Combine all dough ingredients except the ice water in a large bowl. With clean hands, blend the mixture together until it looks like coarse meal with some lumps in it.

Sprinkle ice water over mixture and stir lightly with a fork. Squeeze a handful of dough together. If it doesn't keep together, add a bit more water.

Form the dough into a disk about 5 inches across. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and chill for about an hour. Once chilled, take out the disk and put it on a well floured board. Sprinkle some flour onto the top of the disk. Thump the disk with your rolling pin several times. Turn it over and thump the other side. Sprinkle more flour onto the top of the crust if needed to keep the pin from sticking and roll the crust out from the center in all directions.

When it is an inch or so larger than your pie pan, fold the dough over the top of the pin and lay it in the pie pan carefully.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Blind bake the pie dough for 15 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack, about 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

Bring a large pot of lightly water to a boil over high heat. Add sweet potatoes and reduce heat to medium. Simmer until sweet potatoes are tender, 20-25 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water.

Transfer sweet potatoes to food processor and mix to form a very smooth purée. Measure purée, then return 2 ½ cups to food processor (reserve any remaining purée for another use). Add granulated sugar, eggs, half-and-half, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter and brown sugar. Mix until smooth. Spread filling into prepared pie shell, smoothing the top. Add any excess crust decorations on top.

Place pie pan on a baking sheet and place in oven. Bake until crust is lightly golden and filling is almost set with a slight jiggle in center, about 1 hour. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.