You know what everyone who lives in Wisconsin needs in February?
A tropical vacation. To Hawaii — Kauai in particular. We got back last week and let me tell you how close I was to asking my mother to ship Theo and my laptop to the beach and calling it quits back in the Midwest.
Honestly, this was exactly what we needed. And Kauai was, without question, the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in the world. The mountains, the canyons, the rocky beaches. I was completely awestruck. It made coming home to Wisconsin pretty rough, especially considering it was raining and gray most of the week. Ugh.
But on Saturday, I pulled myself back together and headed out to the farmer’s market. Everyone around here is familiar with the outdoor market around the square, but many people forget that the market moves inside during the winter. I had the added benefit of taking over the market’s Instagram account this weekend too, so I was determined to enjoy myself.
Of course, the market’s options in February are limited, but you know what is still excellent this time of year? Sweet potatoes. My original thought was to do something Hawaiian inspired, but by the time we got home, I realized I had all the fixings for my favorite type of sweet potato pie.
This pie is light, custardy, but still super rich. The potatoes are so naturally sweet that it barely needs anymore sugar. And although my crust crumbled a bit on the sides, the custard turned out nearly perfect. Barely any cracks, beautifully level, and perfectly delicate.
Baking all day in my kitchen snapped me right back into my normal mood. It’s almost March. I can nearly hear those damn birds chirping already.
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small cubes
- 1½ tablespoons ice water
- 1½ teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 3-4 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch rounds
- Olive oil
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup whole milk
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, and salt. Add cubes of butter and use your hands to work butter into flour, until a shaggy dough starts to form. Combine water and vinegar and add to dough. Knead dough until it comes together. Shape dough into a disc and wrap in plastic. Chill for at least an hour.
- Roll out dough to about a 13 inch diameter. Transfer to a 9 inch pie dish, letting sides hand over by about 1 inch. Place pie dish in fridge while preparing filling.
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Toss sweet potatoes with a small amount of olive oil and bake until tender, about 25 minutes. Reduce oven to 400F.
- Transfer sweet potatoes to food processor and puree, adding a little bit of water just to loosen, until sweet potato is smooth. Measure out 1¾ cups puree (you can use the rest for something else). Pour puree into a saucepan and stir over medium low heat for about 10 minutes, letting the water you added cook out and the sweet potato start to caramelize. Remove from heat. Add sugar, salt, cinnamon and ginger and stir well.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, and milk. Slowly pour milk into warm sweet potato mixture, whisking constantly, until mixture is smooth.
- Pour filling immediately into prepped pie crust. Trim the pie crust and crimp the edges, if desired. Bake for 25-40 minutes, until pie is golden brown and custard has set. Let cool before serving.
Adapted from Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking
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writes 3umbrellas