Although I’ve been back home for about a week from my vast travels I’m officially back according to the internet. Due to the the circumstances of the season I had to find a way to get something for thanksgiving in at the last second for you guys and gals. Despite the fact that I haven’t gotten to cook or practice food styling for 2 months I am still going to do my best to come back strong, and by that I mean to almost fall apart because I thought I lost how to create recipes and photograph food.
I had so many inspirations from my trip, mainly from all of the absolutely amazing and jaw dropping beautiful food that circulates around the places I visited. With this floating in my mind I couldn’t help myself but prepare something with some extra flare, visual flare in this case.
I remember ranting at some point in one of my posts about how ridiculous I thought it was to add marshmallows to sweet potatoes for thanksgiving and how doing so basically made it a dessert yet it’s served as a side dish along with the savory food. Today I thought about that notion and figured that maybe I should make a dessert like that. Make the dessert that this abominable side dish should have been.
Faced with the thought that this would be difficult I went for it anyway and was quite surprised how easy it was to put it together. The cooking of the filling is simple and easy and doesn’t require any pre-baking of the crust, and the meringue is extremely easy to make yet very stable. So it’s a win win, minimal effort for something that seems like you worked your whole day to get right.
I’ve already convinced my family that this is going to replace the wretched marshmallow sweet potatoes in the form of a dessert. So do your family and yourself a favor and make this pie for thanksgiving. Jaws will drop, people.
- 1½ cups blanched almond flour
- ½ cup pecan halves
- 1 egg whisked
- 2 tablespoon butter or coconut oil, softened plus more for greasing
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 1 pound sweet potatoes or 1 can of sweet potato puree
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup full fat coconut milk
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup honey, or maple syrup, or ½ of each
- ½ cup water
- 3 large egg whites
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit. Add pecans to a food processor and pulse until you get a slightly coarse powder. In a medium sized bowl combine almond flour, salt, and pecan with a fork. Add egg, and butter or coconut oil and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Grease an 8-9 inch pie pan with butter or coconut oil and press the pie dough into the pan to form evenly without any thin spots.
- If using fresh sweet potatoes wash and cook them in a microwave for 10 minutes on high (prick them with a fork all over if using microwave method) or in the oven at 425 for 40-50 minutes. Scrape out the cooked flesh into a blender or large food processor and add remaining ingredients for the filling. Pour the filling into the molded and unbaked pie dough and place in the oven for 50 minutes with a pie shield over the crust or a makeshift shield like this one.
- Pull the pie out and let it cool. While cooling add the honey and water to a small skillet and bring to boil until it reaches 240 degrees fahrenheit (soft ball stage). Meanwhile in a stand mixer add the egg whites and salt and beat until soft peaks form. While beating on high slowly drizzle the honey syrup down the side of the bowl into the meringue and beat until it forms stiff and smooth peaks that are reflective and warm to the touch. Beat in the vanilla extract.
- At this point the pie should be cool, mound the meringue on top of the pie and shape decoratively with a spatula. Place under the broiler for 30 seconds until browned. Optionally torch it lightly with a kitchen torch.
If I went with canned sweet potato, would it be one 14 oz. can? Do you think pumpkin would sub in just fine?
I bet a 14 oz can would be just fine. The sweet potatoes I used were about 15 1/4 oz and that was before cooking and taking the flesh out.
Hi! Can I use maple syrup instead of honey? Would I still need the water or would I just pour the maple syrup in?
You can certainly use maple syrup but you still need the water in there. Equal parts maple syrup and the same amount of water. Good luck!
This looks gorgeous. But…”wretched marshmallow sweet potatoes”? (Pang to my heart.) I admit, that’s one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes–I guess my unschooled taste-buds love a little dessert with dinner. 🙂
I would recommend using the yolks in the pie crust since the whites are for the meringues. Of course the dry ingredients would need to be adjusted, but I like to use the whole egg even if it’s in two different places of the recipe.
I’m sure that would work just fine. Don’t worry I don’t waste my yolks I usually make mayonnaise or add them in mashed cauliflower or mashed potatoes.
I made this yesterday, and my son, who normally avoids anything to do with sweet potatoes, could not eat it fast enough. Beautiful recipe! Just one question – when does the vanilla essence go into the meringue? Thanks!
My apologies, I just updated the recipe with that. Once the meringue is done and perfect you simply beat it in before mounding it on top. Check the updated instructions and it should be there. Glad you enjoyed it!
This looks amazing! I’m going to make it for a very picky family who’s agreed to try something other than the standard pumpkin pie. Question: will it hold up for a few hours in the fridge?
Yes but the longer you leave it in there the more it will degrade. The meringue will slowly start to break down.
Sweet potato pie is one of my all-time favorite desserts! Quick question: If I double the recipe, should I also double the cook time?
If you’re making two pies at the same time you mean? Because I don’t think you will need to increase the cooking time by much if at all. Just cook them normally and check them at the mentioned finished cooking time if it doesn’t jiggle or a knife goes in and comes out clean then it’s done. Good luck!
Do you bake the pie crust before adding the filling?
Nope, I made it so that you can remove an entire step and skip straight to adding the filling to the unbaked pie crust.
Wow, this looks divine!! Very impressive that it’s your first one back after your travels. I traveled a lot last month and got so much inspiration too, and can’t wait to cook up some recipes from my time in Italy! Can’t wait to see what you come up with too. Will definitely be making this as a Christmas/holiday dessert!!
You are by far my favorite photographer. Thanks for keeping the amazing pics coming!
I am so excited to try this for thanksgiving this year! I am following the specific carbohydrate diet which does not allow sweet potatoes : (
Do you think subbing with winter squash would work?
You could sub pumpkin puree, it will just be a sweet potato meringue pie. Might I recommend my pumpkin pie recipe here?