Culinary SOS: Market Garden Brewery’s sweet potato pie

Dear SOS: A while ago, on a visit to Cleveland, our son took us to eat and drink at the Market Garden Brewery. I believe it is near the interesting Garden Market on the near west side of Cleveland. I ordered the sweet potato pie. It was out of this world! I was glad I had eaten lightly before devouring it.

Ruth L. Brown

Los Angeles

Dear Ruth: This is no ordinary sweet potato pie. Creamy mashed sweet potatoes are lightly spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla paste, and sweetened with a touch of honey, sugar and Muscavado brown sugar — a rich, dark, unfiltered brown sugar — for a wonderful medley of flavors. Not too sweet and not overly spiced. In a word: perfect. This is one pie I’ll be making again and again.

Market Garden Brewery’s sweet potato pie

Total time: 2 hours, 20 minutes, plus chilling time for the dough

Servings: 8

Note: Adapted from Market Garden Brewery in Cleveland. Muscavado sugar and vanilla paste are available at cooking and baking supply stores, as well as select gourmet and well-stocked markets, and are available online. To roast sweet potatoes, prick unpeeled whole potatoes with a knife and roast at 375 degrees until a knife pierces easily, about 1 hour, depending on the size of the potatoes. Cool before peeling.

Pie dough

1 1/4 cups (5.3 ounces) flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, diced

1/4 cup ice water

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and sugar. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or fork, until the butter pieces are reduced to the size of small peas. Drizzle over the water, and gently stir until the mixture starts to come together to form a dough. Knead the mixture lightly to form a cohesive dough. Form the dough into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. On a lightly floured board, roll the dough out to a thickness of slightly less than one-fourth inch. Fit the dough into a 9-inch pie plate or tin and trim any excess.

Sweet potato pie

1 pound roasted and peeled sweet potatoes

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup muscavado brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon Bourbon vanilla paste or extract

1/2 cup milk

Prepared unbaked 9-inch pie shell

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mash the sweet potatoes. Beat in the granulated and muscavado sugars, then the eggs, melted butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey, vanilla and milk. Pour the filling into the prepared pie shell.

2. Bake the pie until set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool on a rack to room temperature before serving.

Each serving: 543 calories; 5 grams protein; 76 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 25 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 109 mg cholesterol; 53 grams sugar; 129 mg sodium.

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