Ube "Sweet Potato" Pie

🍠 with a whipped coconut tapioca topping

Watch the video for 6 tips to make perfect pie crust

A light, not-too-sweet ube pie topped with a whipped coconut tapioca pudding that’s like a creamy coconut cloud filled with jelly raindrops on your tongue. This Filipino-inspired pie is my kind of un-traditional Thanksgiving dessert that’s not for pie purists.

This violet-hued showstopper is made with ube, a type of purple yam with a sweet, nutty vanilla flavor originally from the Philippines. Not to be confused with purple sweet potatoes which are different and starchier. Tucked inside a flaky pie crust and finished with a fluff of white tapioca pudding with tiny sago tapioca balls suspended in fragrant whipped coconut cream. This recipe is perfectly delicious with, or without, cannabis.

There are three ways to make this pie cannabis-infused: 

• Pie crust with cannabutter

• Ube filling with cannabis tincture

• Coconut cream topping with cannamilk

Learn how to infuse cannabis by upgrading to paid and unlock access to step-by-step DIY Edibles guides

Ube Coconut Tapioca Pie Recipe

PRINTBLE PDF

A purple ube sweet potato pie topped with a fluffy cloud of whipped coconut tapioca pudding.

DOSING:

Makes one 9-inch pie, 6-8 servings at ~5mg THC per serving. Double-check the math if your % THC is different. 

Low Dose // 5mg THC per serving: You’ll need a total of 40mg THC in the entire recipe. Approximately 0.3 grams of ~20% THC cannabis flower.* 

High Dose // 100mg THC per serving: You’ll need a total of 800mg THC in the entire recipe. Approximately 1.4 grams of ~80% cannabis concentrate, such as kief or rosin* 

Directions to Make Cannabis-Infusions: 

Let’s practice infusion techniques and make this recipe a choose-your-own adventure. Choose one element of this pie to infuse — (1) pie crust with cannabutter, (2) filling with tincture, or (3) coconut cream topping with cannamilk.

Preheat the oven to 240°F. Place coarsely ground cannabis flower or concentrate into a pint-sized 16 oz. mason jar, seal with the lid to reduce smell, and heat for 40 minutes in the oven to decarboxylate, which activates the THC. Remove from the oven and let cool until the mason jar is safe to touch. The ground flower will look lightly toasted. Pour melted butter/coconut cream/high proof alcohol into the mason jar, close the lid, and stir to combine.

• If using ground flower for cannabutter or cannamilk, reduce the oven temperature to 170 degrees F. Place the sealed jar back into the oven to infuse for 2.5 hours. After 2.5 hours, remove from the oven and cool until the mason jar is safe to touch. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve and into a clean container.. 

• If using alcohol to make a cannabis tincture, pour one tablespoon or two of Everclear or 150-proof vodka into the mason jar, close the lid and shake hard to combine. Set aside in a cool, dark place and let the mixture sit for 24 hours or up to 30 days. Shake the jar vigorously every few days. Storing longer may increase potency slightly. Store in the freezer for a less weedy flavor. Pour the liquid through a fine mesh sieve or coffee filter into another small glass jar, straining out the ground flower and reserving the liquid. 

• If using concentrate for high-dose potency, pour hot melted butter or coconut cream into the glass mason jar and use a small silicone spatula to scrape the concentrate at bottom of the jar and stir to mix evenly into butter. Cool to room temperature. 

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Flaky All-Butter Pie Crust

Time to Prepare: 2.5 hours total (1-hour prep + 1-hour dough chill time + 30-min blind baking)

Makes one crust

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling

• 1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted cannabutter*, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

• 3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

• Glass or metal pie pan

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Make pie dough: Mix flour, sugar, and salt -- in a large bowl or in a food processor. Add butter*, cut in the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter or your fingers. If using a food processor, add half at a time, pulsing several times after each addition. Pulse to cut in the butter and mix until the texture is like soft wet sand with butter chunks no larger than pea-sized. Flatten butter chunks with your fingers. Slowly drizzle ice water a little at a time. Mix or pulse. Then add more ice water a tablespoon at a time until the dough just starts to come together.  

Press pie dough to see if it holds together. You know that the mixture is ready if when you pinch some of the crumbly dough together with your fingers, it holds together. Don’t add too much water or your dough will be tough. Gather the mixture and divide the dough into two halves. Knead just enough for the dough to hold together, but don’t over-knead. Press the dough together and form two flat dough disks. This will help when you need to roll it out. 

You’ll see cold butter chunks/streaks speckling the dough. These small bits of butter will spread out into layers as the crust bakes to create a flaky crust. Wrap each one in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for one hour or up to 2 days.

2. Roll the pie dough: Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator and place on a rolling surface between two large sheets of parchment paper. Very lightly flour the dough disk to help it stick less to the parchment. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8-inch thick. As you roll out the dough, if the parchment is getting wrinkled on the dough, peel the parchment off the dough, sprinkle lightly with flour, and continue rolling.

Peel the parchment slowly and carefully off the dough on one side. If it’s very sticky, put it in the fridge for a little bit to chill and harden. Place the parchment back on top and flip the dough with both parchment papers over. Peel the parchment off the other side. Save parchment to use for blind baking. 

Place a pie plate upside-down on top of the dough. Grab the side of the pie plate along with the parchment paper with both hands and flip them right-side up. Take the sides of the dough and lift them gently to fall into the pie pan so that it lines the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Don’t stretch or press the dough down. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edge of the pie dish. Crimp the edges. Use a fork to poke holes on the bottom of the crust to allow steam to escape when baking.

3. Blind bake the pie crust: Place the pie shell into the freezer and chill for at least 15 minutes to an hour. Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.  Make sure you are starting with a frozen pie crust, not defrosted. This will help keep crust keep its shape while baking. Line the inside of the frozen pie crust with two layers of parchment paper (that you saved from rolling the pie dough) or heavy duty aluminum foil, pressing against the sides and bottom of the crust, allowing the paper/foil to extend by a couple of inches on two opposing sides. Fill the pie crust to the top with pie weights. You can use ceramic weights, dry beans, or rice. Press the weights down lightly to fill in all sides of the pie and fold down any parchment seams.

Bake at 350°F for 20-30 minutes (longer if using a glass pie pan), until the crust edges are light golden brown and the bottom will be pale and underbaked, lift the pie weights out using parchment paper/foil and continue baking until the bottom of the pie is golden brown. If edges are browning too much but the bottom is not done, cover edges with foil to prevent over-browning. Remove the pie shell from the oven. Lift out the pie weights from the pie shell using paper/foil, set aside to cool while you make the filling.

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Ube Sweet Potato Pie Filling 

Time to Prepare: 4.5 hours total (15-min prep + 75-min baking + 3-hour cooling)

Makes filling for one pie.

INGREDIENTS:

• 12 oz. (340g) ube sweet potato puree, fresh or previously frozen 

• ¼ cup (60g) creme fraiche, or substitute sour cream or greek yogurt

• 1/2 cup (100g) coconut sugar

• 1 large egg, room temperature

• ½ can (3 oz.) evaporated milk 

• Pinch of salt

• ½ tablespoon vanilla extract

• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Cannabis tincture*

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Move the oven rack to the lowest position. Baking the pie on the bottom rack ensures a fully baked and flaky, crispy bottom crust. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk together all the ingredients until evenly blended – ube, creme fraiche, coconut sugar, egg, evaporated milk, salt, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, and cannabis tincture. 

2. Pour the filling into the blind-baked pie shell. Carefully transfer the pie into the oven onto the lowest oven rack. Bake for about 75 minutes or until the sides start to puff and the center is set and doesn’t wobble too much. Remove from the oven and set aside cool completely, about 3 hours. 

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Whipped Coconut Tapioca Pudding

Time to Prepare: 1 hour total (15-min prep + 15-min cook + 30-min cooling)

Makes filling for one pie.

INGREDIENTS:

• ½ cup small tapioca pearls, sago or cassava

• 1 can (13 fl.oz.) coconut cream*, cold  

• 2 tablespoons creme fraiche

• ¾ cup powdered sugar 

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Cook tapioca pearls: Bring a pot of water to boil, pour the tapioca pearls into the water and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until the pearls are mostly translucent. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve and strain out the tapioca pearls. Rinse under cold water to cool and strain off excess water. Place in a medium bowl and set aside.  

2. Make whipped coconut cream: Chill bowl and whip attachment in the freezer for a few minutes, which will be better for making whipped cream. Pour the coconut cream* and creme fraiche into the chilled bowl and whip on high until soft peaks form. Slowly add ¾ cup powdered sugar and whip on low setting to incorporate the sugar. Increase speed to high and continue whipping until the coconut cream looks like soft whipped cream. 

3. Make coconut tapioca pudding: Pour a few spoonfuls of coconut whipped cream into the bowl of tapioca pearls and stir together. Add more of the coconut cream and gently fold the tapioca pearls into the whipped cream with a scooping under-over motion. Continue adding more whipped coconut cream until desired consistency. Set aside in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to cool and for the pudding to become more firm. 

4. Decorate the pie: Spread a generous amount of whipped coconut tapioca pudding on top of the cooled ube pie. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve, the tapioca pudding will continue to set and slice neatly when cold. Serve at room temperature.

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The genius idea of adding creme fraiche and tapioca balls to the coconut whipped cream came as a result of failure. I could not get the coconut to turn into whipped cream, and it was a runny mess that would not hold its shape on top of pie.

Frustrated that it wasn’t working out the way I wanted it to, I took a step away and took a bong hit to think about how to save this pie. I found a bag of small sago tapioca pearls in my baking supplies and that was the answer!

The pie needed texture to contrast with the soft, creaminess of the ube filling and coconut cream. Turns out tiny jelly balls and a whipped coconut pudding was the answer that made this even better than what I originally imagined!

This was an excellent lesson on not getting stuck on what’s not working, instead focus on unconventional and creative solutions. Shoutout and thank you to my guest baked baking taste-tester, Chala June, for your ideas and input!

XOXO, Christina W.