Tasty triangular slices enclosed in charming circular pies. No matter how you cut it, the season for pie is here. We tapped some of the city’s finest piece makers for recipes.

Sweet Potato Pie

As a Jewish deli, Mamaleh’s is always keen on serving pie, but with a wealth of good pie options in the area, pastry chef/co-owner Rachel Sundet sought to stray from the more traditional varieties and toward flavors like sweet potato. Inspired by a side dish of sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, slices of this pie are added to the menu a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Says Sundet of the many pie varieties that Mamaleh’s offers throughout the year: “It’s just such an iconic and comforting dessert, and there are so many variations—it’s easy to keep it fun.”

Crust:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup cold butter, diced
1/8 cup Crisco shortening
2 tablespoons cold water
1 tablespoon vodka

Filling:
1 pound sweet potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1 cup cream
1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 medium eggs

Meringue Topping:
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
4 tablespoons Lyle’s Golden Syrup
1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg whites
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cream of tartar
1 tablespoon vanilla

For the crust, combine the flour, sugar and salt and set aside in a metal bowl. In a food processor, blitz together half of that dry mix with the butter and Crisco. Pulse a few times so that all of the flour is incorporated into the fat but the mixture is still crumbly. Add the rest of the flour to the processor and pulse just a few times until the flour-coated fat is shaggy. Pour the mixture back into the metal bowl and mix lightly with your fingers to break up any large clumps of fat—it should look even. In a separate bowl, combine the water and vodka. Drizzle that liquid over the mixture in the metal bowl. With your hands, gently mix the dough until it’s even, kneading it lightly to make it homogeneous. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap and refrigerate.

For the sweet potato filling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the skin-on sweet potatoes in a roasting pan and bake them for about 45 minutes till they’re tender to the touch. Once they’re cool, peel the skin off the potatoes. Meanwhile, place the butter in a saucepan and cook it over low-medium heat until it becomes dark golden brown. In a separate bowl, combine the cream, milk and vanilla. In a heavy bottomed pot, combine half of the dairy mixture with the skinned sweet potatoes, sugar, spices and browned butter. Cook gently to heat the mixture through and then transfer it to a food processor, mixing until smooth. Transfer the contents to a bowl and whisk in the eggs and the remaining dairy mixture.

Remove the crust from the refrigerator and flatten it into a disk. Press the dough into a chilled 9-inch pie dish and cover the crust with parchment paper and pie weights. Bake at 325 degrees for about 20-25 minutes to set the side and bottom of the crust. Remove the weights and bake another 5-7 minutes to lightly brown the bottom. Once the crust is cool, pour the filling into the pie shell and bake at 300 degrees until the filling is just set, about 35-40 minutes. Let the pie cool to room temperature.

For the meringue topping, combine the water, syrups and all but 1 tablespoon of sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, until the mixture’s temperature reaches 246 degrees. While the mixture is cooking, add the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar to a clean stand-mixer bowl. Whisk the whites until foamy and frothy—roughly 2 minutes. While whisking, add the remaining tablespoon of sugar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Once the syrup is at the right temperature, slowly drizzle it in while the mixer is running. Turn the mixer to high and beat until the meringue is thick and glossy and barely warm. Beat in the vanilla.

When the pie has slightly cooled, mound the meringue on top of the pie, spreading it out in rustic swoops and swirls. With a blowtorch, gently begin to torch the top of the meringue. If you don’t have a blowtorch, you can use your oven broiler setting, rotating the pie to evenly brown the top.

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