3 Piece Food Recipes: Sweet Potato Mini Pies

As we get ready for Thanksgiving, we all know it's time to stock up on groceries needed. As I was getting my groceries together, I was urged to share one of my favorite recipes: Sweet Potato Mini Pies.

Let me start off by saying Martha Stewart is excellent. I use her fantastic pie crust recipe for my mini pies. It makes 10 mini pie crusts in a cupcake pan.

Pie Crust:

• 1 1/4 Cups of Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of Salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) of Unsalted Butter
• 4 Tablespoons of Ice Water 

1. Pulse several times in a Blender(or Food Processor) to combine dry ingredients.
2. Add 1 stick of cold unsalted butter and cut into small pieces. Pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal
3. Add 4 Tablespoons of Ice Water(Martha's recipe says 2 Tablespoons, but 4 works better for me); pulse until dough is crumbly but holds when squeezed.
4. Put the dough on a work surface and knead once or twice until the dough combines together. Flatten dough and wrap in plastic, then put in the refrigerator for 1 hr.
5. Roll the dough out and use your hands to put it in a buttered cupcake pan. Cover each cupcake hole and cut extra, so each dough doesn't touch.
6. Put the cupcake pan in the refrigerator for at least 1 hr and only take it out when ready to add fillings and bake.

I make at least 4 of the pie crusts and still have extra pie filling left over. However, it is hard for me to portion down. For the filling, I have several ways to do it. At 1st, I would use a vegan recipe until I started using the Martha Stewart pie recipe; then, there was no point in doing vegan if I needed butter. So I would use the regular filling recipe and just change the sugar for maple syrup and honey when my family wanted a change.

Filling:

• 2 1/2 lbs of Sweet Potatoes
• 2 teaspoons of Nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons of Cinnamon
• 4 Eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of Milk(Any Kind of Milk You Like)*
• 2 sticks of butter (softened) - Prefer Unsalted Lake Extra Creamy
• 2 cups of sugar ( or 1/2 cup of Maple Syrup and 1 cup of honey)
• 2 tablespoons of Vanilla Extract

1. Boil Sweet Potatoes until you see bubbles coming from them, or you can easily peel the skin off.
2. Mash the Sweet Potatoes up and then add to the blender
3. In the blender, add the butter and mix.
4. In another bowl, beat eggs and add milk.
5. Pour mixture into the blender.
6. Add the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix ( You pulse it a couple times, but I like to let it blend until it is smooth. My family can be very particular about textures).
7. Make sure the mixture can be scooped up in a spoon and only plops out and doesn't drip.

Take out the Pie crusts/cupcake pans from the refrigerator. Then pour the filling into the pie crusts until 2 cm from the top. The filling will rise as it bakes. Put into the oven and bake until you like. My family likes the filling with a slight crisp at the top. 

I am excited to pull this recipe out for another year. My family doesn't like to add toppings, but you can use any toppings you like. The pie crust to filling ratio is the only thing necessary in our house. Once we have the balance and texture right, it is the best. The only honest advice I would give in this recipe is that the seasoning measurements are just the minimum you should add. Depending on how your family likes their seasoned, how much you should add. I can tell by smell if there is enough seasoning after it is blended. As you bake recipes more, the more you will figure out. 

I hope you guys enjoy the recipe and your Thanksgiving!

*In all my recipes, regular milk can be used, but I use Cashew Milk. Cashew Milk is used because some family members are allergic to Coconut and have difficulty digesting Cow Milk.