#Sweet potato pie zip#

My first experience with sweet potato pie started with helping my late great grandmother - more affectionately called “Big Ma” - make them in her kitchen when she would watch me while my mother and grandmother were at work. We have our sweet potato dishes and our desserts, and that's just how it is.” Sweet potatoes are just a part of Southern day to day. I had never tasted or even had anything remotely pumpkin flavored until I was 26 or 27. I know that that's the thing everywhere else. There's sweet potatoes in so many aspects of the savory and the sweet,” Adams said. Because if you think about Southern Thanksgivings, we have candied sweet potatoes. “I just think there's a love for sweet potatoes in general in the South. Jocelyn Delk Adams, founder of Grandbaby Cakes, a brand which pays homage to her Mississippi grandmother’s recipes and cooking, shares the same lack of pumpkin pie experiences I did. What most consider the dessert of Thanksgiving, I didn’t have until I was well into my teenage years and even then, it wasn’t made by any of my Southern relatives. While sweet potato pie often ruled the dinner table during Sunday dinners, holidays and other special occasions, one dessert that seldom, if ever, made the cut was pumpkin pie. Whether the comfort from the pie stems from memories of making it with a relative or just eating it with them during the holidays, it’s rare to meet someone from the South who doesn’t have at least one story to tell about it. No conversation involving African American foodways is complete without the mention of it as it’s a delicate, traditional dessert with a history built on resilience and unrecorded recipes that stood solid through generations.įew relatives in my family are trusted to make it due to its delicate nature and those who are capable don't mind sharing it with those they cherish most, like many grandmas, great-grandmas, and even great- great-grandmas. Sweet potato pie encompasses all three, as it’s a dessert that’s present during times of joy and even grief as comfort food. The South is attributed with warming hospitality, soul food, and an influential music scene, but for those who grew up there, each of these aspects resonates on a deeper level.

But every year during the holidays, her kitchen is where the magic happens and although family gatherings look vastly different this year, I find that food still connects us from miles away. As I type this, she is probably whipping up a batch of red velvet cupcakes to send me. My grandmother worked as a baker for several years before retiring so I always considered the gift of pastry-making as part of my DNA.

#Sweet potato pie zip#

As I thought about the countless times I’d watch my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother zip around in their kitchens preparing meals for the day, I realized my favorite memories involve the days where dessert was the main attraction. Growing up in a small rural town outside of Augusta, Georgia, Southern cooking has always been an integral part of my life.