Cousin Louise's Sweet Potato Pie (GF version)

 

From the G.S Jones and Pinkett/Handy family gallery
Miss Ollie's cousin Louise 
(circa 1935)

If you ever wanted to experience, in one place, the culinary diversity of all the great cooks in my community of Mt Vernon, you’d have to go to St Paul United Methodist…our community church. You would also have to wait for one of three events to occur… the Friday lunch/dinner fundraisers held from April to September, a funeral, or the infrequent camp meeting. No matter the event, there was one thing you could count on…good food at the church hall. The “Hall” was (and still is) a detached building several yards from the main sanctuary, but the fusion of aromas coming from foods like fried chicken, oysters, fried fish and collards always worked its way into the church, competing with the Reverend’s promises of eternal salvation or damnation (depending on who you were).

Outside of holiday dinners, the church hall was the only place I was guaranteed a good sweet potato pie. The church hall's kitchen never had a shortage of capable cooks... any one of them had the skills to whip up a good sweet potato pie; but after all these years, my accolades go to my mother’s cousin, Louise. Her pies always had the right amount of the ingredients. Maybe it was the bourbon vanilla extract, but I think it was her crust. Instead of regular pie crust, she lined the pan with vanilla wafers.

I can't recreate Cousin Louise's particular pie, but I have one from mom's recipe notes that's close...even with the gluten free frozen pie shell.

History of the Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet potatoes are "New World" foods, and pie is an "Old World" recipe. Creamy recipes combining orange vegetables with sweeteners, spice and cream were known in Medieval Europe.

King Henry VIII of England, liked sweet potatoes so much that he ate them in heavily spiced and sugared pies, a fashion that survived at least until the 1680s.

Sweet potatoes were introduced to West Africa soon thereafter. They were similar to yams ("Old World" foods) and quickly incorporated into the local cuisine. Sweet potato pie seems to have converged in the American South from very early colonial days. It quickly became a staple of the region. Today this fine pie is considered by some to be a cornerstone of Soul Food.

---The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World, Larry Zuckerman [North Point Press:New York] 1998 (p. 9)

Slaves in the South knew the yam from their homeland, and the two potatoes have become virtually interchangeable in Southern cooking. Most Southern sweet potato recipes have been developed by Blacks from their traditional cuisine

---Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie, Bill Neal [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1996 (p. 268)


* I have a gluten free pie crust recipe coming soon!

 Ingredients

1 9- inch gluten free frozen pie shell from Whole Foods (or your choice)
2 large sweet potatoes, (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract
juice of half a lemon

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Fill a medium saucepan with 2 inches of water; place over high heat and bring to a boil. Fit saucepan with a steamer basket, add sweet potatoes, and cover. Steam until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, about 1 hour. Extra water may be needed as sweet potatoes steam. Allow potatoes to cool a little. Then, remove skins by rubbing potatoes with a paper towel.

Place potatoes in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Set the mixer speed to medium and beat the sweet potatoes until they are well mashed and any stringy pieces have wrapped themselves around the paddle. Remove the attachment, wipe clean, and return to mixer.

Change mixer speed to low. Add butter, and beat until completely mixed and cooled. Slowly add sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Add allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and lemon juice. Continue beating until completely mixed.

Pour mixture into pie crust. Transfer to oven and bake until center is dry. 45 -50 minutes.