Purple Sweet Potato and Haupia Pie Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

Why do African Americans eat sweet potato pie? ›

After emancipation, when African American cooks gained more access to their own equipment and refined ingredients, they continued the tradition of baking with yams and sweet potatoes — especially the pie. These deep roots became the foundation of a strong tradition in African American food culture.

There could be a few reasons why your sweet potato pie isn't firm: you may have overcooked it, the filling may not be thick enough, or you may have used too much liquid. If your recipe doesn't call for eggs, try adding two eggs to the filling mixture to see if that helps thicken it up.

Be a bit careful when defrosting: if you leave it out in a humid environment, condensation will soak into the crust and make it soggy. Some tips: wrap some foil around the crust on the edges, freeze in a bag,and defrost in the fridge (still in bag).

What is the favorite pie of Black people? African-Americans today have continued the tradition of sweet potato pie with holiday dinners. So yes, sweet potato pie is a Black thing – easy enough for anyone to make, and everyone to love!

AVA said that sweet potatoes contain flavonoids (a type of anti-oxidant), and water-soluble pigments which may cause colour changes. "The greenish colour can be due to a natural occurrence, when the water soluble pigments in the cooked sweet potatoes are exposed to air," AVA said.

When thickening a fruit pie filling, there are several options to consider. Very often flour or cornstarch is used, but in certain instances tapioca, arrowroot and potato starch can also help achieve the desired consistency.

Tapioca-it's not just for pudding! This old-school ingredient may be what your great grandmother used to thicken her pies, and it's still great for making a perfect fruit pie with a clear, stable filling. Tapioca is derived from cassava (also known as yuca or manioc), a starchy root native to South America.

Chef Paula Haney shares with Duff the bakery's recipe for the Fat Elvis Pie, which was inspired by Elvis Presley's love of peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches. The pie includes chocolate pastry cream, peanut butter filling and slices of banana in a crust made of graham cracker crumbs, dry roasted peanuts and pretzels.

She leads a team of professionals to bring quality bakery products to over 4,500 store locations. A notable accomplishment is that Kinna is the person responsible for creating the Patti Labelle Sweet Potato Pie.

Patti LaBelle has always been assured that she knows how to cook. Since age 10, the legendary singer has worked her way around the kitchen, according to her interview with Forbes.

Is it better to bake or boil sweet potatoes for pie? ›

Baking sweet potatoes softens them without adding extra moisture, concentrates their flavor and sweetness, and makes sweet potato pie-making easier. Less moisture in the sweet potatoes also means a creamier pie.

Since then, sweet potato pie has become a hallmark of Black cuisine and common on dinner tables across the South. For Miller, sweet potato pie means family and culture. "We've never had a pumpkin pie grace our table, unless somebody who doesn't know us brought one over, if we invited someone," Miller said with a smile.

The tradition was soon brought to America during slavery, where the African slaves transformed the dessert into something sweeter using yams, then sweet potatoes. Coincidentally, yams and black-eyed peas was a common food slaves were fed during the Middle Passage.

History. Though creamy vegetable pie recipes date back to Medieval Europe, sweet potato pie appears in the southern United States from the early colonial days. The use of sweet potatoes in Southern and African-American cuisine traces back to Native American cuisine.

Perhaps most visible in African American homes, sweet potatoes are often transformed into sweet potato casserole, candied yams—which are even more deeply sweetened sweet potatoes— and of course, sweet potato pie, which are all holiday staples.