Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet Potato Pie:

This sweet potato pie recipe boasts of a sweet buttery smooth filling, with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, the ultimate fall flavors. It slices smoothly, sets up perfectly, and just one bite will put you in a festive mood.

This southern sweet potato pie will bring the family together with its creamy delicious texture. Much like the infamous Patti Labelle sweet potato pie, this pie will impress, and quickly become a go-to favorite for your Thanksgiving table.        

This is one of those recipes you really just need in your arsenal. It is a classic southern recipe. It is similar to pumpkin pie, but often it is easier to find sweet potatoes then sugar pumpkins. And it is versatile. You can add a little extra spices if you like, top with whipped cream, etc.

This potato pie made from scratch is so easy and a great dessert, especially for fall holidays and dinners.  Whether it’s served at Thanksgiving, along side your sweet potato casserole or any other time of year, the creamy goodness will always hit the spot and satisfy your sweet tooth. Smooth and starchy, sweet and slightly spicy, topped with whipped cream it can’t be beat.    

Let’s talk about how to make sweet potato pie

How do you make Southern sweet potato pie?

Often called Mississippi sweet potato pie, what you’ll find in any sweet potato pie recipe is soul food at its finest.  As many as there are aunts and grandmas there are variations on the sweet potato pie.  Some notable recipes include:

• Neelys Sweet Potato Pie
• The Sweet Potato Pie Patti Labelle sells
• Black Folks Sweet Potato Pie recipe    

Of course, while each of these are delicious and famous in their own rite, I wanted to simplify the process, and make this an easy recipe that still offered a smooth and creamy filling, just enough spice to add flavor, but not overpower the sweet potato’s natural flavors, and a pie that cuts easily and smoothly. So after a lot of testing and tweaking, I offer you this simple, but delicious Sweet Potato Pie. 

The sweet potato pie is a custard filled pie with an open top.  The method is simple produce the filling.

1. First cook the sweet potatoes. You can bake or boil. Baking means richer flavor, boiling is often faster. 
2. Cool so they can be handled.
3. Peel and mash the sweet potatoes.
4. Mix with milk, eggs, spices, and sugars
5. Put into a pie shell and bake.     

What are the ingredients for a sweet potato pie?

First it should be noted that it can confusing which tubers are sweet potatoes, which are yams, and what makes them different.  There is a lot of debate in this, but no matter which color you get, the more yellow ones like those pictured, or the deeper orange colored, it is going to be an excellent addition to your Thanksgiving table. With that aside the ingredients in this and most old fashioned sweet potato pie recipes are:

• Cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
• Evaporated milk
• Sugar
• Spices like:
  • Nutmeg
  • Cinnamon
  • Vanilla
• And eggs

How do you make the best sweet potato pie?

Just follow this recipe, complete with tips and instructions for getting the best end results. Here are some tips for producing the perfect pie:

• Don’t pre-bake the crust. This is a pie that bakes for an hour, if you pre-bake the crust, you will end up with burnt crust. 
• Watch the center, and bake until a knife inserted comes out clean, or until it is no longer jiggly. Overcooking will make it tough and pull away from the crust
• Boil in skin so the potatoes do not get watery, and for a deeper flavor, bake the sweet potato instead of boiling.
• After cooking your sweet potatoes, run cold water over the sweet potato to stop the potato from cooking further.
• Remove the strings. You will mix this pie together with a hand mixer, and to get that smooth silky finish, you want to beat it until it is smooth. But sweet potatoes often have strings, so take the time to remove them.
• Add sugars to hot sweet potatoes to reduce graininess by melting the sugars. After the sugars start to melt add the cold ingredients.
• Allow pie to cool completely.

If you want more sweet potato recipes try Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos, Sweet Potato Fries (Air Fryer + Oven) and Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls.

Something to note is like with many recipes the first step in making the best food is the quality of the ingredients.  While canned sweet potatoes work, the best flavor will come from a fresh sweet potato.

This recipe is clean, classic, and delicious.  If you’re feeling a bit adventurous some common variations are:

• Adding bourbon
• Adjusting your spices (but be careful, you want to make sure that the sweet potato shines and not the nutmeg)  
• Use a black bottom pie shell, which is a prebaked pie shell with brown sugar in the bottom.
• Add some lemon juice  
  

How do you make Paula Deen sweet potato pie?

In most recipes for sweet potato pie evaporated milk is the liquid that makes the filling smooth.  Paula Deen follows a classic pie recipe with 2 variations. Rather than making sweet potato pie evaporated milk she:

• Uses cream cheese to thicken the pie filling
• Uses half and half inplace of milk.  

This recipe uses the classic evaporated milk.. I find that the keep it simple rule applies here. I love the sweet creamy texture that evaporated milk produces and it’s super easy to make this way, with less worrying about if your cream cheese is at the right room temp to not result in a lumpy pie.    

If you want more amazing recipes try these:

• Sautéed Mushrooms
• Kid Friendly Shepherds Pie Cups
• Halloween: Skeleton Cupcakes
• Halloween Cupcake Ideas
• Oven Roasted Greek Chicken Thighs

Sweet Potato Pie

A classic sweet potato pie with flaky crust. This pie made from sweet potatoes has thick, rich, and delicious filling that is slightly spiced, it slices easily, and can be topped with freshly whipped cream.

3.38 from 8 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American Dessert

Keyword: baking, sweet potato pie

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 55 minutes minutes

Total Time: 2 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 slices

Calories: 379kcal

Ingredients

• 1 lb sweet potato
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 Tbs all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 9 inch unbaked pie crust

Instructions

• Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done.
• Run cold water over the sweet potato to stop the potato from cooking further. Then remove the skin.
• Use a hand mixer to beat the sweet potato until smooth, remove any stringy bits.
• Add sugars, and mix with hand mixer.
• Add butter, and mix well with hand mixer.
• Add in milk, eggs, lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon, all-purpose flour and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth and lump free.
• Pour filling into a 9-inch unbaked pie crust.
• Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Notes

Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then will sink down as it cools. Add sugars to hot sweet potatoes to reduce graininess by melting the sugars. Then add the cold ingredients Boil in skin so the potatoes do not get watery For deeper flavor, bake the sweet potato instead of boiling.

Nutrition

Calories: 379kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 72mg | Sodium: 245mg | Potassium: 265mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 8485IU | Vitamin C: 1.6mg | Calcium: 62mg | Iron: 1.3mg

Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.

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