Purple Sweet Potato and Haupia Pie Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

Why do African Americans eat sweet potato pie? ›

After emancipation, when African American cooks gained more access to their own equipment and refined ingredients, they continued the tradition of baking with yams and sweet potatoes — especially the pie. These deep roots became the foundation of a strong tradition in African American food culture.

It can be easy to confuse Okinawan sweet potatoes and ube – a type of yam – because of their rich purple color, but make no mistake, they are two different ingredients. Here are some of the major taste, nutrition, and biological differences and similarities between these two crops.

Both sweet potato and pumpkin pies are American staples with a starchy custardlike filling. Pumpkin pie tends to be more heavy on spice, while sweet potato pie is typically sweeter and lighter. But the reasons why people choose one over the other often trace back to where they were raised and their race.

What is the favorite pie of Black people? African-Americans today have continued the tradition of sweet potato pie with holiday dinners. So yes, sweet potato pie is a Black thing – easy enough for anyone to make, and everyone to love!

Sweet potatoes tend to have slightly fewer calories per serving than yams. They also contain a bit more vitamin C and more than triple the amount of beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A in the body.

Sweet Potatoes and Health

Sweet potatoes with purple flesh are richer in anthocyanins. Beta-carotene and anthocyanins are naturally occurring plant “phyto” chemicals that give vegetables their bright colors. These phytochemicals are researched for their potential role in human health and disease prevention.

It was used in traditional Okinawan imo-ryori, cuisine that focuses on the use of sweet potatoes in various preparations, such as tempura, soup, and even ice cream.

Chef Paula Haney shares with Duff the bakery's recipe for the Fat Elvis Pie, which was inspired by Elvis Presley's love of peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches. The pie includes chocolate pastry cream, peanut butter filling and slices of banana in a crust made of graham cracker crumbs, dry roasted peanuts and pretzels.

She leads a team of professionals to bring quality bakery products to over 4,500 store locations. A notable accomplishment is that Kinna is the person responsible for creating the Patti Labelle Sweet Potato Pie.

Smith pies they were a family favorite, after looking all over for them since last November with no luck, I have learned they have been discontinued.

What is the most popular pie at Thanksgiving? ›

While pumpkin pie reigns supreme in the majority of American households, sweet potato pie is still the quintessential Thanksgiving dessert in the South. According to one theory, it was Henry VIII's love of sweet potato desserts that kicked off the popularity of yams in a pie.

However, if you place the two in a side-by-side comparison, sweet potato generally outpaces pumpkin in its nutritional makeup from vitamin A to fiber to protein. While pumpkin is a light, low sugar option, sweet potatoes do more heavy lifting and will ultimately feed your body more essential nutrients.

Is sweet potato pie healthy? Sweet potato does not need a lot of ingredients as it has a distinct taste. They are naturally sweet and contain nine times more sugar than pumpkin. This makes them an unhealthy option in terms of sugar content.

The tradition was soon brought to America during slavery, where the African slaves transformed the dessert into something sweeter using yams, then sweet potatoes. Coincidentally, yams and black-eyed peas was a common food slaves were fed during the Middle Passage.

History. Though creamy vegetable pie recipes date back to Medieval Europe, sweet potato pie appears in the southern United States from the early colonial days. The use of sweet potatoes in Southern and African-American cuisine traces back to Native American cuisine.

Perhaps most visible in African American homes, sweet potatoes are often transformed into sweet potato casserole, candied yams—which are even more deeply sweetened sweet potatoes— and of course, sweet potato pie, which are all holiday staples.

Eventually, wealthy Americans got wind of the newfound culinary fad from across the ocean and wanted in, including those of southern homeowners with plantations. Cooking was a task delegated to enslaved African-Americans, and thus their knowledge of sweet potatoes began.