Gwinn Pie Bake Off Week 1 - Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Pie

Two days late... but better late than never. Thanksgiving craziness slowed me down a bit and now I'm beginning to feel quite a bit of get-ready-for Christmas type pressure, the year has gone by so fast that I haven't even had time to sit back and realize that November is almost over and Christmas is just a month away. Completely ridiculous.

Anyway, on to the pie!

Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Pie



Crust:

I used Ken Haedrich's cornmeal crust recipe, which I will not be putting up here... look in the review section to see why!

Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese (I used full-fat)
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 t. vanilla extract
Zest of one lemon
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. ginger
1/4 t. salt
1 cup sweet potato puree (see below)
2/3 c. half and half

1. Get your pie crust ready and partially bake. I fluted the edges and would recommend this, in the oven this pie tends to grow and then shrink back. Place crust in freezer for 15 minutes after partial baking. Set oven a 350 degrees.
2. Cream the cream cheese and add both white and brown sugar gradually. Blend in eggs and yolks one at a time. Blend in vanilla, lemon zest, spices, and salt. Add sweet potato and half and half, blending until incorporated. Pour this mixture into pie shell and smooth the top.
3. Bake on center rack for 20 minutes, turn pie 180 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes. The pie will still be a bit wobbly when you take it out of the oven. Some cracking around the edges is normal.
4. Let cool on a wire rack for around 1 hour and then cover with aluminum foil and transfer to refrigerator. Refrigerate at least four hours before serving.

Sweet Potato Puree

Take 2 sweet potatoes, prick all over and then microwave for 7 minutes, flipping the potatoes over halfway through. Let potatoes cool slightly and then roll them between your hand and your counter (think when you were little making play-dough snakes and you'll have the right idea). Peel off the skins and place potato flesh in blender. Blend in Cuisinart or household blender adding milk very slowly until you've reached the consistency of mashed potatoes.

Reviews - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Overall this pie turned out pretty well. The consistency of the pie filling was great and the taste was good as well. I would also definitely recommend adding the lemon zest, it really made the flavors stand out more. The only comment that was made about the flavor was that the spices were a little strong, so says Joey. He later admitted that once there was whip cream on top it was perfect, but I still might cut the ginger back to 1/4 t. next time.

The crust I made was a cornmeal crust, two things were just not quite right about this crust. One was recipe oriented and the other was user error.
- The crust contained cornmeal, which caused it to have a good flavor, but at the expense of leaving a bit of grit in your teeth, this is an odd sensation when you are eating a pie that is so creamy.
- I never use actual pie weights, I always use lentils or beans and I always line the pie with foil before dropping them in... until this time. Note to self, ALWAYS line pie crust with foil before dumping pie weights in, it is not very fun to stand in your kitchen picking lentils out of your crust and hoping that you got them all.


Next Pie - December 2nd
Chocolate Mint Cream Pie