your hands forming a flat circle. Add a small amount of flour on to the dough and rolling pin. Roll dough into the large thin rectangle. Make sure the rectangle is larger than the baking pan. Cut a 9 x 13-inch rectangle using a knife.
Step 5- Roll the dough onto the rolling pin. Lightly flour the dough to prevent the dough from sticking to itself. Roll dough off of rolling pin into the inside of the baking pin. Press and stretch dough on to the bottom of baking pan. Place into freezer for 2 hours or until dough is frozen. This will help with even baking with the crust.
Boiling or baking the sweet potatoes
Note- Boiling or baking the sweet potatoes it optional. You can boil or bake the sweet potatoes.
Boil method (Steps 6 and 7) Preheat fire to medium high heat
Step 6- Add 2 1/2 quarts water into a large pot and let come to a simmer. Add sweet potatoes and let simmer for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Step 7- Remove Sweet potatoes from water and add into a medium sized bowl. To tell if the sweet potatoes are done, a knife or fork should easily be inserted. Let sweet potatoes cool completely.
Baking method (Steps 6A and 7A)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Step 6A- Line aluminum foil into the baking pan. Add Sweet potatoes into baking pan. Place into a preheated 375-degree oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Step 7A- Remove Sweet potatoes from oven. To tell if the sweet potatoes are done, a knife or fork should easily be easily inserted. Let sweet potatoes cool completely.
Mashing and removing strings from sweet potatoes
Step 8- Mash Sweet potatoes with the back of a large spoon or a potato masher.
Step 9- Scrape down sides of bowl and mix mashed sweet potatoes with hand mixer. Remove the blades from the mixer while it is still running and from there turn mixer off. The sweet potato strings should be attached to the beater blades of the mixer. Rinse off the blades of the mixer and repeat this step 6 times or until the hand mixer’s beater blades have no sweet potato strings.
Sweet potato batter
Step 10- Add 2 large eggs (Room temp) and 5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter into bowl with mashed sweet potatoes. Mix with hand mixer or whisk until combined. Scrape down sides of bowl.
Step 11- Add 1 cup evaporated milk (Room temp), 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon extract (Optional), 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon all spice and (Optional) 1/4 cup All-purpose flour. This will thicken, stabilize and improve the pie filling. If you like a lot of spice in your pie, ad 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and All spice instead of the 1/8 teaspoon the recipe calls for. Stir will ingredients together with a whisk or mix with a hand mixer for 30 seconds or until combined. Scrape down sides of bowl.
Baking the pie
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Step 12- Pour Sweet potato batter into baking pan fitted with the parchment paper and frozen pie crust. Spread batter around baking pan using spatula. Shake pan slightly to make batter more even.
Step 13- Place into a preheated 350-degree oven for 1 hour. Once done remove pan from oven. Let cool completely.
Step 14- Once the mixture cools completely, flip the pie out of the pan onto a flat surface such as a sturdy chopping board. From there, place a flat serving dish onto the top of the pie and flip the pie over onto the opposite side. Cut the pie into 15 squares and serve. For best results bake the pie one day and serve it the next. The flavors will settle and increase overnight.
YouTube instructional video
