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2 deep dish piecrusts
4 to 6 yams (sweet potatoes)
3 eggs, separated
1 / 2 bar margarine, softened
1 / 2 bar butter, softened
1 cup heavy cream
1 / 8 teaspoon allspice
1 1 / 2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1 / 2 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 / 4 teaspoon salt
1 / 4 teaspoon ginger
1 / 8 teaspoon cloves

(Topping)

1 / 2 bar butter, melted
1 / 2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Oven to 450 degrees.
2. Peel and cube sweet potatoes. Cook in a large pot with water to cover and pinch of salt until tender. Test potatoes by breaking the potato in the pot with a fork. It will break easy when done. Drain potatoes. Place potatoes in a large bowl. Add butter and margarine cut up to melt quickly. Beat together. Add sugar. Continue to beat.
3. Beat 3 egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff. Set aside in a cool place. Add egg yolks to sweet potato mixture along with heavy cream and vanilla. Add cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, salt and baking powder to potatoes. Blend in well. With a large spoon, fold in the stiff egg whites last. Pour sweet potato mixture into uncooked piecrusts.
4. For topping, mix melted butter, pecans and brown sugar together in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the tops of sweet potato pies just before putting into the oven.
5. Bake on high temperature for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 45 more minutes.
6. ENJOY! – The southern sweet potato pie enjoyed everywhere!

Sweet Potato Pie is one of my favorite pies. I really don’t do pies well, except for this one. At Thanksgiving time, it is the most requested recipe from my family and friends. The calls start the week before the holiday for the recipe and the calls continue the rest of the week with questions. I haven’t gotten around to posting it on Somebody’s Mom before this because I am so busy with the holiday myself. This time was no exception. I was so involved with baking my pies, I forgot to photograph all the steps for the website. Luckily, I was able to get a few shots before the pies are all gone.

Many years ago, I worked for IBM during the night shift in the computer room. We called it the “Block House”. The computers ran 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. There are no windows in the block house, just the computers and the computer operators. We all worked on teams of four and we had to work every third weekend with other teams. With this schedule and the isolation of the block house, you would tend to get very close with the people you worked with. I have to say I really enjoyed the large group of people I worked with from all different backgrounds and nationalities. To break up the crazy long hours and stressful work, we would have parties all the time in the break room. One year we had our own Thanksgiving dinner a few days before the holiday and everyone brought in their family’s traditional dish. I don’t remember what I brought it, but it was the first time I tasted sweet potato pie. My co-worker, Anita, made the pie from her Southern mother’s recipe. Her pie contained bourbon as an ingredient. Anita gave me the recipe. I decide to eliminate the bourbon and I added the pecan streusel topping instead. I never liked the canned sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, so I was ready to experiment with a new way to make sweet potatoes. This sweet potato pie has become my traditional Thanksgiving dish every year since then and my family really looks forward to it. Once you tried it, you may never go back to the marshmallow sweet potato casserole again!