A Pie-licious Success: Sweet Potato, Buttermilk and Pumpkin are winners
by Stephen Faure
Inside Northside celebrated its first Holiday Pie contest Sunday, September 30. Our readers baked a range of pies, sweet and savory, including traditional pumpkin and apple. Southern favorites pecan, buttermilk and sweet potato joined a savory oyster pie in the running.
Judging took place at Madisonville’s Speak Easy Too, Brigitte Gomane and Beatrice Germaine’s newest coffee house. This new location, like Speak Easy, their Mandeville store, is a haven for foreign language aficionados and lovers of coffee and pastry.
Celebrity judge Brigitte Gomane was joined by Kevin Davis, St. Tammany Parish president and WGSO 990 AM radio personality Bernie Cyrus—two men with their fingers in many pies!—in the tough task of picking a winner.
When the tasting was over, reader Michael Morgan’s Sweet Potato Pie with Drunken Whipped Cream was the first place winner. Channing Thompson’s Granny’s Buttermilk Pie earned second place and Elise Glorioso’s Pumpkin Pie with a Halloween Crust came in third.
After the tasting, publisher Lori Murphy presented Morgan with a check for $100. Guests were treated to all the pie they could eat.
Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all who entered! Here are the prize recipes.
Sweet Potato Pie with
Pecan Brittle and
Drunken Whipped Cream
Pecan Brittle
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups pecan pieces
Pinch of salt
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp baking soda
Note: You will need a candy thermometer for this recipe.
Butter a medium sized sheet pan and set aside. Combine sugar, syrup and water in a heavy-bottomed small saucepot and put over medium high heat. Stir occasionally. When the sugar dissolves, add salt. Continue to cook over medium heat until mixture reaches 250 degrees, then carefully stir in pecan pieces. Continue cooking until mixture reaches 290 degrees. Take off heat and quickly stir in butter and baking soda. The mixture will froth. Pour onto buttered sheet pan and allow to cool completely. This recipe makes more brittle than needed for the pie. Place the rest in an airtight container and enjoy!
Drunken Whipped Cream
1 cup whipping cream
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp spiced rum
In an electric mixer, whip the cream until it starts to thicken. Add sugar and rum and continue to whip until stiff peaks form.
Sweet Potato Pie
20 oz. sweet potato (about 1 1/2 medium-sized potatoes), cubed
1 1/4 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
5 egg yolks
Salt, to taste
1 9-inch frozen piecrust
Steam sweet potatoes in a steamer pot for 20-25 minutes or until fork tender. (If you don’t have a steamer pot, you can improvise one by using a metal colander and setting it in a larger pot.) Allow potatoes to cool, and then mash thoroughly. Combine potatoes in a mixing bowl and add next 7 ingredients.
Using a spoon first, then a whisk, thoroughly combine ingredients to form a uniform mixture. Pour mixture into pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
To assemble pie: Break some of the brittle into smaller pieces (half the size of a fingernail). Spread this on top of the pie, leaving about an inch of the pie clean around the outside. Dollop the drunken whipped cream in the middle. Serve and enjoy!
Granny’s Buttermilk Pie
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
3 Tsps flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 9-inch graham cracker crust
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Beat in flour, buttermilk and salt. Bake 45 minutes or until inserted knife come out clean.
Pumpkin Pie
2 cans pumpkin
1 stick butter
Dash of nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
6 whole eggs
2 cups sugar
Dash of allspice
2 unbaked piecrusts
Mix all ingredients on stove on low heat just to warm. Pour into unbaked pie shells. Place in 325-degree oven and cook until filling has set.
