Sweet Potato Coffee Pie

I want to share a recipe with you, but first I have to brag on my brothers a bit. They made supper for us the other night; not a common occurrence, but one that we enjoy whenever Mom decides it's time to assign them a meal.

Potato soup was the menu, with apple pie for dessert. But not just plain old soup and pie. This soup was creamy, and cheesy, and thick, and savory, and oh so good! The pie was high and golden and sweet...extremely good pie crust, 'specially considering that it was Curtis' first time making a pie.

I took a picture, and Justin said, "Are you going to put that on your blog?"
I said, "I might. Think I should?"
"Yup," he replied.
"Want me to brag on my brothers a bit, huh?" I smiled.
He just grinned.

And so, swelling with pride, I present the photo:


Now for the recipe. This is another one that I made up, so if you hate it, there's no one to blame but me. :)

But I don't think you'll hate it. Not if you like pumpkin pie. Or brown sugar. Or nuts. Or cinnamon. Or sweet potato casserole.

Sound good? Let's continue.

To begin with, this was going to be sweet-potato-cinnamon-rolls, made almost exactly like normal sweet cinnamon rolls, for breakfast. But one thing led to another, and I decided to aim for coffee cake instead. The finished product turned out more like pie than cake, however, so I have dubbed it "Coffee Pie." I know it sounds nothing like what it is, but, hey, I made it - I name it. :)

This Coffee Pie is really a thin, very moist cake. With crumble topping. The stuff is sweet, but not too sweet. Would you believe I could make two 9" coffee pies with only half a cup of brown sugar? It's true! You would never guess it is only that bit of sugar, when you're eating the cakes.

Ahem. I mean pies.

I have a confession; I've only made this recipe once, so it may still need a bit of tweaking. But if I wait for that, I'll never post it, so I'll offer it as-is. It's pretty tasty that way.

Without further rambling:

Amber's Sweet Potato Coffee Pie
Oh - wait - one more thing. (Sorry!) This recipe is great for being made ahead of time, to save you time when you're fumbling around the kitchen in the morning because you overslept.

Well, it's actually best warm (I think - it didn't last 'til it cooled), but you can mix the ingredients ahead of time. I'll show you:

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 generous tsp. cinnamon
1 sprinkle ginger
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder

Add 4 TBS cold butter, and 3 TBS shortening. Cut into flour until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Cover and refrigerate immediately.

In another bowl, combine wet ingredients:
1 cup cooled, well-mashed sweet potatoes
1 or 2 tsp. of lemon juice
1 cup milk (*I use almond milk. It's got more calcium than regular milk, but it's sweeter, and has fewer calories and less fat. It's yummy!)
1/4 cup water
2 eggs, well beaten

Combine until smooth. Refrigerate this bowl, too. (You can wait, and add the eggs in the morning, if you want them to be a bit fresher.)

In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup well-chopped walnuts
2 TBS ground flax seed (see how healthy this is?)
1.5 TBS cold butter

Mix until well combined and crumbly. Butter will get soft and a little pasty instead of crumbly, but do your best. Refrigerate.

The next morning, you'll be able to assemble this before your oven is done preheating!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9" cake pans. Take all 3 bowls out of the refrigerator. Pour wet ingredients into dry ones, and fold together with a fork just until combined. Pour evenly into the pans. Divide topping in half and sprinkle each half over one cake. Let the batter sit in the pans for 3-5 minutes, then put in the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Don't over-bake; you want it nice and moist.

Serve warm!