Sweet Potato Pie

The inspiration for this recipe came from my Twitter friend, Stella Parks, pastry chef extraordinaire and cookbook author. Over the years, I’ve veganized several of her recipes, and I was always impressed with how well her techniques worked to create a successful recipe – even true with my vegan alterations.

Stella’s Sweet Potato Pie recipe is an example of my latest vegan transformation success – and what a grand success too!

It is essential to use the correct sweet potato for this recipe. Any sweet potato with an orange interior works best (for example, try using a Garnet variety). I tried oat milk, rice milk and soy milk for this recipe. Soy milk was the clear winner, producing a purée that appears identical to Stella’s version that uses milk. I relied heavily on my previous work with custards to replace the eggs and decided to keep things simple in this recipe. I used a basic store-bought egg replacer containing only starch, then added 2 additional tablespoons of corn starch. Of course, using a damn good vegan pastry that is properly pre-baked helps to improve the probability of success.

Special Equipment: Use a 23 cm (9 inch) round pie pan. Using an immersion blender to create the purée helps make a silky-smooth puree – all in one pan or pot.

Make Ahead Note: The custard can be made several days in advance. Keep it refrigerated until ready to use. Pour directly into the prepared pie crust or gently heat until smooth and pliable to create a soft top.

Difficulty: simple- to moderate
Yield: makes enough for 8-12 servings