If you’ve ever wanted to learn from the best, here’s your chance! From the chef who currently heads up the pastry department at Harrods comes a brand new plant-based baking book, A New Way to Bake. With stunning photography, imaginative ideas, and converted recipes, you’ll want to bake everything—including this recipe! Here’s what the chef says about it:

Sweet potato pie conjures the warmth we crave in autumn (fall) and is an iconic autumnal favorite in North America, often made with pumpkin. The spiced filling is comprised of cooked sweet potato (although you can easily swap with pumpkin) that has been blended to a silky consistency with brown sugar and warming spices. Cornstarch is cooked out to make a pie that slices beautifully and eats with a silky consistency.

Makes one 9-inch pie

Ingredients

• 400 grams (l4.1 ounces) Flaky Pastry
• 460 grams (16.2 ounces) sweet potato, cooked and cooled
• 65 grams (2.3 ounces) brown sugar
• 115 grams (4.1 ounces) caster (superfine) sugar
• 200 grams (7 ounces) plant-based milk
• 53 grams (1.9 ounces) cornstarch
• 2 grams (½ teaspoon) sea salt
• 2.5 grams (½ teaspoon) ground nutmeg
• 3 grams (1 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
• 1.5 grams (½ teaspoon) ground cloves
• 1 sheet filo pastry
• Extra virgin olive oil for brushing
• 40 grams (1.4 ounces) Exotic Clear Glaze, warmed (optional)

Instructions

Make the Pie Crust

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (350°F/gas 4) with an oven shelf in the middle of the oven.
2. Make the pastry following the instructions on page 231. Roll out the pastry between two large sheets of baking parchment to a large 30 cm (12 in) disc, about 3–4 mm (⅛–1/6 in) thick.
3. You can remove the top sheet of baking parchment and use the bottom sheet to help flip it over into the dish, if you like. Gently press the pastry into a 23 cm (9 in) pie or quiche dish with a tiny overhang.
4. Scrunch up one of the sheets of baking parchment and press it over the pastry, then fill with rice or baking beans to weigh down the pastry.
5. Bake in the oven for 18–20 minutes until cooked through. Remove the paper and rice and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and cooked through. If the edges brown too quickly cover with kitchen foil.
6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly while you prepare the filling.

Make the Sweet Potato Filling

7. Preheat the oven to 170°C fan (325°F/gas 3). Purée all the filling ingredients together in a food processor or with a hand-held blender in a large bowl for a quick finish, or purée the cooked sweet potato, then stir in all the remaining ingredients.
8. Pour the filling into the prebaked tart case all the way to the top and bake for 15 minutes, or until the center is just set. Allow to cool.

Finish the Pie

9. Preheat the oven to 170°C fan (325°F/gas 3). Gently brush some warmed exotic clear glaze, if using, onto the cooled top of the tart for an elegant shine. Brush a sheet of filo pastry with some olive oil on both sides. Use leaf cutters to cut leaves, then lay them on a baking tray and bake until golden, around 8–12 minutes. Allow to cool, then arrange on the outside of the tart.

Excerpted from A New Way to Bake: Re-Imagined Recipes for Plant-Based Cakes, Bakes and Desserts by Philip Khoury. Copyright 2023. Published with permission from ‎Hardie Grant Publishing.