Alton Brown's Sweet Potato Pie

Joey really likes Alton Brown's show and DVRs it at his dad's house for future watching. Recently, he saw a video of Alton making sweet potato pie which he describes as a better pumpkin pie--it tastes similar but is so much fresher since it doesn't use the canned stuff. The best part is that fresh sweet potatoes are a whole lot easier to work with than fresh pumpkin because all you do is peel, slice and dice. With pumpkins you have to scoop out the guts and deal with the thick peel.

I agree that this pie was super easy. The only problem was that it wasn't a huge hit at Thanksgiving because everyone went for their favorite classics as fast as possible. I think though if we hadn't brought a pumpkin pie as well, and we removed the toasted pecans from the top, people would've eaten the Sweet Potato and not really noticed a huge difference. I think that this was one of the prettiest pies we brought to Thanksgiving, of the five.

I learned that at Thanksgiving, sweet potatoes are suddenly synonymous with yams even though they aren't really the same thing. The first time I bought yams with a yellowish flesh. The second time (after one got moldy from improper storing techniques)I purchased red yams which were on special and they were really more sweet potato-esque with orange flesh. I'm kind of glad the first set went moldy cause otherwise the color would have been way off.

Ingredients

* 1 pound 3 ounces sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
* 1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
* 3/4 cup packed, dark brown sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
* 5 egg yolks
* Salt
* 1 (9-inch) deep dish, frozen pie shell
* 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
* 1 tablespoon maple syrup
* Special equipment: steamer basket

Directions

Put cubed potatoes into steamer basket and place steamer basket into a large pot of simmering water that is no closer than 2 inches from the bottom of basket. Allow to steam for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Mash with potato masher and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place sweet potatoes in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment. Add yogurt, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, yolks, and salt, to taste, and beat until well combined. Pour this batter into the pie shell and place onto a sheet pan. Sprinkle pecans on top and drizzle with maple syrup.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the custard reaches 165 to 180 degrees. Remove from oven and cool. Keep refrigerated after cooling.