In the interest of research, I went and bought a Patti LaBelle sweet potato pie for $3.98 @ Walmart. It was pretty good, not too sweet, decent crust that didn’t break when I took it out of the box. Put a bunch of whipped cream on it.
The filling was firm, with cinnamon, and a hint of cloves. It made me think a Dos Equis would be pretty good with it. Ate the pie, and am working on the Dos Equis.
It wasn’t the best sweet potato pie I ever ate. That was one my Mom’s neighbor from Mississippi baked. She also made the best fried mush I ever ate.
Probably, Patti had to take short cuts to get to market.
Epicurious has a variation of her pie which I might try. Sounds delicious as does Patti’s original.
I’m assuming that the mass market version was loaded with sugar. I hate overly sweet desserts. And soul food generally overdoes the sugar as far as I’m concerned.
There’s definitely an art to a good sweet potato pie. It can very easily get too thick and heavy. The best ones tend to have a little extra something. Chopped pecans for instance.