It's not hard to love sweet potato pie.

Richer than pumpkin, not as cloying as pecan, it's a better delivery system for whipped cream than apple pie.

So it pains us to suggest that we, the people of North Carolina, may have done a disservice to sweet potato pie.

We are the nation's No. 1 grower of sweet potatoes. Our sweet potato harvest brought in $176 million last year. Sweet potatoes are a replacement for some of that tobacco we used to grow.

So why haven't we named it the official state pie? Shouldn't we give sweet potatoes their just desserts?

Ask Sonya Stead, the leader singer of the Cary-based bluegrass harmony group Sweet Potato Pie.

"I'd sing my way across the state for that," she declares. "I think we should start a campaign."

A Southern favorite

Throughout 2011, as part of the Carolina Classic series, we have brought you the stories of some iconic state foods. We have chewed over pimento cheese, stewed over fried pies and waded into chow-chow.

To wrap it up, we thought seriously about sweet potato pie. Truthfully, sweet potato pie is not just a classic in North Carolina. It has a long history all over the South.

"It goes way, way back," says culinary historian and cookbook author Nancie McDermott of Chapel Hill. Both sweet potato and pumpkin are versions of custard pies.

McDermott dug into the sweet potato pie genre in her 2010 book "Southern Pies" (Chronicle, $22.95). Although she won't name a favorite pie - "It's like people talking about their kids, you can't name a favorite" - she is partial to sweet potato.

"It's Southern and it's easy and it's good," she says.

Although people sometimes think sweet potatoes came from Africa with the slave trade, they're actually native to America. The Cherokee Indians farmed sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes were an early export to Europe from the New World. They're mentioned in Shakespeare, and Henry VIII ate them as an aphrodisiac. (It didn't work any more than his marriages.)

Because sweet potatoes grow so well here, they turn up all over the state. Sonker, a cross between a pie and a cobbler that's a tradition in Surry County, is often made with sweet potatoes, and fried pies have a sweet potato variation called jacks.

People used to make pie out of anything they had on hand. McDermott has found recipes for pies made from soda crackers, bread crumbs, even Irish potatoes. Once people had access to more ingredients, those pies disappeared. But sweet potato stayed on, too good to be forgotten.

Sweet soul food

Brandi Jones of Honey Butter Bakery, a wholesale baking company, makes up to six dozen sweet potato pies a week for several Charlotte soul-food restaurants, including La'Wan's.

Jones won't share her recipe, but she prefers evaporated milk instead of whole or sweetened condensed milk, and she only uses N.C.-grown sweet potatoes.

She purees cooked sweet potatoes in a blender to break up the sweet potato fibers. A customer once accused her of using canned sweet potatoes because her pie wasn't stringy.

"Trust me," Jones says, laughing. "I peel those things. It's all fresh."

At performances by the all-female band Sweet Potato Pie, they sell single-serving pies made by Sweet Cheeks Bakery in Holly Springs.

Although they aren't the only state music connection - Chapel Hill native James Taylor wrote the song "Sweet Potato Pie" - the band's name got them a bonus. They're the official band of the N.C. Sweet Potato Commission and sing the commission's jingle at many performances.

A state pie

Now, about that state pie thing. It's not so far-fetched. Eight states have an official state pie. And while North Carolina grows a lot of blueberries and apples, those have been claimed by Maine and Vermont, respectively.

But no state has a better claim to sweet potatoes than we do. Although sweet potatoes grow all over the state, the real concentration is along the I-95 corridor, particularly in Nash and Johnston counties.

Besides the heat and sandy soil, the other reason North Carolina grows so many is tobacco. Since both crops favor the same conditions, many tobacco farms grew sweet potatoes, too. It kept their farmhands busy all year and yielded an extra crop. When tobacco subsidies ended, some farms used the buyouts to enlarge their sweet potato operations.

The sweet potato already is the official state vegetable. But John Kimber, project director with the N.C. Sweet Potato Commission, is game for pie.

"You're on to something," he said when we asked. "It's a grand idea."

What would it take to do it? State designations often begin as school projects, says Gerry Cohen, the director of bill-drafting for the N.C. General Assembly. Since anyone can file a bill, it's a good way for kids to experience the state legislature.

Chapter 145 of the N.C. Statutes, "State Symbols and Other Official Adoptions," currently lists 32 official state things, including fruit (scuppernong), berry, red (strawberry) and berry, blue (blueberry), as well as a state beverage (milk), dog (Plott hound) and horse (Colonial Spanish mustang).

(Although the statutes list 32 designations, there actually are 38, because of multiple choices. It is state government, after all.)

Cohen encourages anyone who would like to put it before the legislature.

So is anyone opposed to the idea of sweet potato as the state pie? Everyone we asked was in favor. Even though Nancie McDermott won't name a favorite pie, she's willing to support sweet potato.

"That should be it," she declared. "I'm completely on board. It's like barbecue - East or West, I don't care. I think they're both good.

"State pie? You bet. We could sure use some pie."

Sweet Potato Pie

From “A Love Affair With Southern Cooking,” by Jean Anderson (Morrow, 2007).

1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust

2 cups firmly packed, mashed, cooked sweet potatoes (see note)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup firmly packed, light brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon freshly nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

3/4 cup milk or evaporated milk

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

LINE a pie plate with the crust, crimping the edge. Set aside. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

BEAT sweet potatoes, sugars, flour, spices and salt with an electric mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds. Raise speed to high and beat 1 minute or until light, pausing several times to scrape down the bowl.

REDUCE mixer speed to low and beat in eggs one at a time, then beat in milk, butter and vanilla. Pour the filling into the shell.

SLIDE the pie onto a baking sheet and bake on the middle shelf for 1 hour 10 minutes, or until puffed and lightly browned and a cake tester inserted halfway between the edge and the center comes out clean.

COOL on a rack for 30 minutes before slicing, or cool completely and chill before serving.

NOTE: Anderson prefers roasting sweet potatoes for pie: Scrub 3 to 4 sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds) and place directly on the middle rack of a 400-degree oven. (Place a sheet of foil on the shelf below the sweet potatoes, in case they leak juices. Bake about 1 hour, until sweet potatoes are soft when you press them gently. Remove from oven and cool slightly, then cut in half and remove the flesh.

Sliced Sweet Potato Pie

From “Southern Pies,” by Nancie McDermott (Chronicle, 2010). McDermott found this version in an 1936 agricultural bulletin by Dr. George Washington Carver, who encouraged African-American farmers to raise sweet potatoes for cash and food.

Pastry for a double-crust pie

4 medium sweet potatoes (about 3 pounds)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 tablespoons cream, evaporated milk or half-and-half

1/3 cup molasses, sorghum, cane syrup or honey

1/2 cup cooking liquid from the sweet potatoes

3 tablespoons cold butter, chopped in bits

LINE a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate with dough, draping it over the edges. Refrigerate until needed.

PLACE the whole, unpeeled sweet potatoes in a large pot and add water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 15 to 30 minutes, until tender enough to pierce with a knife but not falling apart. Measure out 1/2 cup cooking water, then drain and set aside.

COMBINE sugar, flour, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in a small bowl. Set aside. Combine the molasses and cream in a heatproof bowl or measuring cup, add the reserved potato cooking water and set aside.

PEEL the sweet potatoes and trim the ends. Slice lengthwise into 1/4 inch thick slices.

HEAT oven to 350 degrees. Place two layers of sweet potato slices in the bottom of the pie crust. Sprinkle with a third of the spice mixture. Add two more layers of sweet potato slices, then another third of the spices. Finish with a final layer of sweet potato slices, adding more to the center to build it up. Sprinkle with the remaining spices.

POUR the molasses mixture evenly over layers, then dot with the butter. Cover with the top crust, turning under and crimping to seal the edges. Cut several slits in the top with a knife tip.

PLACE the pie on a baking sheet on the center rack of the oven. Bake until crust is browned and the filling is bubbling, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.