purple sweet potato pie

Purple sweet potatoes. I’ve never seen these in the store before or really even knew of their existence until I got a bag full of them from Frieda’s Produce. With Thanksgiving on my horizon, I figured I’d try a twist on the classic sweet potato pie – replacing the normally orange colored sweet potatoes for the vibrant purple variety instead. Take my hand and let’s go on a pie-making journey!

You can see a hint of their purple color in the skins alone, but the purple color becomes a bit more pronounced once you cut and peel the sweet potatoes. It seems to be almost jewel-toned in color. These were treated the same as any other potato – wash, peel, and cover with water and set to boil.

I felt like I was a witch with a cauldron full a of bubbling boiling potion after seeing my pot of water turn purple! The whole sweet potatoes simmer and boil away for about 45 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and you can easily stick a fork through them.

Drain the freakishly festive purple water to reveal your bright purple sweet potatoes. Mash them with a masher, fork, or other implement of your choice until the sweet potatoes are nice and smooth. You’ll still see a few strings sticking up, but it should smooth out further as you weave the mixture into a magical pie filling.

Add the beautiful things – like butter, sugar, milk, vanilla and spices – to your sweet potatoes in the mixer and churn away. Let it whirl and be amazed by the color yet again.

In a partially baked pie crust, pour in your Barney-like filling and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes until the edges are a golden brown. There seems to be a lot of cooking time going around here for this one, but you’ll love the end result!

Eat a slice and hope that you don’t start singing Barney songs. Share with family and friends as they ooh and ahh over the color then pat yourself on the back for such a brilliant idea.

Purple Sweet Potato Pie
Recipe adapted from Sweet Potato Pie I from allrecipes.com
2 cups purple sweet potatoes, peeled, boiled & mashed
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

1. Turn oven to 350 degrees. Optional: par-bake crust in the oven with pie weights for 10-15 minutes.

2. Eyeball the amount of sweet potatoes you’ll need – depends on the size of the potatoes – but about 1 lb. Peel sweet potatoes and set in a pot of water to boil, about 45 minutes or until fork tender.

3. Drain potatoes and mash until smooth. Add to mixer.

4. Add butter to potatoes and mix well. Add sugars, milk, eggs, flour, spices and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is nice and smooth and everything is well incorporated.

5. Pour sweet potato mixture into prepared pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes, until edges are a nice golden brown. Pie will look kind of puffy at first, but it will sink down a bit as it cools off.

Disclaimer: I was given complimentary purple sweet potatoes on behalf of Frieda’s Produce. I was not paid for this product review. All opinions are my own.