Whip The Cream And Serve
Up to 3 hours before serving, whip the cream on medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. When it starts to thicken, add the confectioners sugar. Continue to whip until it forms stiff peaks.
Before serving, slice the pie into wedges and top each slice with a dollop of whipped cream.
Ingredients For Sweet Potato Pie
- Sweet Potatoes I like to use medium sweet potatoes.
- Butter Softened butter will mix more easily into the baked sweet potatoes when making this pie.
- Sugar My family has traditionally used granulated sugar for this pie.
- Vanilla extract The vanilla extract enhances the flavor of the pie. I do recommend using pure vanilla extract rather than imitation vanilla flavoring as I believe you can taste the difference in the baked pie.
- Eggs Youll need 3 large eggs for this pie recipe. I also like to have them at room temperature to mix into the pie filling more easily.
- Milk Use whole milk or evaporated milk in this recipe. You will not want to use a lower fat content milk.
- Unbaked Pie Crust There is NO need to pre-bake these pie crusts. While I hope you try my homemade pie crust recipe, you can also use your favorite 9-inch pie crusts from the store if you wish.
Why This Recipe Works:
The best way to get the lumps out of your potatoes is to use a food processor. Just add the ingredients into the food processor. Process real quick until silky and smooth. Pour it into a prepared pie crust and bake. THAT SIMPLE and so flavorful! I’m eating a slice now.
My goodness it’s so good. I’m dreaming of selling them. I made this pie for a recent event and black folks, white folks all races of folks loved it!
Not much else to say about this recipe except to ditch the electric mixer because it takes too long to achieve a smooth batter. The food processor methods works so much better.
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How To Make Sweet Potato Pie & Tips
Save your milk for something else because this is kind off dairy free sweet potato pie. And I said kind of because I it contains butter. It’s just the way we’ve always made it. No milk means more sweet potato flavor with a firm but soft bite. It’s smoother and silkier. Milk tends to make it fluffier.
Step 1: Prepare the sweet potato pie filling. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Take the butter out of the fridge slice or dice it. Lightly coat each potato with oil.
Wrap each potato in foil then place them in a baking dish. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the potatoes are very tender. Remove the skin and mash the potatoes. Add the sweet potato into the food processor.
Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, eggs, butter vanilla extract and bourbon into the food processor.
Step 2: Sweet potato pie filling – Using a food processor, process until the filling is smooth and lump and string free. I always add the sweet potato meat to the food processor when its still a bit hot but safe enough to touch. The butter melts easily when the sweet potato is still hot or warm. The bourbon is optional but you can’t taste it since I only added 3 teaspoons.
Step 3: Pour the filling into a prepared pie dish and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the sweet potato pie is not jiggling. The pie will puff up a bit as it bake don’t worry. It will go down once it’s removed from the oven. Super easy right?
How To Make Vegan Sweet Potato Pie :
Make the Pie Crust and Set Aside Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Prepare pie crust. Prick the bottom with a fork lightly, then add pie weights into a parchment paper onto pie crust. Pre-bake pie crust for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool fully. Set aside.
Sweet Potato Pie Filling Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Place the sweet potatoes on foil or parchment or silicone lined baking sheet, stab them all over with a fork and lightly oil the sweet potatoes. Bake for 50-60 minutes until fully cooked. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
Remove the skin from the sweet potatoes and place the sweet potatoes into a food processor. Blend until fully smooth and a puree.
In a large bowl, add the pureed sweet potato and add all the pie ingredients. Alternatively, you can add the pie ingredients over the sweet potato puree in the food processor . Mix/blend everything together well until cornstarch is completely whisked out.
Leave this to set for 15-30 minutes on the counter with a kitchen towel covering the container to allow ingredients to completely meld together. To me, it tastes even better when ingredients are left to sit a bit.
Lower the temperature to 350°F/180°C. Pour the batter into the cooled and pre-baked pie crust. Tap lightly on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 60 minutes in the oven on the lower shelf or highest shelf depending on your oven . The center should be slightly wobbly.
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What’s The Difference Between Sweet Potato Pie And Pumpkin Pie
Both pies have warm spices, but pumpkin pies usually have a little more of the spice flavor, with the addition of ginger and clove. Sweet potato pie filling keeps the spice as an undertone, and often adds vanilla extract for flavor depth.
The texture of the pies is a little bit different as well, with sweet potato pie having a lighter texture, where pumpkin pie custard is denser.
How To Prevent Pumpkin Pie And Sweet Potato Pie From Cracking
The key to keeping your pies from cracking lies in not overbaking them. When a pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie has baked for too long, it will begin to crack around the edges first and then move into the center. To prevent this from happening here are a couple of tips:
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Vegan Sweet Potato Pie
If you love my Pumpkin Pie Recipe, you will love this sweet potato pie! Its similar and is even more luscious in texture and made with freshly roasted sweet potatoes, vegan butter, incredible spices and thick creamy coconut milk. Its a classic Southern staple that deserves a seat at your Thanksgiving dessert table and is so easy to make, too!
Sweet Potato Pie Tips
- Boil extra sweet potatoes. Use the extras as a side dish for a simple Chicken Dinner tonight.
- Measure the potatoes. You want to have 2 ½ cups of mashed sweet potatoes. Adding too much or not enough to the filling could keep it from setting properly or it could overflow the crust! Use a measuring cup to measure the potatoes after youve mashed them.
- Consider Ricing: Using a potato ricer creates sweet potato filling with a lighter texture since you arent compressing the potatoes as much. If you have a ricer, this is definitely the time to use it.
- Make a Smooth Filling. Small lumps of potato in the filling arent a huge deal, but you can strain the filling mixture using a sieve to remove them so that your pie is silky and lump free.
- Let it rest. Sweet potato pie needs to cool down completely before you cut into it. Give it at least two hours at room temperature to set.
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Sweet Potatoes Are The Anti
Thanksgiving is definitely one of those meals where my eyes get bigger than my stomach there’s so many once-a-year favorites on the table and I want it all. But there’s one traditional Thanksgiving food that I don’t think I’ve ever fully appreciated until recently: the humble sweetpotato.
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Sweet Potato Pie Ingredients
There are a few key ingredients to ensure this Sweet Potato Pie recipe turns out perfect:
- Sweet potatoes Baked, for the reasons I mentioned above.
- Unsalted butter At room temperature so it is easier to mix in.
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Spices: Cinnamon, nutmeg , cloves.
- You could also use a little pumpkin pie spice instead. I recommend doing 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice in place of the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
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Sweet Potato Pie Ingredients:
- Unbleached all-purpose flour this is used to make the base of the pie crust. Standard bleached flour will work too if thats what you have, unbleached just has better flavor.
- Granulated sugar and brown sugar the white sugar is used in the pie crust to add a faint sweetness and the brown sugar is used for the filling. The added molasses of the brown sugar pairs perfectly with the sweet potato flavor.
- Salt this brings out the flavors of the pie crust and filling so it doesnt taste flat.
- Unsalted and salted butter unsalted butter is used in the pie crust , and salted butter for the filling. Salted browned butter tastes so much better than unsalted.
- Ice water be sure to add lots of ice to the water, stir and rest before you use it. This helps the butter stay cold so you end up with a flaky crust.
- Sweet potatoes I like to use red garnet variety. Other orange varieties work as well but dont use white or purple sweet potatoes.
- Evaporated milk I like to use the small 5 oz. can so I dont have leftover but if you only have a larger can that will work but be sure to measure amount listed.
- Eggs this helps bind the pie filling together and make a custard type filling. They are crucial to the recipe.
- Cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger with the ratios here I recommend sticking with each separate spice rather than using a spice blend.
- Vanilla extract this adds another faint background flavor in the pie. Use real vanilla for best flavor.
Scroll down for full printable recipe.
Canned Vs Fresh Sweet Potatoes
It might seem like an extra step to bake fresh sweet potatoes instead of using canned, but you really get a bigger payback with a deep, roasty flavor and lighter texture.
The texture of the mashed cooked potatoes should be just a little chunky, which gives the pie a lighter texture than pumpkin pies made with canned pumpkin.
TIME-SAVING TIP! Bake the potatoes while you blind bake the crust, so it doesnt take much additional time.
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A Delicious Sweet Potato Dessert
Sweet potato desserts are absolutely amazing and I love swapping out traditional pumpkin with sweet potato. Sweet potato pie seems to be more popular in the south however, my northern family members have definitely been converted after eating this pie! This particular Sweet Potato Pie recipe is one that has been perfected over the years to get the spices just right. In addition, I’ve also started making it easier by microwaving the sweet potatoes rather than boiling or baking them. Also, if you enjoy pumpkin pie then you will certainly enjoy this pie since the texture and spices are similar. If you are looking for that flavorful dessert to impress your guests this year, then you need to make this Sweet Potato Pie recipe.
How To Store Homemade Sweet Potato Pie
You can serve the sweet potato pie chilled, reheat a slice for 20 seconds in the microwave to serve it warm or serve it at room temperature.
This Sweet Potato Pie is a Southern classic that absolutely deserves its prime spot on your Thanksgiving dessert table! While pumpkin pie may be the king of Thanksgiving, I highly recommend you give this Sweet Potato Pie recipe a try.
If you are looking for more awesome Thanksgiving recipes, make sure and check out these other Southern classics that my family loves:
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So What Makes The Best Sweet Potato Pie Recipe
So I learned a few things in testing and creating this recipe:
- Blind baking the crust will keep you from ending up with a soft and gooey pie crust.
- Using baked sweet potatoes instead of boiled sweet potatoes concentrates their flavor rather then ending up with water logged boiled sweet potatoes.
- Browning the salted butter adds adds some depth of flavor to the pie filling. Salted browned butter and sweet potato were made to go together
- Keeping it light on the spices lets the sweet potato flavor shine.
- I personally preferred the classic texture of using mashed by hand sweet potatoes vs. those pureed in a food processor.
- The lightly caramelized flavor of evaporated milk was preferred to the flavor of milk or cream.
- Tent pie crust edges with foil to prevent over-browning.
- And being careful not to over-bake the pie prevented deep cracks from happening .
This is easily my favorite sweet potato pie recipe! And I prefer the marshmallow topping for that nostalgic flavor combination, plus I feel thats what will really set it apart from pumpkin pie but feel free to use either whipped cream or marshmallow topping.
If you use the marshmallow topping youll want to prepare and toast it when its time to serve , so its nice and fluffy.
The History Of Southern Sweet Potato Pie
Sweet potato pie actually originated among the African American slave community in the southern United States during the colonial time period.
While yams were a more traditional ingredient in African cooking, they were not readily available in the Americas. Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, were a native vegetable and in great supply in the south, especially compared to the more popular pumpkins in the north. Combining European baking techniques of the classic custard pie with the the expertise and traditions of the African American community brought forth the delicious, soulful sweet potato pie we know and love today.
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