Sweet Potato Pie
This Sweet Potato Pie has a creamy, warmly spiced sweet potato filling baked in a buttery, flaky pie crust. It’s sure to be a favorite dessert on your holiday table!
My family loved this sweet potato pie so much, it’s giving our most-loved Pumpkin Pie Recipe some competition this holiday season!
Sweet potato pie is a classic Southern dessert, with a custard filling made with cooked mashed sweet potatoes, eggs, cream and spices. What’s the difference between sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie? Traditionally, pumpkin pie recipes have more spices and more sugar added. Sweet potatoes are naturally sweeter and richer in flavor than pumpkin, so you don’t need to add as many spices or as much sugar to make their flavor shine. Take one bite of this sweet potato pie and you’ll see what I mean.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- The filling is creamy and warmly spiced, with notes of caramel from brown sugar.
- It’s easy to make! Making the filling is as simple as boiling the sweet potatoes and then mixing the ingredients together. Then pour the filling into the unbaked pie crust and bake!
- Flaky pie crust. This sweet potato pie recipe uses my easy homemade Pie Crust. You won’t believe how quickly this all-butter pie crust comes together. If you’re really short on time, you can use a store-bought crust, but I encourage you to try this easy homemade recipe. It’s perfectly flaky and buttery.
Served with a spoonful of freshly whipped cream or coconut whipped cream, this sweet potato pie is the perfect dessert for your Thanksgiving or Christmas meal.
Sweet Potato Pie Recipe Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe. Find the full recipe with ingredient amounts and instructions in the recipe card below.
- Sweet Potatoes: 1 1/4 pounds of fresh sweet potatoes bring lots of delicious sweet potato flavor.
- Brown Sugar: I like to use dark brown sugar because its deeper flavor brings a hint of caramel to the filling.
- Butter: Adds richness and flavor to the pie filling.
- Eggs: Help to thicken and bind the custard filling.
- Heavy Whipping Cream: Adds richness and creaminess to the custard filling.
- Vanilla: For flavor.
- Salt: Enhances all of the flavors in the pie.
- Spices: Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves bring warm spice flavor.
- Pie Crust: You’ll need a single pie crust. I’ve included my homemade pie crust recipe in the recipe card below, or you can use a store-bought pie shell.
How to Cook Sweet Potatoes for Pie
This recipe calls for boiling the whole sweet potatoes until they’re soft, then peeling and mashing them. You can also bake the whole sweet potatoes in the oven. See my Baked Sweet Potato recipe for baking instructions.
Can you use canned sweet potatoes?
I like to make this sweet potato pie recipe with fresh sweet potatoes because I find that they make a more flavorful pie than canned sweet potatoes. With that being said, in a pinch you can substitute one 15 ounce can of sweet potato puree for the cooked sweet potatoes in this recipe.
Before adding the canned sweet potatoes to the filling, you should drain off any excess moisture. To do this, place the canned sweet potato puree in a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth or paper towels. Set it over a bowl for 30 minutes to 1 hour to drain.
How to Make Sweet Potato Pie
- Make the pie crust, roll it out and place it in the pie dish. Flute the edges as desired. Refrigerate the crust while you prepare the sweet potato filling.
- Boil the sweet potatoes until tender. Once cool enough to handle, peel off the skins. Place the sweet potato flesh in a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer).
- Use an electric mixer to mash the sweet potato until smooth.
- Mix in the butter and brown sugar.
- Then mix in the eggs, followed by the heavy whipping cream.
- Finally, beat in the vanilla, salt and spices.
- Pour the filling into the unbaked pie crust.
- Bake at 350° F for 55-60 minutes, until the center of the pie barely jiggles when you shake it gently.
Do you need to blind bake the crust?
I don’t blind bake the pie crust when I make sweet potato pie because I don’t find it to be worth the extra effort. I do not find the crust to be soggy at all without pre-baking; however, blind baking may result in a slightly crispier bottom crust. If you want to blind bake, you’ll find instructions in this Pie Crust Recipe.
Sweet Potato Pie Recipe Tips
- Be sure to keep the pie crust in the refrigerator while you prepare the pie filling. You want the crust to be cold when the pie goes into the oven.
- Cook the sweet potatoes until they are very soft so that they mash smoothly.
- When making the pie filling, mix well with an electric mixer after adding each set of ingredients.
- Let the pie cool for at least 2 hours before serving. As it cools, the filling will set. Pie can be served at room temperature or chilled and will be even more flavorful on the second day.
Make Ahead and Storage Instructions
You can make the pie ahead and store it in the refrigerator or freezer before serving. Let pie cool completely before storing.
- Refrigerator: Store leftover pie in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly, for up to 3 days.
- Freezer: Pie can be frozen, wrapped tightly, for up to 3 months. Let thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours before serving.
- The pie crust dough can be made ahead, shaped into a disk, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap, and stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before rolling it out.
More Pie Recipes
Try one of these favorite pie recipes next:
- Pecan Pie
- Apple Pie
- Dutch Apple Pie
- Cherry Pie
- Blueberry Pie
- Blackberry Pie
- Swirled Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
Pie Crust (or use store-bought 9-inch crust)
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 3-4 tablespoons ice-cold water
Sweet Potato Pie Filling
- 1 ¼ pounds whole fresh sweet potatoes, about 1 large or 2 small
- ½ cup packed brown sugar, I like to use dark brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
Prepare the Pie Crust
- To make homemade pie crust (you can also a 9-inch use store-bought crust): Combine the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. (Alternatively, you can make the dough by hand and use a pastry blender, two forks or your fingers to work in the butter.) Pulse a few times to combine the dry ingredients.
- Add the cold butter cubes to the food processor. Pulse 8-10 times, until the largest butter pieces are the size of small peas.
- Add 3 tablespoons of ice-cold water. Pulse just until the dough just starts to come together, adding one more tablespoon of cold water if the dough seems too dry. The dough should still look crumbly at this point, but it should hold together if you press it between your fingers.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Use your hands to bring the dough together into a ball and then shape into a round disk.
- Roll out the dough into a 12-inch circle and transfer it to a 9-inch pie pan. You can gently wrap the dough around your rolling pin or gently fold it into quarters to make it easier to transfer. Lightly fit the dough into the pie dish. Do not press it down or the crust may stick to the pie dish after baking.
- Trim the edges so that only ½-inch hangs over the edge of the pie dish. Fold the edges under and flute/crimp as desired using your fingers or a fork. Place the pie crust in the refrigerator while you prepare the pie filling.
Make the Sweet Potato Filling & Bake
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the whole unpeeled sweet potato(es). Boil for 40-50 minutes, until very tender when pierced with a fork. Transfer the sweet potato to a colander and rinse under cold water. Let it rest until cool enough to handle and then peel off the skin (discard skins).
- Preheat oven to 350° F with a rack in the center of the oven.
- Place the sweet potato in a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer). Use an electric mixer to mash it until smooth.
- Add the brown sugar and butter to the bowl. Mix until incorporated.
- Add the eggs and mix until incorporated. Then mix in the heavy whipping cream.
- Add the vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Mix until well combined.
- Pour the sweet potato mixture into the prepared pie crust. Bake for 55-60 minutes, until the center of the pie barely jiggles when you shake it gently and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let pie cool on a wire rack at room temperature for about 2 hours. Then either refrigerate or serve. Pie can be served chilled or at room temperature.
Notes
- If you prefer to bake instead of boil the sweet potatoes, see this Baked Sweet Potato recipe.
- Store leftover pie in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly, for up to 3 days. This pie can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
- The pie crust dough can be made ahead, shaped into a disk, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap, and stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. If frozen, thaw overnight in the refrigerator before rolling it out.
Can I make this dairy free ?
Hi Jamie, I haven’t tested this with dairy free substitutes, so I can’t advise on how it would turn out. If you decide to do some experimenting, let me know how it goes. 🙂
In my many years of cooking sweet potato pies, I use both brown and white sugar. I found that once I boiled the sweet potatoes I cut each ends off it. I found you have less strings in the sweet potatoes pies. These are just my little tips that I use. Every year I make about 25 to 35 pies to give out to the senior citizens. I always buy my crust.
Thank you for sharing your tips! 🙂
My mother made sweet potato pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She used canned sweet potatoes, salted butter and white sugar. We never put whipped cream on them. My daughter makes hers using her Grandmother’s recipe except rather than canned she uses real sweet potatoes there’s a slight difference in taste, but both are delicious. BTW never had pumpkin pie until I was in my 20’s and once was enough, lol.