Sweet Potato Pie & Sweet Potato Cheesecake

Now that summer has dropped off into a very abrupt fall, it's time for warm cozy comfort foods, and more importantly, pie. I had a few delicious bites at the Pioneer Fall Festival and now I want more. And even though national pie day is March 14, it's never too late to celebrate.

Usually when I make pie filling, it's done by feeling, or by random amount of fruit I happen to have on hand. I end up with too much filling for one pie, but not enough for two and thus how the sweet potato pie and cheesecake alliance formed.

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients:

⅓ c shortening

1 ⅓ c all purpose flour

½ tsp salt (shell), 1 tsp salt (filling)

3-4 tbsp cold water

2 sweet potatoes

2 yams

½ c brown sugar

¼ c melted butter

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:

For pie shell: Cut shortening into flour and salt until particles are the pea-sized. Sprinkle in water, 1 tbsp at a time tossing with fork until all the flour is moistened. Gather pastry into a ball. Sprinkle flour on work surface and roll out a 10-inch round of pie. Fold in quarters to transfer to pie pan. Preheat oven to 475 and press pastry into pan. Prick the bottom and side thoroughly with a fork and bake for about ten minutes. Allow crust to cool completely before filling. Lower oven temperature to 425.

For filling: Peel and cut sweet potatoes and yams into thick cubes and boil for about twenty minutes until soft to fork. Mash potatoes and combine with melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Fill the crust and bake for about 40 minutes. Save leftovers for the next recipe!

Sweet Potato Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Leftover filling from Sweet Potato Pie

1 ½ c reg or cinnamon graham crackers

⅓ c melted butter or Earth Balance

3 tbsp sugar

5 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened

1 ½ c sugar

¼ c whipping cream

3 tbsp all purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

3 eggs

Directions: For graham cracker crust: Pulse graham crackers in a food processor and combine with butter and sugar. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before filling.

For cheesecake filling: Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt, whipping cream and eggs in a large bowl until smooth. Fold in sweet potatoes and pour batter into crust. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and reduce oven temperature to 300. Bake 1 hour. Turn off oven and leave cheesecake in for 15 minutes. Cover and chill before serving.

Notes: Now with two delicious desserts in hand, you can share one with a neighbor. Which would you keep?