pie shell

This adaptation of Alice Waters’s lemon meringue pie came to the Times in a 1987 article in the Sunday magazine. It takes a little time, but your efforts will be rewarded with a spectacular centerpiece dessert to be proud of: a cloud of toasted meringue atop a pool of buttery and bright lemon curd in a light and flaky crust. If you can't find Meyer lemons, regular supermarket lemons will make a worthy substitute.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Flaky pie crust, enough

Meyer lemons lemons

eggs

sugar

butter,

unsalted butter,

egg whites, at warm room temperature

cream of tartar

vanilla extract

Prepare the shell. Roll the pastry into a 12-inch circle, 1/8-inch thick, and fit gently into the pan. Tri the edge a half-inch beyond the rim, fold under and crimp or pinch to make a decorative edge. Prick the bottom with a fork. Freeze the shell for 20 to 30 minutes.

Prepare the filling. Grate the zest from the lemons into a small, noncorrodable bowl. Strain in the lemon juice, then press through as much lemon pulp as possible.

In a heavy, noncorrodable saucepan, beat the eggs, yolks and sugar until just mixed. Stir in the lemon juice and pulp, then the six tablespoons of butter.

Cook, stirring constantly, over low to medium heat, until the mixture comes together and thickens enough to coat a spoon. Remove from heat, allow to stand five minutes, then whisk briefly to smooth. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the frozen shell with aluminum foil, weight with beans or pie weights and bake for 20 minutes, or until set and dry looking. Remove the weights and foil, turn the heat down to 350 and continue baking until shell is golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool slightly, but leave the oven on.

Spread the prepared filling in the shell and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the filling is just set. Remove pie and turn oven to 375.

Make the meringue. Beat the egg whites until frothy, add the cream of tartar and continue beating until rounded peaks form. Beat in sugar and vanilla.

Spread the meringue over the filling, making sure it meets the edges of the crust to make a seal. Swirl in a design with a knife or spatula and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the meringue is lightly browned.

Allow to cool completely, from one to two hours, but do not refrigerate.

This mildly-sweet version of the classic Southern pie has a crisp crust and a filling that's surprisingly light. It's rich with egg and boldly spiced with nutmeg, but as fluffy as chiffon (a quality owed to the baking powder in the filling). This means you'll probably have room for two (or three) pieces. 

(Don't let making your own pie crust intimidate you: our pie guide has everything you need to know.)

Sweet Potato Pie

sweet potatoes, peeled (about 1 3/4 pounds)

nutmeg

vanilla

baking powder

evaporated milk

Unbaked pie shell, 9 inches (see recipe)

NYT Cooking

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/11/19/dining/19COOKING-SWEETPOTATOPIE2/19COOKING-SWEETPOTATOPIE2-facebookJumbo.jpg

Place sweet potatoes in a large saucepan, and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer until very tender, about 45 minutes. Drain well.

Mash the potatoes in a bowl. The potatoes should yield about 2¾ cups mashed potatoes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add butter to hot potatoes, and mash until smooth. Add sugar, nutmeg, egg and vanilla, mixing well. Combine baking powder with evaporated milk, and stir to blend. Add to mashed potatoes. Whisk mixture until velvety.

Mound into pie shell, then spread evenly to edges.

Bake until pie has set and is lightly browned on top, about 55 minutes. Cool to room temperature before serving.

For real sex appeal, use the Paul Prudhome recipe.
<a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/6235-paul-prudhommes-sweet-potato-pecan-pie" target="_blank">https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/6235-paul-prudhommes-sweet-potato-pecan-pie</a>

Wonderful. Used heavy cream instead of evaporated milk and roasted the sweet potatoes. I ended up with some lumps, so I ran the potatoes through the food processor. Smooth and delicious.  It's worth trying this with only nutmeg before you add other spices you like.

Make this with the following adjustments: bake the SPs, substitute cream, mix of brown and white sugar

Side note: Using a food processor solves the “stringy” problem. I process the baked sweet potatoes in my food processor first, which obliterates any “strings”. Then I put it into a mixing bowl to finish the recipe. Question: Why the need for baking powder? I’ve never used it in the mix…?

I use cinnamon and nutmeg. No allspice, because then it would taste like Pumpkin Pie (allspice reminds me of cloves). I like my sweet potato pie to taste different than a pumpkin pie. My mother was “old school” and went by memory & always made perfect SP pies. I learned from her, but as a result, I usually end up making 8 pies. This recipe looks similar, so I’ll be using it when I don’t want to make enough to feed an army. I’ll try baking the sweets instead of boiling, though. Great idea!

Is this considered dessert or a side? Probably a dumb question to regular sweet potato pie lovers

I made these with the suggestions of heavy cream, 3 eggs and lots of spice. I also added a pinch of salt. They baked much faster than the 55 minutes, more like 30 minutes, with a convection oven, on the lowest rack, on a pizza stone. The first ones were really brown, but hopefully not burnt.

I agree that the sweet potatoes should be baked rather than boiled.  I don't use sugar at all, the natural sweetness of the potatoes is sufficient.  This may not work for those with a sweet tooth though. Happy Thanksgiving all!

1/4ts cinnamon
2 egg whites whipped and folded in
2tsp black strap molasses

Made this yesterday and it is delicious. I followed suggestions from others:
Used 3 eggs separated. 
Whipped the whites and folded in as the last step. 
Did not use baking powder. 
Used cream. 
Added a tsp of pumpkin pie spice. 
Made with a GF crust. Did not prebake. 
Definitely will make this again!

I also roasted the sweet potatoes and then zapped the potatoes with all the ingredients except the egg whites in a food processor so that the filling was super creamy.

Does anybody know if putting a lattice on top would change the cooking time? I always prefer using the lattice but I haven't yet used it for something that is originally open-top. Thanks.

Someone said this was like mashed potatoes in a pie shell. I agree. Most recipes use more liquid--two eggs, more cream. The filling, before baking, should be velvety and creamy--much like a pumpkin pie filling. If I were to make this again, I'd use two eggs and add enough cream until it had a consistency I like.

A few suggestions--from somebody who has been cooking sweet potato pies since 1970--as I first experienced them first-hand baked by Princess Pamela, founder of the Soul Food Kitchen.<br/><br/>First--baking the sweet potatoes--in their skins--until soft will yield a much more flavorful sweet potato base--with wonderful hints of caramelization boiling them will never produce.<br/><br/>And evaporated milk was a wartime answer to ahortage of heavy cream. Heavy cream is no longer in short supply. And tastes better.

So I made this again using the recommendations of others that I bake the potatoes instead of boil and use cream instead of evaporated milk. The first pie was a 5 star, but with the suggested changes. It's now a 5 plus star. Highly recommend trying these changes to the recipe.

I've been making sweet potato pies for over 50 years, as my mother and grandmother did before me. We use at least half brown sugar, roast the potatoes rather than boiling, and season with cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and a lot of ginger. It's true that the WWII generation used evaporated milk, but I substituted cream. And we used more eggs, which makes the pies light. The day after Thanksgiving, we eat the leftovers for breakfast!

My mother used a mixture of brown sugar and white sugar in her sweet potato and pumpkin pies.  The brown sugar adds a nice undertone to the sweet potato.

I have been using my grandmother's sweet potato pie for years.  It is similar but uses 3 eggs instead of 1.  My change to this is to separate the eggs and fold in egg whites that have been whipped to stiff peaks.  This makes the pie a little bit less dense.  I also blind bake the pie shell.  That way the crust is done and not a white gummy mess.

You’re probably right about the taste of the cream.... but, evaporated milk is a taste of the depression era south and the Southern poor of the generations that followed.  I love cream in sauces and soups and half and half in my coffee.  But every now and then, opening a can of evaporated milk for my coffee is a taste that’ll take me back 50 years.

To the person who asked if anyone followed the recipe, I always view these things as a basic start from which you customize. This pie is a basic. I learned to make sweet potato pie from my former mother in law in the South. Always 3 eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and even a touch of lemon juice. Bake the potatoes. Every sweet potato pie I’ve eaten from others has been different but still delicious. There is no one way to make it. 

After reading the comments, I used four sweet potatoes (roasted in the over at 400 degrees for about an hour) - added ground ginger, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, maple syrup, and a tablespoon of bourbon. Three eggs. And used about 1/2 cup brown sugar and a 1/4 cup white sugar. Result was heavenly!

The biggest thing that makes or breaks a sweet potato pie is the potatoes. Make certain to buy rounder potatoes, rather than the long skinny ones. The long ones are stringy and that shows when you cut your pie.

Unfortunately, you forgot a key ingredient — a shot glass (or 2 Tbs if you live without a shot glass) of either bourbon or blackstrap molasses. Feel free to add some finely grated orange peel for good mixology.  Cheers from the Southern cousin.

nutmeg is the start but it's mandatory to add in a bit of mace. do a placebo controlled trial, one without mace and one with mace.  science will validate my hypothesis.

I went through all the notes on this recipe from cooks who’ve been making sweet potato pies for decades. Here’s the list of notes I took from them and loved!

Adjustments:
- Don’t boil the potatoes. Roast them in oven at 400 on tinfoil until very soft (45-60 min)
- Use heavy cream instead of evaporated milk
- Use 3 eggs
- Season with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger
- Mix 1/2 cup brown and 1/4 cup white sugar

2 lbs or 3 cups of potatoes
bake at 400 for 45 mins
use heavy cream instead of evap milk

Sleeper hit! This was devoured at  thanksgiving, fresh nutmeg is strongly recommended. Used seriouseats pie crust recipe.

Cecile,  I keep kosher,and have made pumpkin pie for years.  Since we don't have meat and milk at the same meal in any way, I always substitute the evaporated milk for either mocha mix or almond milk.  Should work here.

https://vp.nyt.com/video/2024/01/04/114538_1_HP-Sweet-Potato-Pie-CV_wg_480p.mp4

The New York Times

This mildly-sweet version of the classic Southern pie has a crisp crust and a filling that’s surprisingly light. It’s rich with egg and boldly spiced with nutmeg, but as fluffy as chiffon (a quality owed to the baking powder in the filling). This means you’ll probably have room for two (or three) pieces. (Don’t let making your own pie crust intimidate you: our pie guide has everything you need to know.)

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