Jamaican Cookery News

We are now entering into the baking season. So, lets start off with Jamaican sweet potato pie. I love sweet potato pie as well as sweet potato pudding. Sweet potato pudding is one of Jamaica’s cultural desserts, click here for the recipe. To get a great sweet potato pie, use fresh sweet potatoes. Canned sweet potatoes do not work well in this pie. Do not boil your sweet potatoes. Boiling produces a pie filling that is watery and diluted. You should always bake the sweet potatoes because it concentrates the natural sugars and intensifies the flavour. Enjoy this sweet potato pie—Jamaican style.

Click to see more Jamaican pudding recipes

Ingredients

3 medium-size sweet potatoes (preferably orange belly) (orange flesh)

2 tbsp. margarine or butter, melted

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ginger  or extract

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. mixed spice

1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg

1 9” Graham cracker pie crust

Store-bought Graham cracker pie crust

To mix the ingredients: Use a food processor or a blender. The food processor or blender created a more fluffy texture than the mixer. I used a blender.  In my previous post I shared how to baked sweet potatoes, click here for the recipe.

Method

• Once the baked potatoes have cooled, peel and roughly chop them. Measure out a generous two cups of the flesh, then transfer to a blender or food processor. Process or blend with milk for two minutes, or until very smooth. Pour into a medium-size container, and set a side.
• In the blender or processor, add the 2 eggs and beat for a couple of seconds. add the vanilla, melted margarine or butter, salt, nut meg, mixed spice, ginger extract, sugar, and cinnamon. blend well. Scrape down the sides of the blender and blend again to combine and fully incorporate the final ingredients. Pour this mixture into the potatoes mixture and gently stir to combine.

Sweet potato pie batter. Gently hit baking pan on the counter to get rid of air bubbles.

• Pour into a 9” prepared pie crust and bake in a preheated oven at 350 F or 190 C for 40-50 minutes or until firm around the edges, but still a little soft in the centre. The centre will get firm as the pie cools. Allow to cool before serving. Refrigerator left-overs.

Variation

Sprinkle 3 tbsp. finely chopped pecans on top, just before putting in the oven to bake.

Pies have the undesirable reputation of containing much fat and calories. The pie crust is very rich in fat. To lighten your pies, you can eliminate the top crust and, even better, use Graham cracker or wafer crust.