Category: sweet potato

Boog’s Sweet Potato Pie and Paula’s Birthday

Ready for another sweet potato recipe? While this is a perfect pie to make for your Thanksgiving festivities, it’s also a good birthday cake, according to my mother-in-law Paula.
Sweet potato pie for your birthday? That sounds like an odd request to me, but perhaps that’s because my birthday is in March. I crave cheesecake, fruit tarts and the classic: chocolate cake. 
Paula’s birthday is today, so it’s quite fitting that she request this pie. A few days ago, Paula’s mother Boog came up to Dallas. Unfortunately she came up for a surgery, but to Paula’s surprise, she also brought birthday cake: sweet potato pie!
Boog’s pie is great. While I loathe mushy potatoes like mashed and baked potatoes, I’ve come to LOVE anything sweet potato-related! This pie is just that, light, sweet and perfect. This is also one pie that is semi-healthy to eat. 
Sweet potatoes have sooo many health benefits. They are loaded in vitamin B6, are a good source of vitamin C, contains vitamin D, iron and magnesium. 
What’s so great about all those vitamins? Well, vitamin B6 reduces the chemical homocysteine in our bodies (which helps prevent heart attacks), vitamin C helps ward off cold and flu viruses in addition to producing collagen to help maintain skin’s youthful elasticity. Vitamin D plays an important role in our energy levels, mood, and builds healthy bones, heart, nerves and teeth. Iron helps produce red and white blood cells, builds a resistance to stress and is good for proper immune functioning. FINALLY, magnesium is the relaxation and anti-stress mineral (source).
Get my point? Sweet potatoes are good for you, so don’t feel too bad about eating that second slice of pie. 
Enjoy and HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAULA!!

Boog’s Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
CRUST
1 cup heaping flour
1/4-1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil
3 Tbsp. milk

FILLING
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (3-4 medium-sized potatoes)
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
Cool Whip, optional
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. FOR THE CRUST: Mix the first three ingredients together with a fork. Add the milk. Roll out onto cleaned surface lined with parchment paper and a little flour. Roll dough to form a circle, about 1/8-inch thick. Place dough onto pie plate and bake.
3. FOR THE FILLING: Cut sweet potatoes in 1-inch cubes. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes, or until soft. Drain potatoes. Using a potato masher, measure out 2 cups of mashed sweet potatoes.
4. In a blender, blend together sweet potatoes, eggs, butter, sugar, salt and vanilla.
5. Pour filling into unbaked pie shell. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until set. Let cool completely, then garnish with Cool Whip. 
Yield: 1 (9-inch) pie
Recipe from: Matt’s grandmother, Boog

Traditional Sweet Potato Casserole

As a kid, I hated potatoes. Baked or mashed, I hated them. I would eat french fries, but they better be crispy and they better be thin!
I remember my mom would occasionally make a sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving. I thought it smelled soooo good, but I was afraid to try it since it contained my biggest food fear – potatoes! 
Fast forward a few years…. in my 20s I became a little more adventuresome with food and tried a sweet potato casserole at a quaint little diner in Spring, Texas (near Houston). I don’t remember the place we ate at, but I remember that I LOVED sweet potato casserole.
To this day I still hate baked and mashed potatoes. I think it’s the texture that gets me. What I do like is sweet potato casserole. Even though the texture is similar to mashed potatoes, the sweetness of the brown sugar, the crunch from the pecans, and the smores-resemblance in the marshmallows makes it okay for me eat. Plus, it’s sweet, like a dessert!
Honestly, I can’t tell you that this casserole is better than the rest… it’s the first sweet potato casserole I’ve eaten since that diner near Houston. This recipe comes from one of my favorite websites, Cooking Light. Containing butter, pecans, and brown sugar, this casserole is not “light” on flavor. However it’s low in fat – only 5.5 grams per serving. Not bad for a casserole that tastes like a dessert! Enjoy.
Peel and chop sweet potatoes into 1-inch cubes.
Cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
Drain potatoes and slightly cool. 
Mash sweet potatoes with potato masher along with butter, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla.
Fold in pecans. Place in a greased baking dish.
Sprinkle with remaining pecans.
Top with marshmallows.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

Traditional Sweet Potato Casserole
Ingredients
2 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, divided
Cooking spray
2 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Place the sweet potatoes in a Dutch oven, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes or until very tender. Drain; cool slightly.
3. Place potatoes in a large bowl. Add sugar and next 3 ingredients (through vanilla). Mash sweet potato mixture into an even layer in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup pecans; top with marshmallows.
4. Bake  at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes or until golden.

Yield: 16 servings
Recipe from: Cooking Light

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION: 186 Calories | 5.5g Fat | 1.6g Protein | 33.1g Carbohydrate | 2.5g Fiber | 8mg Cholesterol | 272mg Sodium | 23mg Calcium