Notes from Laura Pole: I made up this recipe when I was at my sister Gia’s farm for Thanksgiving in 2009, and she made traditional sweet potato pies from her homegrown sweet potatoes. I needed a gluten-free and dairy-free filling, and this is what I came up with.
Makes 1 9-inch pie
Ingredients
- 1 pound sweet potato
- ½ c. coconut oil (or coconut butter) softened
- ½ c. light brown sugar
- ½ c. coconut milk*
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tsp. ginger powder
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 9-inch unbaked pie crust
Directions
- Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40-50 minutes or until done. Run cold water over sweet potato and remove skin.
- Break apart the sweet potato in a bowl. Add coconut oil and mix well with a hand mixer or whisk until smooth. Stir in sugar, milk, spices and vanilla. Taste for sweetness and add more sugar if needed. Add eggs. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.
- Bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Pie will puff up, but may sink down as it cools.
- Allow to cool completely before serving: the pie will not set up until cooled.
*Note: We ate the pie while it was still warm and some people thought it tasted too coconutty. I didn’t think so. If you want less of a coconut taste, use plain almond milk or rice milk instead of coconut milk.
However, a day later, after it was chilled in the fridge, it didn’t taste that strongly of coconut and the flavor was exquisite!
Copyright: Laura Pole, 2009, all rights reserved.