A Look Into the Origin of Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet potato pie is often a favorite dish, especially for Thanksgiving. Many folks that live in the South eat this sweet treat along with their turkey and dressing. But one may wonder where did the idea for sweet potato pie come from?

First and foremost, the sweet potato itself is a dicotyledonous plant. It is indeed a root vegetable and is a rather long in shape and sweeter-tasting than the average potato. Often times the leaves of the sweet potato are eaten by themselves and considered greens.

The sweet potato is native to South America and was originally domesticated there around 5,000 years ago. It has also been grown in the western parts of Polynesia and is referred to as kumara in those parts of Peru. It is a possibility that the Polynesians brought this sweet treasure back to South America, Hawaii and New Zealand.

From there African Americans created the sweet potato pie that is now a very popular dish especially around Thanksgiving. Sweet potato pie can also be considered a comfort food. To make the already sweet potatoes even sweeter, marshmallows are used to top it off. Making one of these pies is very simple.

First you will need to gather the following ingredients: ¼ cup of softened butter, 1 cup of sugar, ¾ cup of evaporated milk, 2 eggs separated, 1 ½ cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ginger and of course an unbaked 9-inch pie crust. Once you have gathered all of the aforementioned ingredients, you will then need to preheat the over to 350 degrees. Next you are going to want to cream your softened butter and the sugar using an electric mixer. Beat until blended and then add the egg yolks and beat. Now stir in the sweet potatoes, milk, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger. Take a separate bowl, and beat the egg whites in it. Once they are foamy, slowly add ¼ cup of sugar and beat until the mixture is stiff. Next, fold into the sweet potato mixture. Once that is complete, place in the pie crust and bake for about 40 minutes or until the pie is firm. You can then serve with whipped cream or with a melted marshmallow topping, whatever your preference.

Author Credit: Gabriella Gometra builds sites on diverse topics, such as ChristmasDinnerwareSets.org, which has information about holiday dinnerware patterns and discount Christmas dinnerware.