Sweet Potato Pie Recipe
3 cups of sweet potato puree (3 large potatoes should yield this much)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup whipping cream
4 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Prepare a graham cracker crust in a 9-inch pie dish. You should use a dish with reasonably tall sides. I use an Emile Henry dish that has a 1.4 quart capacity. My graham cracker crust is usually a pack and a half of graham crackers (12 crackers I believe), with a quarter cup of sugar, and a stick of butter. Break down the crackers into small, uniform crumbs in the processor and then add the other two ingredients. Mold into pie dish and bake at 375F for about 15 minutes or as long as it takes to brown.
Preheat oven to 325F. Boil potatoes until a butter knife can easily pierce the potato through to its center. The potatoes are easier to peel if you boil them with the skin on and remove the skins after they’re cooked. Run the peeled, cooked potatoes through a food mill. You can also press the potatoes through a Tamis, or you can put them through a ricer, or you can puree them in a food processor. Whipping them with the whisk attachment of a mixer or mashing them with a hand masher won’t give you good results.
Measure 3 cups of the pureed potatoes into your food processor. Add cream, maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, Grand Marnier, and vanilla. Blend in processor until the mixture is uniformly smooth. Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating before each subsequent addition.
Pour custard into the pie dish with the prepared crust. The custard should completely fill the pie dish. Place pie dish in a roasting pan (or other large baking vessel) and fill with warm water 1/2 way up the side of the pie dish. Bake at 325F until the center of the pie is completely set. I forget how long. I typically turn off the oven at this point and allow the pie to remain in the cooling oven for 15-20 minutes before removing it.
Once the pie is completely cooled, glaze the top with the Grand Marnier, caramel sauce. The sauce is made by caramelizing a 1/2 cup of golden brown sugar and whisking in 3 tbsp of butter. Once the butter is fully incorporated, turn off the heat, and whisk in tbsp of Grand Marnier, 2 tsp of Fleur de Sel (or kosher salt), and a bit more than 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Make sure that you’re using a big sauce pan (3 qts is good) because the additions you make off the heat will cause the caramel to vigorously bubble up, and could overflow if the pan is too small. Also, if you’ve never made caramel before, use caution. The caramel will be much hotter than boiling water and you can get seriously burned if any gets onto you before it cools down. Allow the sauce to cool before applying to the top of the pie.