Sweet Potato Honey Beer Pie — Photo: Photo by Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Melissa Gray / Prop Styling by Heather Chadduck Hillegas

Active Time:

1 hr 25 mins

Total Time:

4 hrs 25 mins

Servings:

I didn't grow up here, so Thanksgiving…It's something new for me. It's more of an adopted holiday, and so for me, it's more about being grateful just for everything that I've been given in life and worked for. That pretty much is what Thanksgiving means to me. The Thanksgiving traditions that I now work with or rather bring to my table are the ones based on the things that I've experienced with my family.

For the longest time, even though I do have family here, they weren't living close to me, and so I did most of my Thanksgivings with my friends in school or in the cities that I've lived in, and then, of course, with my husband's family, so that changed things. Most of my influences are based on that and living in those cities. Then the largest influence was my husband's family, and they're from the South. They're from Virginia. Sweet potatoes are such a big thing with his family. Thankfully, he likes them, too. I love sweet potatoes.

I actually make two sweet potato pies when we used to have guests over. This year, obviously, it's going to be different. The first year when my husband and I were dating and we had friends over to his place for dinner, I made a sweet potato pie, and he loved it so much that he wouldn't give anyone leftovers. In the bedroom, I found that he had actually hidden half of the pie under the bed because I knew for a fact that I had made enough for the number of guests we had, and I was really surprised to find half a pie hidden under the bed.

After that, I just started working on making twice the number of pies. What I really like about fall and winter is that we move from cooler flavors and temperatures to things that are warmer, and sweet potatoes do that. It also looks warm visually because of that beautiful color that is the pigment that's in there, and the flavors that you choose to pair with it, those are also warmer. Sweet potatoes, as you cook them, start to get very sweet, and you're also adding other ingredients to it, which makes it sweet. I've found that adding something bitter can help offset that. In my case, I don't like beer. I do not like bitter things. But when you reduce it and you put it in this context of the sweet potato custard that bakes in the pie, it works really well and offsets a lot of that sweetness, so it doesn't feel monotonous.

The other thing with sweet potato is that when it's roasted, not only does it become much more caramel-y, it also takes up a vanilla flavor or aroma, which I really like. Then, of course, you've got the darker sugars in it, which have the unrefined qualities, which always stand out really well in this situation. It makes it one of my favorite recipes.

The turmeric is less for flavor and more for color. Sometimes, depending on the quality of the sweet potatoes, you might not get that bright, brilliant orange-ish yellow color. If you add turmeric to it, it enhances that effect, completely different pigments but similar results. That's kind of where science comes in, where I'm just tweaking it a little bit to amplify the color.

We've got all these warm flavors. I also want to have a little bit of something cool but also heavily scented. In this case, the cardamom brings that. Not only does it counterbalance the warmth, it also adds a beautiful aroma, which works really well in this situation.

Everybody likes something pretty at the table. Sometimes, I feel with Thanksgiving sometimes, having suffered through the whole preparation stage, it can be exhausting. If you have a tart pan, it already provides the fluted edges, so it looks pretty. In this particular recipe, I control the temperatures at which the custard is made, and it goes into the oven. I've been making this particular formula for sweet potato pie for so many years that it never cracks in the middle. My husband will definitely ask me a week in advance if I'm making my sweet potato tart, to the point where I'm just like, "You know what? I don't want you to ask me anymore about this. It's there. It's happening. Let's move on." — Nik Sharma, as told to Adina Steiman

Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen

The various components of this pie can be prepared on different days if you want to prepare this in advance. Here's a suggested order of steps you might find useful, especially if you make this for Thanksgiving. A day before you want to eat, roast the sweet potatoes, reduce the beer, and prepare the pie crust, but don't bake it. The next day, prebake the pie crust, prepare the sweet potato custard, and bake the pie. Of course, you can also do this all in one day.

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Ingredients

Pie crust

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed and softened to room temperature, plus extra for greasing the pan
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg, lightly whisked
2 cups almond flour (blanched or unblanched)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Filling

1 pound sweet potatoes (2 small potatoes), preferably an orange-fleshed variety such as Garnet or Jewel
1 (12-fluid ounce) bottle dark beer, such as Negra Modelo
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar or jaggery
1/4 cup honey
3 large eggs plus 3 yolks
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground green cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions

To prepare the crust, line the base of a 9- x 1-inch [23 cm] round tart pan with parchment paper and grease lightly with a little butter.
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment on medium-low speed until the mixture is a uniform pale brown and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula. Add the egg and beat on medium-low speed until combined, 1 minute. Add the almond flour and salt and beat on medium-low speed until it comes together to form a ball of dough, 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape the dough from the bowl directly into the prepared pan.
Using a small, flat-bottomed bowl or the base of a flat measuring cup (with parchment paper covering the dough if you wish), spread and level the dough until it covers the base and the sides in an even layer. Wrap with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 1 hour until firm. The crust can be prepared in advance and frozen, wrapped, and sealed in a resealable bag for up to 2 weeks.
To partially bake the crust, at least 1 hour before it will be filled with the custard, preheat the oven to 350°F [177°C] and set a rack in the lower one-third position. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the crust on the baking sheet. Dock the surface by pricking it all over with a fork. Cover with a large sheet of parchment paper and weigh it down with pie weights. Bake until the sides just start to brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes. Remove the weights and the parchment paper.
To prepare the filling, preheat the oven to 400°F [204°C]. Rinse the sweet potatoes to remove any dirt and pat them dry with paper towels. Place the sweet potatoes in a baking dish or on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Roast until completely tender, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool completely before handling. Peel the sweet potatoes, discard the skins, and purée the flesh in a food processor, about 15 seconds . You should have about 12 ounces [340 g–1 1/2 cups] of sweet potato purée. Once the purée is completely cooled, proceed with the filling or refrigerate overnight in an airtight container. This can be done a day or two in advance.
When ready to complete the filling, pour the beer into a medium, deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Watch carefully to avoid overflowing as the liquid foams on heating. Lower the heat to low and cook until the liquid reduces to about 1/4 cup [60 ml], 20 to 30 minutes. Cool to room tem¬perature before using, about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°F [177°C]. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the reduced beer, sweet potato purée, sugar, honey, eggs, yolks, ginger, cardamom, turmeric, and salt. Slowly whisk in the milk and heavy cream until the sugar completely dissolves. In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch and 1 1/2 tablespoons of water to form a slurry. Pour the slurry into the custard and whisk until combined. Alternatively, add the ingredients to a high-speed blender and process on high speed briefly until you get a smooth slurry and sugar is dissolved, about 1 minute (this is my preferred method to obtain a silky-smooth filling).
Transfer the custard to a large saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, scraping down the sides, until the mixture reaches 165°F [74°C] on an instant-read thermometer and begins to noticeably thicken, 10 to 12 minutes. Quickly remove from the heat. Set a fine-mesh sieve over a large measuring pitcher and strain the custard to remove any lumps; lightly tap the pitcher to remove air bubbles.
Set the tart shell on a large baking sheet and pour in the filling. Carefully transfer to the oven and bake until the custard is set and an instant-read thermometer reads 185°F [85°C] when inserted into the center of the custard, 25 to 30 minutes. The custard should be firm on the sides but slightly jiggly in the center. Transfer to a wire rack and let the pie cool to room temperature, about 1 hour, before serving.

Notes

You can use the same recipe to make a pumpkin pie, using 15 ounces (430 grams) of unsweetened pumpkin purée in place of the sweet potato. Feel free to use a different crust, homemade or store-bought.

Most pie crusts tend to absorb a bit of water from the filling; nut-based crusts are notorious for this, because nuts release their fat on cooling and also absorb moisture from air (most nuts, including almonds, are hygroscopic). I've tried "waterproof¬ing" pie crusts with egg whites, but that's never worked for me. Here's a method that does work: Melt 3 tablespoons of white or dark bittersweet chocolate and paint the surface of the pie with a pastry brush. Let the chocolate set and harden before you pour in the custard and bake.

Reprinted from The Flavor Equation by Nik Sharma with permission by Chronicle Books, 2020.