Sweet Potato Pie: Something Sweet and Healthy

There's nothing like something sweet to get my taste buds going. And if its healthy, a bonus. So, looking for something deliciously different, super-sweet, I came across the Sweet Potato Pie, only to find that it's become a classic - on US singers Pattie Labelle menu no less.

A hybrid of the original American pie recipes (pumpkin and pecan) apparently, but using sweet potatoes in the filling. Iit has become one of those desserts that has makes you want to try for yourself and well worth the trouble.

So, putting on my Pattie Labellerecords here's a version of the Sweet Potato Pie with a Caribbean twist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ieT8oeFMZ8

• 3 lbs sweet potatoes, boiled and mashed
• 1 cup pineapple pieces, (drain)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• SEA Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to mark 350 degrees F
2. Combine sweet potatoes, Pineapples, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt and (red/orblack) pepper. Mix thoroughly.
3. Scoop out mixture into a greased pie or casserole dish (big enough to hold). (Optional) Put pineapple slices on top..
4. Brush top of the pie with some melted butter
5. Bake (in a handsome pie dish) for 40 minutes or so (until deliciously golden)

From Traditional Enamel Pie Dishes, to glass or ceramic,even disposable aluminuum pans, whatever your favorite go-to pan to bake your pie in, the pan you choose is a very real factor in the outcome of the perfect pie. So, once you've got the best Pie Dish in town ready, in a large bowl, add eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and salt and, the rest of the Ingredients, and stir mixture into sweet potatoes. Beat together with mixer until smooth and pour into an unbaked pie shell and/or straight into pie dish.

Bake on bottom rack of oven for 1 hour or until center of pie is set. Let cool before serving, on some fine dining dishes of course ..https://www.lionelrichiehome.com/dinnerware/dinner-plates/

And last, but not least ..Enjoy with a Patti LaBelle Albumj!

Of course there's a story behind our love of Sweet Potatoes, originating in South America but finding its way to Africa, where in West Africa, it is said that West African cooks first experimented with sweet potatoes as a possible substitute for the other root crops, the likes of cassava, plantain and yams, that they already used to make a typical meal of some sort of starch served with a savory sauce, soup or stew typically made with fish and vegetables.

One particular specialty was fufu, in which a root is boiled, mashed or pounded and shaped into balls. For those who have made sweet potato pie, it didn't take much of a leap to add eggs, milk, sugar and spices to make a dessert. From whence, it made its way to America's deep south....

More of the sweet potatoe story on line - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/how-sweet-potato-pie-became-african-americans-favorite-dessert/2015/11/23/11da4216-9201-11e5-b5e4-279b4501e8a6_story.html

Meanwhile, Caribbeans, living in the Uk and elsewhere, have a version of the Sweet Potato Pie said to match anything from the deep south - supposedly - https://www.thespruce.com/sweet-potato-pie-p2-2138222

For now..thanks to the deep South for the Sweet Potatoe Dessert twist...