Pie R Square! No, Pie are round!

That's a math joke.

If you read my last post, you know that I left you all hanging there in the great dessert abyss.  I'm sorry.  Here's a recipe for an awesome pie that my boyfriend and I like to make together.  Romance fills my home.

Be careful when you make this pie for holidays.  In making this for my last Thanksgiving, it was boycotted by traditionalists and caused the Great Thanksgiving Pie Schism.  No joke.

SWEET POTATO PIE 

Here's the list of ingredients you'll need: 

1 pound sweet potato
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream (so people opt to use milk, but I figure if you're going to go fat, you might as well go FAT)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla


For the edging:


1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 tbsp soft butter
1/8 cup brown sugar


And then the beautiful crust:


Pate Brisee


1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
1/4-1/2 cup ice cold water


On that note, you'll need a a 9'' pie pan and a food processor.  These are very helpful when making pie.

On that note, I discovered that there is another Cooking Curmudgeon.  Not surprisingly, since the internet has been around since the age of the dinosaurs and I have gotten in the game late.  Regardless, I was very upset when I found out that this person is NOT in fact curmudgeonly at all!  It's just some snobby California white lady who makes everything with "fresh ingredients" and "loves to touch and smell before buying"--thanks for bruising all of my fruit fake crabby white lady--and blah blah blah.  She also uses the word PERSNICKITY.  What a douche.

The only good thing in her blog is the ending line of her bio, which reads "I could go on...but I won't."  THANK GOD.   Feel free to write her and tell her that I'm better and far more curmudgeonly than her and her crappy fish head recipes.

But I digress.

Back to the pie.

Since you're using real potatoes, peal them and chop them up in smaller pieces and toss them into some boiling water.

Start the crust.  In the food processor, throw in the flour, sugar and salt and mix around for a minute.  Toss in the butter and process for about 10 seconds or until you get a crumbly mixture.  Then, start the mixer up and through the feed tube pour the water until you get a mixture that just holds when you pinch it.  Add more water if necessary, but try not to process more than about 30 seconds.  Got it?

I don't have many pictures for this recipe, so here's a picture of a cool knife:

Too cool for school.

When you're done processing your dough, roll it out in a ball and press down into a flat disc.  Wrap it up in some plastic wrap and through in the fridge.  By the time you are done with your filling, you can roll the crust out for the pie.

Now, for the pie filling:

When your potatoes are done cooking you can start making the filling.  Normally you wouldn't use a food processor for filling, but rather a mixer.  I like to use a processor for two reasons:  I have an extremely small kitchen and hate to have so much clutter that I want to destroy everything and move and also that it makes the filling very very fine, which in turn makes this pie very creamy when it's done.

In the processor, throw in the potatoes and the butter.  After the butter is melted and everything is mixed, add in the cream and eggs.  Then add in everything else.  Process it until it is a nice liquidy mess.

At this time, your crust should be ready.  Take it out of the fridge and put it on a lightly floured surface.  Roll it out into a nice circle.  I'm terrible at doing this for some reason, so I'm still working on it.  I recommend checking out youtube or calling my mom--who is an excellent baker--to figure out how to properly roll out dough.  I'm getting better.

When it's rolled out, it's easiest to transfer it to the pan if you use a knife--or if you're a cooking nerd, a scraper--and fold the dough on top of itself, so you only have to pick up a half circle.  Throw it in the pan and unfold it.  VOILA!  Leave dough hanging off of the edges.  Now you can pour in the filling.

Some people like to get super fancy and make a nice pie crust.  I suck at it, but I do it anyway.  What you can do is fold the excess dough on the sides over the top and pinch them.  Also, you might want to speak to my mom.

While the pie is cooling before you throw it in the oven, you can mix the nuts and sugar and soft butter in a bowl.  Line the edges of the pie filling with this.  It's delicious.

Oh yeah, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  MY BAD.  And then toss the pie in for about 50 minutes to an hour,  Make sure you check it so the crust doesn't burn.  If you're afraid the crust is starting to burn but the pie isn't done, you can rub a little of the cream on the crust to keep it nice and hydrated.  Your pie is going to POOF up, don't freak out.  When it cools it will go back down.

Oh yeah, you know what else is good on it?  Maple whipped cream!

MAPLE WHIPPED CREAM


1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/8 cup pure maple syrup (DON'T BE GROSS AND LAZY AND USE CORN SYRUP MAPLE SYRUP.  MRS. BUTTERWORTHS OR WHATEVER IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE)
1 tbsp light brown sugar
a pinch of ground clove

Throw your beaters and bowl in the freezer for a few minutes.  Take out and put all the ingredients in the bowl.  Beat until there are nice creamy mapley peaks of whipped deliciousness.  Stick in the fridge until the pie is done.

Once you take the pie out, let it cool and top with a dollop of whipped cream.  It should look like this:

Money shot.

Stay fat.