Sweet Potato Pie with Gingersnap Pecan Crust

Son of a Southern Chef

My husband recently asked me to make a sweet potato pie, so I searched my books for one, and found this one from Son of a Southern Chef. I loved the idea of a cookie crust instead of pastry (as I've said before, pie crust is not my favorite thing to make) and it made enough to serve a crowd, so we made it!

The flavors are great, the texture was perfectly smooth, and it cooked in the amount of time called for. If you like sweet potato pie (or pumpkin, they're very similarly flavored), try this one and let me know what you think.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hi guys and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with Heather today it's the holidays so
[00:09]: you're going to see this probably after
[00:11]: the holidays
[00:12]: but we're gonna go to a gathering
[00:15]: tomorrow and we're going to bring a
[00:16]: dessert and my husband has been asking
[00:18]: me for a sweet potato pie I've never
[00:20]: ever made one for him that I can recall
[00:23]: like ever but he's like you know I've
[00:25]: been really we've never had sweet potato
[00:26]: pie and I don't know why you never make
[00:27]: me a sweet potato pie so
[00:29]: today we're going to be making sweet
[00:32]: potato pie with gingersnap pecan crust
[00:35]: from Lazarus Lynch's son of a southern
[00:37]: chef it's not sort of a standard pie
[00:40]: because it's going to be in this
[00:43]: 9x13 casserole type dish
[00:47]: which is fine which is good because it
[00:50]: will feed more people than a standard
[00:51]: pie
[00:52]: and
[00:54]: so that so to be square whatever
[00:57]: um I've already got sweet potatoes
[00:59]: baking in the oven it's very much like
[01:02]: the sweet potatoes in their jackets
[01:04]: which I'll link up here that we've made
[01:05]: from Deep Run Roots
[01:07]: um
[01:08]: it's just sweet potatoes nothing done to
[01:11]: them except poke them
[01:13]: um so they don't explode and we're just
[01:16]: cooking them until they're tender
[01:17]: so that's going to be done soon-ish but
[01:21]: we're going to go ahead and make the
[01:22]: crust which is
[01:25]: um I have ginger snaps here Ginger Snap
[01:27]: cookies that I bought it has a number of
[01:29]: cookies that make a certain number of
[01:32]: crumbs I'm hoping that the number of
[01:34]: cookies is
[01:36]: sufficient because that's what I did I
[01:38]: counted out cookies
[01:39]: so we are going to
[01:41]: pulse this until they are basically
[01:44]: crumbs
[01:45]: all right
[01:56]: foreign
[02:06]: there we went with not pulsing
[02:10]: and they're not entirely crumbs yet but
[02:12]: we're going to add more stuff and
[02:13]: process it some more so
[02:17]: these are optional
[02:19]: the pecans are optional but we love them
[02:22]: and so we're definitely adding them in
[02:26]: um
[02:28]: we have some sugar a little extra sugar
[02:47]: and let me get especially I've got some
[02:51]: um
[02:52]: nope not not this yet sorry
[02:55]: um and now I'm gonna put a little bit of
[02:56]: cinnamon I'm going to measure it because
[02:58]: why not
[03:02]: there we go
[03:04]: we're going to pulse this together
[03:07]: until you know the pecans are all sort
[03:10]: of crumbly
[03:24]: okay
[03:26]: and now to bind it all together we're
[03:29]: adding some melted butter I've chosen
[03:31]: unsalted
[03:34]: um he does say unsalted so there we go
[03:37]: hey I chose correctly
[03:40]: pulse again until combined
[03:44]: there we go it starts to come together a
[03:47]: little bit
[03:47]: which is what you want
[03:51]: now
[03:53]: I'm just going to dump it into this 9x13
[03:56]: dish
[04:02]: and now I'm just going to spread this
[04:05]: out
[04:07]: with the spatula
[04:09]: so it's relatively even and then I'm
[04:12]: going to use my hands to sort of
[04:14]: Pat it down to make a
[04:18]: crust kind of like a graham cracker
[04:20]: crust except Ginger Snaps
[04:26]: he does not say that you need to put it
[04:29]: up the sides at all it will go you know
[04:32]: upside somewhat but
[04:35]: but you want it to be sort of a cohesive
[04:38]: crust
[04:41]: now that's already
[04:43]: um my sweet potatoes are roasting at 400
[04:46]: degrees but when they are done I'm going
[04:49]: to turn it down to 375 I'm going to bake
[04:52]: this at 375 for
[04:56]: he says 12 to 15 minutes until it's set
[04:59]: just to sort of
[05:02]: make it the crust and that's it for the
[05:05]: crust
[05:06]: um
[05:07]: when it's all done baking and I've taken
[05:10]: my sweet potatoes out and peeled them
[05:13]: we will
[05:16]: take care of the filling which means I'm
[05:19]: going to have to wash a food processor
[05:21]: because we're going to be making it in
[05:23]: the food processor so
[05:25]: I'll be washing that and uh as soon as
[05:29]: the potatoes are cool enough I will
[05:31]: peel them and we'll be back to show you
[05:33]: how to make the filling
[05:36]: all right so my potatoes are cool enough
[05:38]: to handle
[05:40]: dishwasher's done
[05:42]: um
[05:42]: I'm gonna be peeling them and putting
[05:46]: them in here now
[05:48]: he said to use large ones so these are
[05:51]: not all very large so I'm using a few
[05:53]: more than he says in his recipe but
[05:56]: I think it'll be fine so I'm just going
[05:59]: to be peeling these you'll probably see
[06:01]: this on Facebook
[06:03]: [Music]
[06:12]: the rest of the melted butter in the
[06:14]: recipe which is
[06:18]: not super melted right now but it was
[06:20]: melted
[06:22]: potatoes are warm enough that I'm not
[06:24]: too worried about that though
[06:27]: here we go
[06:29]: and then
[06:31]: we have some brown sugar
[06:34]: and some granulated sugar
[06:38]: now I'm going to process it until it's
[06:41]: smooth
[06:47]: I'm gonna scrape stuff
[06:50]: down so it all gets mixed together
[07:02]: with enough for me
[07:04]: now I need to add some vanilla
[07:13]: quite a lot of vanilla
[07:21]: some
[07:25]: um I have in here some cinnamon some
[07:29]: freshly grated nutmeg and some fine sea
[07:32]: salt which I'm which I'm going to need
[07:34]: to use
[07:35]: this to get out
[07:41]: and then here's some freshly
[07:44]: grated
[07:46]: um
[07:47]: Ginger so fresh ginger
[07:49]: I keep mine in the freezer
[07:52]: and so it starts out looking like a lot
[07:54]: more than it looks like now but I and I
[07:57]: didn't measure it
[07:59]: but it's probably close and then the
[08:03]: last thing is a little bit of heavy
[08:05]: cream
[08:10]: oh wait not it's not the last thing I
[08:12]: forgot
[08:13]: X
[08:20]: which are supposed to be at room
[08:21]: temperature
[08:23]: mine are now I took them out had to do
[08:26]: the same trick flip them out
[08:29]: put them in some warm water
[08:35]: and we're gonna process it
[08:37]: um until
[08:40]: I'm gonna blend it into well combined
[08:43]: and we're going to scrape down the sides
[08:45]: again
[08:51]: and
[08:53]: blend it until thick and smooth about
[08:56]: two minutes so two minutes
[09:04]: I'm going to call that done pretty thick
[09:06]: pretty smooth in my opinion and now
[09:10]: we're going to pour it into our crust
[09:12]: this is what it looks like
[09:15]: out of the oven not a whole lot
[09:17]: different
[09:25]: it's a lot
[09:28]: but it's a large
[09:30]: for a pie
[09:32]: CE
[09:36]: okay so now all I need to do is
[09:39]: um
[09:42]: smooth it spread it
[09:55]: there we go
[09:57]: and I've reduced the heat in the oven to
[09:60]: 350 and we're going to bake it
[10:03]: until the center is set and the pie is
[10:05]: firm about an hour and 10 minutes so
[10:09]: I'll take a picture of it when it's done
[10:10]: and I'll let you know how long it takes
[10:13]: for me
[10:15]: um I'm gonna probably check it at about
[10:18]: an hour
[10:20]: but
[10:21]: I think
[10:23]: we'll I'll just go sit down for an hour
[10:26]: that's great
[10:28]: um in the morning since we we're
[10:31]: gonna let this cool completely I'm just
[10:34]: gonna let it cool overnight
[10:36]: um and in the morning we're gonna make a
[10:38]: topping so we'll see you in the morning
[10:40]: the last step for our sweet potato pie
[10:44]: is to make the topping so it's just a
[10:48]: whipped cream but it's flavored so I've
[10:50]: got some heavy cream which the entire
[10:53]: world is using right now it's I'm lucky
[10:56]: I had some
[10:59]: I actually had it's Christmas Eve and I
[11:01]: went out to Target first thing this
[11:03]: morning and they did not have any more
[11:04]: luckily I had plenty for this recipe
[11:08]: we need some
[11:10]: confectioners sugar sifted
[11:15]: so
[11:17]: it's hard to
[11:19]: measure this and be absolutely sure what
[11:22]: you're doing like how much because it
[11:24]: packs but I'm not gonna wear it too much
[11:27]: it'll be very sweet or it'll be less
[11:28]: sweet whatever
[11:31]: close this up
[11:35]: and go into place so I'm gonna
[11:39]: sit this
[11:44]: so there are no lumps even though we are
[11:47]: about to
[11:50]: um
[11:51]: word up
[11:55]: it's a lot easier sometimes to get the
[11:57]: lumps out with a spoon
[11:59]: I happen to have this one
[12:02]: there we go and we're going to make this
[12:05]: sort of a maple
[12:07]: syrup whipped cream I've got this
[12:09]: Bourbon Barrel aged maple syrup that I
[12:13]: have been I've had around not not this
[12:16]: particular jar but I've been keeping
[12:17]: around since we used it for
[12:21]: um one of the pools recipes I'll try to
[12:25]: remember to link that up there
[12:30]: there we go that's just a little more
[12:33]: sugar and a little bit of flavor
[12:38]: foreign
[12:40]: I'm just going to
[12:42]: um
[12:44]: I'm going to use a handheld mixer
[12:46]: because it's easier in my opinion to get
[12:48]: all of it without
[12:50]: my my stand mixer tends to leave around
[12:53]: the edges a bit that's not
[12:57]: as whipped as the stuff in the middle so
[12:59]: we're going for until it holds Peaks so
[13:02]: really up to you
[13:04]: I'm gonna go for a little bit stiffer
[13:07]: Peaks because we're transporting it with
[13:09]: us in a container so we want it to last
[13:12]: a little bit
[13:14]: let's try to
[13:16]: do something anyway
[13:18]: that's it I'm gonna pack it up and we're
[13:20]: gonna go serve
[13:22]: [Music]
[13:30]: on this episode of cooking the books
[13:31]: with Heather you watch me make sweet
[13:33]: potato pie with Ginger Snap pecan crust
[13:37]: now I'm not a huge sweet potato pie fan
[13:40]: I'm not even a big pumpkin pie fan but
[13:42]: I'll eat it this was delicious
[13:45]: um
[13:46]: it if you like pumpkin pie sweet potato
[13:49]: pie is very similar the flavorings in
[13:51]: this are very similar
[13:54]: um I like a cookie crust because those
[13:56]: are so much easier than pastry and I
[13:59]: think the flavors of the Ginger Snap
[14:03]: um and the pecans really complements the
[14:06]: sweet potato pie I ended up cooking mine
[14:09]: for I think the whole hour and 10
[14:12]: minutes and that was pretty much perfect
[14:14]: to get it done
[14:17]: the way I liked it the the texture was
[14:20]: really great I think that's probably
[14:21]: because you use the the food processor
[14:24]: that helped any sort of stringiness you
[14:26]: might sometimes get from sweet potatoes
[14:30]: um
[14:31]: and I also like
[14:34]: roasting the sweet potatoes first
[14:36]: instead of boiling boiling them like
[14:39]: some recipes would have you do
[14:42]: um
[14:43]: because then you don't get as much water
[14:46]: introduced into the recipe because it
[14:49]: just kind of stays in its own juices and
[14:52]: you don't
[14:53]: it doesn't absorb water while you're
[14:55]: boiling it so
[14:57]: I like all of that about this recipe I
[14:60]: would certainly make this again if I
[15:01]: were making another uh sweet potato pie
[15:04]: and
[15:06]: it feeds a lot of people so because it's
[15:07]: a 9x13 you could feed
[15:10]: a crowd with this you could also cut
[15:12]: them into like bar shapes and that would
[15:15]: be sort of an interesting take on a pie
[15:20]: um but yeah I would certainly make this
[15:21]: again and if you decide to make it let
[15:24]: me know in the comments down below what
[15:26]: you think and if you are a sweet potato
[15:28]: fan how this compares to your favorite
[15:31]: recipe
[15:32]: so if you enjoyed watching me make this
[15:35]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[15:36]: Subscribe button and come back and watch
[15:38]: me make something else next week
[15:40]: [Music]