Purple Sweet Potato Haupia Pie Recipe
I've been at the purple sweet potatoes again, and made purple sweet potato haupia pie.
The last time I used these magical things were in my purple sweet potato roll cake last year. I love the rich flavour of them compared to the regular kind found in the supermarket, but alas, they only seem available for a few months a year in one store in Chinatown, it seems.
What's haupia? Haupia's the white layer of this pie, and is essentially a rich set coconut custard. It's a Hawaiian dessert and often eaten by itself like a jelly, but here the flavours work with the sweet potato incredibly well.
Actually, I created this purple sweet potato haupia pie recipe because I originally wanted to make ube haupia pie. Not make a recipe for it, just follow an existing recipe and enjoy eating it. But I ran into a couple of problems along the way. The first and biggest one being that, at the time, I couldn't find fresh or frozen ube ANYWHERE in London.
The last time I used these magical things were in my purple sweet potato roll cake last year. I love the rich flavour of them compared to the regular kind found in the supermarket, but alas, they only seem available for a few months a year in one store in Chinatown, it seems.
What's haupia? Haupia's the white layer of this pie, and is essentially a rich set coconut custard. It's a Hawaiian dessert and often eaten by itself like a jelly, but here the flavours work with the sweet potato incredibly well.
So, I decided to experiment with purple sweet potato instead of ube (sometimes people confuse the two, but they belong to completely different plant families). The good news is, it was delicious too. And I got a lovely, strikingly deep purple base, even if I was originally hoping for the softer purple of ube.
The original ube haupia pie recipe can be found on numerous sites on the interweb with different variations... but all of them leave you with lots of leftover ube mixture. So I decided to experiment a little more with the filling ingredients and quantities to get it *just right*.
The original ube haupia pie recipe can be found on numerous sites on the interweb with different variations... but all of them leave you with lots of leftover ube mixture. So I decided to experiment a little more with the filling ingredients and quantities to get it *just right*.
A little more suspiciously, most of them don't actually use their given pastry recipe (which is supposed to be a macadamia nut crust), instead opting to use a ready-made crust. The crust sounded delicious, a sort of sweet shortcrust with macadamia nuts. Why was no one making it?
My first sweet potato haupia pie didn't start off with strikingly stripy bare sides to begin with: originally I lined the pie tin so the pie would have a fluted crust around the side, too. The recipe said to pack the crust into the pie tin like you might for a cheesecake, but even following the recipe 100% yielded a soft pastry, rather than a crumb. The other significant problem was that the recipe made a crust that was far, far too crumbly after baking to remain structurally sound around the sides... resulting in crumbling walls. And this happening.
Ah. That's why people are using store-bought pie crusts instead. And it makes sense – macadamia nuts are really high in oil content, so they'd potentially make the crust less structurally sound. At least I had some 'ugly cookies' to snack on.
So. Here's my own take on the recipe, with just the right amount of filling, without the macadamia nuts, and with my own tried-and-true sweet shortcrust pastry recipe.
Ingredients for Crust:
Ingredients for Sweet Potato Layer:
-60g unsalted butter, softened
-130g boiled/steamed and mashed sweet potato (any will do, but purple is my favourite!)
-75g sugar
-2 eggs
-75ml evaporated milk
-1tsp vanilla
-Pinch of salt
Ingredients for Haupia Layer:
-1 can coconut milk
-125ml water
-50g cornflour
-70g caster sugar
-1 pandan leaf (optional- I just love pandan with coconut)
Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and lightly grease an 8" pie dish
2) Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the butter, and rub the butter in with your fingertips until you start getting a breadcrumb-like texture. Add the egg white, and knead lightly until you have a smooth dough. Then roll it out and place in your pie dish, gently moulding it to shape with your hands. Trim off any excess pastry from the edges (you can re-roll this out and bake it separately – it makes tasty biscuits)
My first sweet potato haupia pie didn't start off with strikingly stripy bare sides to begin with: originally I lined the pie tin so the pie would have a fluted crust around the side, too. The recipe said to pack the crust into the pie tin like you might for a cheesecake, but even following the recipe 100% yielded a soft pastry, rather than a crumb. The other significant problem was that the recipe made a crust that was far, far too crumbly after baking to remain structurally sound around the sides... resulting in crumbling walls. And this happening.
Ah. That's why people are using store-bought pie crusts instead. And it makes sense – macadamia nuts are really high in oil content, so they'd potentially make the crust less structurally sound. At least I had some 'ugly cookies' to snack on.
So. Here's my own take on the recipe, with just the right amount of filling, without the macadamia nuts, and with my own tried-and-true sweet shortcrust pastry recipe.
Ingredients for Crust:
- 300g plain flour
- 3 tbsp cornflour
- 3 tbsp icing sugar
- 180g cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 1/2 egg white
- Pinch of salt
Ingredients for Sweet Potato Layer:
-60g unsalted butter, softened
-130g boiled/steamed and mashed sweet potato (any will do, but purple is my favourite!)
-75g sugar
-2 eggs
-75ml evaporated milk
-1tsp vanilla
-Pinch of salt
Ingredients for Haupia Layer:
-1 can coconut milk
-125ml water
-50g cornflour
-70g caster sugar
-1 pandan leaf (optional- I just love pandan with coconut)
Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and lightly grease an 8" pie dish
2) Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the butter, and rub the butter in with your fingertips until you start getting a breadcrumb-like texture. Add the egg white, and knead lightly until you have a smooth dough. Then roll it out and place in your pie dish, gently moulding it to shape with your hands. Trim off any excess pastry from the edges (you can re-roll this out and bake it separately – it makes tasty biscuits)
3) Prick the bottom all over with a fork, place a sheet of nonstick baking paper on top, fill with baking beans to weigh it down, and bake for about 15 minutes. Leave to cool completely and remove the baking beans and baking paper
4) Make the sweet potato layer next: cream the butter and sugar together, and whisk in the eggs. Now whisk in everything else, and pour over the crust (it should only fill the tin halfway, giving you room for the haupia layer later)
5) Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the sweet potato layer is *just* beginning to brown at the edges and the middle is set. Now you have to wait for the pie to cool completely before making the haupia
6) Put the cornflour and sugar into a small saucepan, and gradually sir in the water with a balloon whisk so you form a loose paste. Now stir in the coconut milk, pop in a knotted pandan leaf (if you have one) and turn the heat up to medium
7) Keep stirring with your whisk until the haupia gets really really thick (remove the pandan leaf when it just starts to thicken)
8) Pour the thickened haupia straight onto the cooled pie and smooth the surface
9) Wait an hour or so for everything to cool down again, slice, serve and enjoy!
4) Make the sweet potato layer next: cream the butter and sugar together, and whisk in the eggs. Now whisk in everything else, and pour over the crust (it should only fill the tin halfway, giving you room for the haupia layer later)
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| (This is what it looked like with my original macadamia nut crust attempt) |
5) Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the sweet potato layer is *just* beginning to brown at the edges and the middle is set. Now you have to wait for the pie to cool completely before making the haupia
6) Put the cornflour and sugar into a small saucepan, and gradually sir in the water with a balloon whisk so you form a loose paste. Now stir in the coconut milk, pop in a knotted pandan leaf (if you have one) and turn the heat up to medium
7) Keep stirring with your whisk until the haupia gets really really thick (remove the pandan leaf when it just starts to thicken)
8) Pour the thickened haupia straight onto the cooled pie and smooth the surface
9) Wait an hour or so for everything to cool down again, slice, serve and enjoy!
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