Election Special - Hypocrite Pie

It began with an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner. I invited my future wife to join my family at the day-after-Thanksgiving meal and euchre tournament that has been held at my cousin’s house for as long as anyone can remember. I probably said something along the lines of: “We ought to make something to take along, huh?”

We were young. I was twenty-three and she was twenty-two. We hadn't lived a lot of life yet, hadn't had a ton of time to learn to cook. I had just graduated from college and was just starting to find my way into the kitchen. We had no clue, on so many levels.

My future wife being the woman that she is, she went to Borders and bought the biggest dessert cookbook she could find, “Classic Home Desserts,” by Richard Sax. We made the apple pie recipe as a test, called it good (it still is) and made it to take with us to this family gathering. The cookbook went back on the shelf.  We had no idea how much of an influence that book would have on the rest of our lives. 

A couple of months later, I asked this woman to marry me. She said yes, and we went to dinner to celebrate. At that dinner, I had crème caramel for the first time. A thought started to work its way through my brain, “Could I make this food?”  Back to the Sax book, and there was, indeed, a recipe for Crème Caramel. I made it, over and over again, for anyone who would eat it. Then I started turning the pages, looking at the huge broad range of what we call desserts.

It wasn't the only food influence in my life. I was working in a restaurant, we were watching Iron Chef when Food Network was brand new. We were gobbling up food and food experiences as fast as we could afford to. But it was a big influence. The focus on fresh ingredients and regional cooking was unlike anything I had explored before. It was challenging, yet accessible.

Regardless of your political persuasion, after a long presidential campaign, what pie describes the season but hypocrite pie?  Hypocrite pie is named this because it looks like one thing on top and another underneath.  It is not uncommon to see hypocrite pies made with cooked fruit put into a crust, then topped with a custard and baked until the custard is set.  One recipe put strawberries into a crust, then topped with a milky custard, kind of a strawberry shortcake variant.  Some hearken back to an older age, starting with dried fruit which is rehydrated before going into the crust.

My favorite, though, is from Richard Sax book.  It’s sweet potato pie on the bottom with pecan pie on top.  It’s lovely, creamy, crunchy and sweet.  If Richard Sax would ever stumble across this blog, this post, the first post, would be a small tribute to his work and a brief ‘Thank You.’  His book changed my life.

Sax’s original recipe calls for his Basic Pie Dough.  It’s a good pie dough, and I've used it for years.  But with custardy fillings, the dough tends to get water-logged and lose its crispness after cooking, especially in the center.  I’m trying out a pie crust from Shirley Corriher’s “Bakewise,” which is supposed to avoid just this problem.

Hypocrite Pie Recipe 

1 unbaked pie crust (Need some ideas on this?  I’ll have crust recipes on this blog from time to time.)

Sweet Potato Filling

1 pound raw sweet potatoes

1 C. pecans

½ C. light brown sugar, packed

3 large eggs

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground allspice

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp salt

1 C. pecans

Pecan Topping

⅔ C. light brown sugar, packed

¾ C. pecans

½ stick butter

½ tsp salt

Roll out the pie dough, fit it into  a pie pan, pinch or flute the edges, chill until needed.

Roast the sweet potatoes until they can be easily pierced by a knife, about an hour.  While the sweet potatoes are roasting, put the pecans on a cookie sheet and roast them about 7-10 minutes.  Don’t let the pecans burn.  Remove the pecans when they are fragrant, and put them on a cutting board to cool.  Remove the sweet potatoes and let them cool until they are easy to handle.  Coarsely chop the pecans, split the sweet potatoes and separate the flesh from the skins.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Put the sweet potatoes, brown sugar, eggs, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt into a food processor and blend together.  Scatter a little more than half of the roasted, chopped pecans into the pie crust.  Top with the sweet potato mixture.  Bake for 20 minutes.

While it is baking, melt the ½ stick butter.  Mix the remaining pecans, the brown sugar, butter, and salt.

Carefully remove the pie from the oven, place on a cooling rack.  Leave the oven on.  Gently spoon the pecan/brown sugar mixture all over the sweet potato mixture, covering all the gaps as much as possible.  

Return to the oven.  Cook another 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool.