Sweet Potato Tarts

I love a good family recipe, and this one is just wonderful! Sweet potato pie is an all-American favorite, and this version from the Gaspard family is smooth, rich, and melt-in-your-mouth scrumptious. The dough is very crisp, and a nice contrast to the texture of the sweet potato, which has a custardy consistency that is just plain elegant. The garnish – a few coins of cooked sweet potato sprinkled with sugar and browned in the oven – add a toothsome sweetness to the tart that really puts it over the top. If you’re looking to change up your Thanksgiving meal a bit, these sweet potato tarts are WHW –  White House worthy – and by that, I mean this is the kind of dish you could expect to find on a White House buffet.

Sweet Potato Tarts

This comes to us from a Beverly Gaspard, matriarch to a Southern family (now located in LA!), all of whom relish a good Sunday night supper, especially together.

Beverly’s Sweet Potato Tarts

Serves: Makes 12 tarts 

Prep time: one hour and thirty minutes, including one hour baking time 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Ingredients

  • 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
  • 8 ounces of butter
  • 1 cups flour
  • 2 large sweet potatoes, plus one small, thin sweet potato for garnish
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 1 6-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 Teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla


Directions

  1. To make the dough:
    Using the dough hook attachment of a mixer, mix cream cheese and butter. 
  2. Add flour, a little at a time, until well-incorporated.  Press together to form a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
    Cream cheese, butter, & flour mixture
  3. For the filling:
    Wash and scrub two sweet potatoes and cook with skin on until tender when a fork is inserted. 
  4. Cool slightly.
    Cooked and cooled sweet potatoes
  5. Whip potatoes in mixer, and add sugar, milk, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.  Mixture will be thin.
    Whipped potatoes, sugar, milk, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, & vanilla
  6. Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray.
  7. Pinch off a small piece of dough and roll out to a round that will fit into each muffin tin. 
  8. Pat dough along bottom and sides of each muffin mold.  Fill ¾ full with sweet potato mixture.
  9. Bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes until custard is firm and crust is golden brown.
    Baked Sweet Potato Tarts
  10. For the sweet potato coins:
    Roast a small sweet potato until soft when a fork is inserted into it (about 40 minutes) at 325 degrees. 
  11. Allow to cool, then peel sweet potato and slice into coin-sized rounds.
  12. Place on small baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. 
  13. Put sweet potato coins into a 450 degree oven until they brown (about ten minutes).  Remove from oven and place several coins on each tart as a garnish.
    Sweet Potato Tart Coins
    Finished Sweet Potato Tarts

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