Ube Cream Pie

Ube is having its moment right now. It’s been popular in Asian cuisine for a long time but currently trending as a popular flavor. No complaints from me since I love ube. Even Trader Joe’s has jumped on the band wagon with their ube ice cream, which I’ve yet to try still (someone email me if I’m missing out please). Ube is purple yam; the word ube is the Filipino word for purple yam and has become ubiquitous with this tuber. Ube is deceiving. The white outer skin hides the gorgeous purple inside. Ube should not be confused with taro or Japanese sweet potato; the textures and flavor profiles are completely different. Ube is lightly sweet with wonderful nutty and earthy tones. Purple yam is an important crop to Southeast Asia as it’s become a main ingredient in many dishes, in particular desserts.

Currently, purple is the hot color in desserts. Ube ice cream, ube donuts, ube crepe cakes, ube baked cakes are everywhere you look right now. I noticed there wasn’t an ube cream pie though. I personally love coconut cream pies; I could eat one all on my own (and I have). But the problem is that they can get very very sweet. While conceptualizing this dessert, I felt that the ube would tone down the sweetness a lot as purple yam adds an amazing nuttiness. The filling for the pie is a simple pastry cream that I made slightly thicker to compensate adding what I’m dubbing as ube paste into it. The ube does loosen the pastry cream a bit and can make the filling a little runny so it’s important to refrigerate it to firm it up.

A couple of tips for this recipe:

• Make the ube paste ahead of time. It’s very time consuming to sieve 2 1/2 pounds of purple yam. You can skip this step if you really don’t want to do it, but I think the smoothness of the ube adds a lot to the filling. You can argue with me that you want some chunks of ube all you want, but when eating a cream pie, I want it to be creamy. If you’re like me and like making paste out of things, think of investing in a sieve.
• Cover your pastry cream with plastic wrap when chilling. And when I say cover, I mean push down the plastic wrap onto your pastry cream. This way, your pastry cream doesn’t create that crusty film on top.
• The crust can get creative. I added black sesame seeds to my crust as I felt it added another flavor profile to the pie. If you don’t like sesame or don’t have them, you can add something else like almonds or walnuts to the crust. It just adds another textural component to the pie.
• Whipped cream can have ube too! If you have more ube paste, you can definitely mix it into your whipped cream before topping the custard. I didn’t do it because I wanted to keep the colors separate. But if you want to really make this ube forward, go for it and purple it up!
• As this pie is pretty delicate, I would recommend using a pie pan that the pie can just stay in. Meaning, don’t use a metal pie crust that requires you to unmold the pie. If you’re making this for a party or gathering, consider using a Pyrex pie pan or a pretty porcelain pie pan. This pie is gonna sit in there until you’ve finished eating it.