On Monday night, after a long day at work, I decided to work through some recipes I'd been meaning to try and send them to my friend Mike in Los Angeles for his review (and enjoyment too). My friend Will also came by, and I owed him a pie from the raffle, so I threw together a bourbon apple pie crumble pie for him. He was eating it before it came out of the oven, and brought it to his friend's house, where it promptly disappeared.
For me, fall is all about thanking the summer for all that delicious, vibrant fruit, and turning to warmer flavors like sweet potatoes (or yams), pumpkin, squash, pecans, bourbon and port, and lots of butter. With that in mind, I decided to try out two new recipes, and they were an absolute success: Sweet Potato Pie and Plum-Pear Port.
Placing the Bourbon Apple Pie beside the baby pies and the momma sweet potato pie
Plum-Pear Port in the foreground, and sweet potato just in front of it
Sweet Potato Pie gets its time in the spotlight
And here are the recipes!
Sweet Potato Pies (recipe modified from Paula Deen's)
Mine has less sugar, and you can totally get away with it!
Ingredients
2 cups of whipped sweet potatoes (you'll need about 2 large sweet potatoes or 3 medium-sized ones, and I'll explain how to whip them below)
3/4 - 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it; brown sugar could also work nicely)
1/2 stick melted and cooled butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1 cup milk
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Roll out the pastry and transfer either to a 9-inch pie plate or cut with circle cookie cutters and press lightly into buttered muffin tins. Trim and decorate pastry, and then place it back in the fridge to set up.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into evenly sized cubes. Then steam them for about 20 minutes, or until soft. Transfer to a bowl to cool. Once cool, mash with a potato masher (or a wooden spoon or some other mashing implement), then transfer to a mixer and whip them up. You can do this by hand, but I got a KitchenAid for my birthday, and it is the single-best gift of all time.
3. Scoop out 2 cups of whipped potatoes and put into a bowl. Combine with the sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, salt, and spices. Mix thoroughly. Add the milk and continue to mix.
4. Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool to room temperature.
You can add a meringue to this, but I love how it tastes by itself.
Plum-Pear Port Pies (recipe modified from BHG)
Mine is heavier on the plums because I love their tartness
Ingredients
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Squeeze of a lemon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 cups chopped plums (I leave skins on)
2 cups cored and chopped pears
2 tbsp port (you can omit this if you feel like it, but add in some more lemon)
1/4 tsp vanilla
Pie crust for either a double-crust pie (you can do a large lattice, or tiny muffin-tin pies like I do)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Roll out the pastry and transfer either to a 9-inch pie plate or cut with circle cookie cutters and press lightly into buttered muffin tins. Trim and decorate pastry, and then place it back in the fridge to set up.
2. Combine sugar, lemon, cinnamon, a pinch of salt with all of the fruit and allow it to juice for about 30 minutes. Then pour off the excess. Add lemon juice or port and vanilla. Transfer the mixture into the pie tin(s).
3. Roll out the remaining pastry for the lattice crust, or do whatever you want really with the top a crust. A crumble would be a good choice since this pie is REALLY juicy. It could soak up some of the excess.
4. Bake 1 hour-20 minutes if you are baking a large pie, or 1 hour if baking in muffin tins.
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