Sweet Potato Pone With Cardamom Whipped Cream

Even if you've never tried this concoction, you're likely familiar with its flavors. Similar to a sweet potato pie, sweet potato pone features warm spices along with the addition of molasses, which gives depth. The potatoes are shredded (rather than cooked and mashed); we recommend using the smallest hole on your grater to get this job done—it will require a little bit of elbow grease but will yield a more pleasant texture.

Origins of Sweet Potato Pone

Adrian Miller, James Beard Award-winning food writer and American culinary historian, traces the dish's history back to indigenious groups of North America. The Algonquian people used the words 'poan' and 'appoan' to describe foods that were roasted or baked in the ashes of a fire. Often it referenced an eggless bread made of cornmeal, salt, and water or oil to bind it. It would later become known as 'pone' in English, but when used in reference to sweet potatoes, it meant a spiced pudding instead of a quick bread.

Sweet potato pone dates back to the mid-1800s, although it was often called "pudding," a term used interchangeably for this dessert. Miller found that one of the earliest documented sweet potato pone recipes was in the legendary 1847 cookbook The Carolina Housewife by Sarah Rutledge. The recipe combined sweet potatoes, butter, ginger, milk, orange peel, and sugar in a shallow dish and was cooked in a slow oven. Pone recipes that appeared in newspapers during the late 19th-century started to call for either grating or mashing the sweet potatoes, much like our recipe does.

Ingredients for Sweet Potato Pone With Cardamom Whipped Cream

Sweet potato pone is made with a lot of baking basics, but it also includes a few ingredients that it wouldn't be the same without.

Cardamom
Sure, you could top this sweet potato pone with plain whipped cream, but the warm, complex, and fragrant notes of cardamom help make this dessert extra special. A little cardamom goes a long way, so while 1/4 teaspoon may not seem like much, it's plenty to give the topping an earthy aroma and sweet flavor.

Molasses
We often think of this ingredient when making gingerbread, but this bittersweet byproduct of the sugar refining process adds a depth of flavor to desserts that white or brown sugar alone can't. In fact, molasses is what gives brown sugar its caramel-like flavors, as it's what is folded into refined sugar to make it brown.

Heavy Whipped Cream
When it comes to whipped cream, you really do need heavy whipping cream. You might also see regular whipping cream sold at the grocery store, and while you can make whipped cream with it, it's much lower in fat. Heavy cream's higher fat content helps make a sturdier whipped cream that holds its shape longer than whipped cream made from plain whipping cream.

How To Make Sweet Potato Pone With Cardamom Whipped Cream

Easier than pie, this custard-like sweet potato dessert comes together in three easy steps.

Step 1. Prepare the pone

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate with butter. While the oven preheats, whisk together the sugar and eggs in a large bowl. Add the next seven ingredients, and whisk once more to combine. Fold in the shredded sweet potato until completely incorporated.

Step 2. Transfer to the pie plate and bake

Pour the sweet potato mixture into the prepared pie plate and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes, then uncover and return it to the oven to bake until the edges are browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Let the pone cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before serving.

Step 3. Make the cardamom whipped cream

Place heavy cream in a bowl, and beat with a hand mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes. Add cardamom and vanilla; gradually add powdered sugar, beating until stiff peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve on top of a warm or room temperature pone. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.

Editorial contributions by Alana Al-Hatlani.