The contributor: Eris Cosby Lancaster, who lives with her husband, Terrell, in Powder Springs and near many members of her close-knit family. She works for the Cobb County Board of Education.
The story: "My grandmother Nellie Mae Cosby and my granddaddy had a 100-acre farm below Douglasville, about 25 miles from where we lived. If ever there were a saint on earth, she was it. She was the ideal picture of a perfect grandmother, and I never heard anyone say an unkind word about her.
"We never saw her in a pair of slacks; she always wore a little house dress. Her hair --- what little of it she had --- was always in a neat bun. She only had a ninth-grade education, but she read well and spoke well. She worked hard her whole life. I once saw her wring a live chicken's neck in her backyard that she cooked the same day.
"We went to her house at least two Sundays a month. If it wasn't mealtime, grandmother would feed you anyway. My cousins and I would always head straight to the pie safe to get some of her biscuits and her homemade pear preserves. Her biscuits were the best in the world!
"We never left her house without something to take home to eat. It may be something from her garden; she always had a garden. They also had apple trees and pear trees and grew their own sweet potatoes. Everyone especially loved her sweet potato pie.
"When her farmhouse burned down, grandmother moved into a little trailer directly across from my aunt's house. She never went into a nursing home. She was so spunky!
"Late in life, she was diagnosed with diabetes, but she kept making her sweet potato pie, using artificial sweetener in place of the sugar. If ever there were a diabetic that could stay on a diet, it was her.
"She died in 1990, at the age of 93. My sister-in-law had her sweet potato pie recipe, in grandmother's handwriting, and shared it with all of us. I make it every year for Thanksgiving; sometimes two or three of us will show up with one.
Nellie Mae Cosby's Sweet Potato Pie
Makes 8 servings
Hands on: 30 minutes
Total time: 2 hours
Essentially, this pie is pure sweet potato. With just a touch of vanilla, the earthy flavor of the potatoes shines through. Some recipes call for nutmeg, cinnamon or allspice, but Virginia Willis, Saving Southern Food chefs panel member and cookbook author, said she really appreciates the simplicity. She also said, "I think baking it on a hot baking sheet is a great technique for ensuring a well-cooked bottom crust, " as contributor Eris Cosby Lancaster suggests.
2 large sweet potatoes
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of fine salt
1 prepared pie crust
Making the pie
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the sweet potatoes on a rimming baking sheet or pizza pan. Bake until potatoes are tender to the point of a knife, 45 to 60 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Return the baking sheet to the oven and leave the oven on 350 degrees.
When cool enough to handle, peel the sweet potatoes and discard the skin. Place the peeled potatoes in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on medium-low speed, whip until smooth. Add the egg, sugar and butter and continue whipping on medium-low until well-combined. Add milk, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt and continue whipping on medium until smooth and all ingredients are incorporated.
Pour the sweet potato mixture into the prepared pie crust.
Transfer to the preheated oven and place directly on the baking sheet or pie pan. (This will help the bottom cook, too.)
Bake until set, about 60 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool slightly before serving. Serve warm or room temperature.
Nutritional information
Per serving: 275 calories (percent of calories from fat, 32), 3 grams protein, 44 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 10 grams fat (4 grams saturated), 35 milligrams cholesterol, 184 milligrams sodium.
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