Mini Sweet Potato Pies

With four forlorn sweet potatoes staring at me from the pantry, I knew that our Pi Day had to include sweet potato pie. Of course, being from California, I'd never made sweet potato pie before. Heck, I'd never eaten sweet potato pie before. Thankfully, in this era of the internet, that was no problem at all, as a wonderful recipe was only a few clicks away.

Makes: Filling for a 9" pie or 60+ mini pies.

Ingredients
2 sweet potatoes
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
2- 5oz cans (1 1/4 cup) evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
Prepared mini pie shells (See below for more info)

Directions
BOIL medium pot of water
WASH and PEEL sweet potatoes
ADD sweet potatoes
BOIL until fork tender all the way through
REMOVE from water
MASH throughly to remove lumps
MEASURE out 2 cups and refrigerate the remainder for another use

DISCARD water
ADD mashed sweet potatoes back to the pot
CUT butter into small pieces
ADD brown sugar, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, butter, and one can of evaporated milk
TURN heat to low
WHISK mixture over low heat until well blended, smooth, and starting to bubble
REMOVE from heat and let cool

BEAT 3 eggs in a medium bowl
ADD second can of evaporated milk, sugar, and vanilla
BEAT until creamy

ADD cooled sweet potato mixture
WHISK until throughly incorporated

POUR into prepared mini pie shells

BAKE at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until filling is set

LET COOL

Enjoy!

My Thoughts
1. We used this recipe for the crust and pressed it into mini muffin pans. The trick with this is keeping the crust thin so that you get a good balance of filling to crust. You could also use a rolled pie crust and use a cookie cutter to cut out circles and lay them into the pan like Bakerella does here.

2. I really enjoyed these. The flavor was a bit more mild than the pumpkin pies I grew up with but overall, very tasty.

3. Of course, the mini presentation didn't hurt. SO CUTE! And an easy way to share Pi Day with coworkers or take pie to a potluck/on a picnic etc since no silverware is required to eat it. : )