Gluten Free Sweet Potato Pie

I got this recipe from a lovely lady who has been like a mother to me pretty much since I've started my life here in Georgia.  As much as she is a great person, she is also a great cook.  I love her sweet potato pie, but as my tinkering nerves like to join in the fun every time I make something, I've done it in a slightly different way, so that my funny brother-in-law can enjoy some pie too.  Here is how I made it.

The pie crust looks like this when it's ready.

For the gluten free pie shell:
1 scant cup uncooked rolled oats
3 tbsp brown sugar
2/3 cup walnuts/pecans, minced
1/3 cup butter (5 tbsp & 1 tsp), melted

I made it for our family Christmas gathering and I would like everyone get to eat some dessert, including my brother-in-law D, who is gluten intolerant, to be able to enjoy some sweet too.  So I tried out this pie crust recipe I found online and it turned out pretty well.  I saved the aluminum pie pan for Publix brand pie crust to use it as aide for this.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Spread the rolled oats in a large shallow pan and bake for 10 minutes to toast.  Toss with sugar, nuts and melted butter.  Press over bottom and up sides of the 9" pie pan. Refrigerate while preparing the filling. Oh, to mince the nuts, I use the Pampered Chef food chopper to do the job.

I had a little leftover crust material, so I put it in a small ramekin.

This pie crust is not as messy to make as a regular gluten free pie crust made out of flour, as I made it last year.  It has a different texture as one would expect, but I can dig it.

For the filling:

1 big sweet potato, well done (about 1 & 1/2 cup or a little less when mashed up)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup & 2 tbsp sugar
Sprinkle of salt
1/4 evaporated milk *
1&1/2 eggs *
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

* I made my own version of the evaporated milk with original unsweetened almond milk by Blue Diamond, since brother-in-law also can't have dairy (butter in cooking is ok).  Use 3 to 1 ratio, cook 3/4 cup of almond milk down to 1/4 cup as needed for the recipe.  Remember to constantly stir while cooking the milk down.

* The recipe I got was for 2 pies and it calls for 3 eggs, that's why it seems odd to have 1 & 1/2 eggs there.  I just used 2 eggs myself.

Wrap the sweet potato in paper towel and cook it in microwave until it's tender all throughout, about 7 to 8 minutes, depending the size of the sweet potato.  Scrape the meat off the skin and mash it in a big bowl.  Add butter, sugar and salt, mix well.  Mix the eggs and vanilla extract in a separate bowl well, then add the mixture to the potato bowl.  Slowly add milk the last and mix all into a pudding like consistency.  It should be thinner than mashed potatoes.  Pour it into unbaked pie shell.  Place in 300 F oven and bake approximately 1 hour.  The pie should be lightly brown and set.  Luckily, I had enough filling to fill up the small pie too.  So, voila, there is one big and one small.

Well, the whole pie turned out to be very delicious.  And everyone enjoyed the pie, including my brother-in-law, who misses eating pies!