A CLASSIC Sweet Potato Pie

This sweet potato pie is a delicious Thanksgiving recipe that is simple to make and you can whip up easily (I promise, there's no need to make pastry!). It is based on the pumpkin pie that I used to make for a Southern American restaurant and it is so good that I get requests for this all the time from neighbours to family! It can also be done in the Thermomix. This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader and perfect for Thanksgiving coming up.

While we don't have Thanksgiving here in Australia I love any opportunity to try desserts and when Mr NQN pulled out some big sweet potatoes from our back garden I knew exactly what I wanted to make. The pumpkin pie I used to make for an American restaurant was so popular and was made not using a pastry base but a cookie base like you would for a cheesecake. These bases are easy to make and less time consuming than pastry cases and I prefer making them. You always get a clean cut when you make these pies too!

Tips for Making Sweet Potato Pie

1 - I like to bake my sweet potato instead of boiling or steaming it to dry it out so that you get a better texture of pie in the end. And there's nothing easier than baking a sweet potato. Just wash and bake it. Once it is cooled the skin slips off easily. If you are in a hurry to bake them, cut them up into quarters to expedite roasting time.

2 - Make sure to puree your sweet potato very well so that it is silky smooth and not lumpy or grainy. This will make the end result so much better.

3 - The base is made up of a combination of cookies: Malt o Milk and Gingernut which gives a really nice combination of flavours that mimic Graham crackers with an extra flavour of ginger. If you're from America you can also use Graham crackers in the same weight because I don't think you have these biscuits. I sometimes find the amount of butter I need for the crust differs slightly and you may need more but you shouldn't need that much more butter. It will actually come together with just 3 tablespoons of melted butter.

4 - I use this 9 inch pie dish for making pies as it is the standard size.

That's it! It's really so easy to make this pie and I hope you'll give it a go.

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The day that I made this I went off to an event that night before we headed overseas. It was at a bar with a gorgeous view of Sydney. With travel events sometimes you know a lot of people but in this case I only knew a couple of people. The event was for a cruise line and they had set up all sorts of interesting things. There was a painter in one corner, an astrophysicist on the balcony and there was a band playing live music.

I busied myself watching the painter and I was transfixed. I can't paint at all so it's a skill I really admire and she was painting a scene of Istanbul. Mr NQN were headed there on a cruise so I was fascinated to see this and she also happened to be using some of my favourite colours with pinks, greens and blues with a shade of orange.

Then I went out and talked to a lovely girl that I knew and we looked through the telescopes to see some twin stars that the astrophysicist was very excited to show us. I was thinking of leaving then because the crowd was starting to thin out and I thought that all of the speeches were done.

But then they told us that they were doing a draw for someone to win the painting. On the back of our name tags was a number and they were drawing numbers. I checked the back of my tag and it read "43". Then he read out the number 43! It felt like it was meant to be as we would be seeing this view in a few weeks time. It hangs next to a painting by my friend Valentina of the Royal Hawaiian or pink palace in Honolulu. Perhaps I'll fill a wall with my favourite destintions.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you collect artwork? What sort of art do you have on your walls? And do you like sweet potato pie?

Sweet Potato Pie

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 55 minutes

For Crust

• 120g/4ozs around 15 Malt o Milk biscuits (can use same weight of Graham crackers)
• 45g/1.6ozs or around 5 gingernut biscuits (can use same weight of Graham crackers)
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

For Filling

• 500g/1.1lbs roasted sweet potato, weight flesh only with skin removed
• 200ml/7flozs evaporated milk (skim or regular)
• 50ml/1.7flozs pure or thickened cream
• 125g/4ozs caster or superfine sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice mix (or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

To Roast Sweet Potatoes, wash and lay on a foil or parchment lined tray. Bake at 180C/350F for 45 minutes until soft and deflated when pierced with a knife. The actual time depends on the thickness of your sweet potatoes and can take anything from 30-60 minutes.

Step 1 - First make the crumb crust. Preheat oven to 160C/320F fan forced and grease a glass pie dish (mine was a 1.4qt capacity, 22.5cm/9" diameter pie dish) with a little butter. Process all of the biscuits until very fine in texture. Thermomix directions: 15 seconds, speed #10. Make sure that the mixture is fine and there are no chunks of cookie. Mix with the melted butter until you get a dampish consistent texture. Press into a glass pie dish and make sure that the corners are not too thick. I use a glass to smooth it out. I also use the end of a chopstick to give the top a fluted pattern. It will seem like you need more butter but you don't. Bake for 5 minutes and the remove from oven.

Step 2 - Blend the sweet potato with the evaporated milk and cream in a food processor until smooth. Thermomix directions: 15 seconds, speed #8. Add the sugar, eggs, spice mix, vanilla and salt until smooth in texture. Thermomix directions: 15 seconds, speed #8. Gently pour it over the crumb crust (do this slowly so as not to dislodge the crumbs). Prick any air bubbles and slide into the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Turn around halfway and bake for another 20-25 minutes. The centre will be a bit wobbly but will set upon cooling. Cool in the oven with the door ajar. You can eat it warm or refrigerate and eat cold with some whipped cream and extra cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Storage: keep this pie covered in the fridge where it will last for up to 5 days.