If you like pumpkin pie, you’ll love our homemade sweet potato pie recipe. It has a creamy texture, made with pureed sweet potatoes, and spices and baked in a buttery pie crust. It is a perfect dessert for fall, Thanksgiving, and the holiday season!
As summer begins winding down and the days get shorter, it’s time to leave our flip-flops and bikinis behind and pull out our scarves and cardigans. One of the things we love about this season is all of the comforting and sweet fall recipes you can make.
From stews to thick bread, there are a variety of things you can whip up in your kitchen this autumn. The aromas of warm spices and home-cooked meals are the best in the fall!
One of our favorite recipes to make is sweet potato pie. It’s similar to pumpkin pie, but with a sweet potato flavor. If there’s one thing we love its sweet potatoes!
Our recipe is easy to follow and includes many ingredients you likely have in your pantry. We love this recipe because of the rich flavor and the perfect consistency. It’s incredibly flavorful, smooth and the perfect pie for Thanksgiving.
How to Make Sweet Potato Pie
Table of Contents
Tools
Here are a few kitchen tools we recommend for making this sweet potato pie!
Blender – This is used to puree the softened sweet potatoes.
Electric Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer – To mix the ingredients together.
Large Pot – To boil chopped sweet potatoes.
Medium Bowl – To combined the ingredients.
Measuring Cups – To properly measure ingredients.
9″ to 10″ Pie Dish – I use a ceramic, deep dish pie pan that is perfect for making this pie!
Ingredients
Sweet Potatoes – The base of the recipe. These potatoes are peeled, chopped, and boiled until soft, then pureed. Use fresh sweet potatoes to make the best sweet potato puree.
Unsalted butter – Adds a rich flavor to the pie. Make sure it’s super soft, almost melted.
Granulated Sugar – White sugar is used to sweeten the pie.
Dark Brown Sugar – Adds a deeper molasses flavor.
Eggs – Stabilize and adds structure to the pie. Use organic, large eggs when possible.
Milk – Adds a creamy texture. You can use whole milk (preferred) or 2% milk if you prefer.
Vanilla Extract – Enhances the flavors in the recipe. Use 100% pure vanilla.
Bourbon – Adds a richer flavor depth.
Ground Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger & Cardamom – All of these spices work together to make it the best sweet potato pie! You can also use pumpkin spice too.
Directions
Make and prepare a buttery flaky pie crust for your pie. I love our homemade pie crust recipe because it works every time! You can blind-bake it if you prefer, but we never do for our pumpkin and sweet potato pie. Just remember if you blind-bake the crust, you must use pie weights.
Peel and cube the sweet potatoes.
Boil for about 15 minutes until soft. You’ll be able to stick a fork all the way through. Then strain, saving 1 tbsp water to puree with.
Add the sweet potatoes into a blender with 1 tbsp of the water they were boiled.
Blend until they are perfectly pureed, similar to a can of pureed pumpkin.
In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the sweet potatoes, soft butter, and both sugars and eggs and blend.
Add in the milk, bourbon, vanilla, spices, and salt and blend.
Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and continue mixing.
Pour the sweet potato filling into a prepared pie crust and bake in a preheated 400-degree oven for 50 minutes until the center of the pie does not wiggle.
Let the pie cool for 30 minutes before serving.
Tips for Making The Best Sweet Potato Pie
- Always use whole, fresh organic ingredients when possible.
- We used a ceramic 10 1/2″ diam., 2 1/2″ high pie dish for this recipe. You can buy it here.
- Make sure the butter is super soft. You can even melt it and let it cool before adding it to the pie. If it’s not, it will leave tiny little flakes of butter throughout the pie. This is OKAY for flavor but looks better without butter flakes.
- Let the pie cool to room temperature before serving.
- Puree the potatoes to the same consistency as canned pumpkin.
- Save some dough to make pie cutouts to decorate the pie once it’s cooled. Bake the cutouts separately on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
- If the crust starts to get really brown during baking, fold tin foil around the edges to cover it. We usually don’t have to do this, but it’s necessary sometimes.
- Feel free to use a store-bought pie crust but make sure it fits a deep dish pie pan.
Topping Ideas for Sweet Potato Pie
There are a variety of toppings you can choose from to jazz up your recipe. We used whipped cream and piped it on using a piping bag. We also made pie cutouts using these and added them on once the pie had cooled.
Some of our favorites are:
- Caramelized pecans or walnuts
- Cinnamon streusel
- Spiced cream
- Crumble
- Pecan streusel
- Marshmallow Fluff
- Maple whipped cream
- Almond streusel
How to Store Sweet Potato Pie
Sweet potato pie recipes typically contain eggs and milk, making them more or less a baked custard pie. Because of that, they should be stored in the fridge. Keep in mind if a dessert contains eggs, cream, and/or milk, you need to keep it cold.
All you need to do is let the pie cool completely before covering it with foil. It can sometimes take up to three hours for it to cool. You can keep it in the fridge for up to three days.
How to Freeze Sweet Potato Pie
Once the pie has completely cooled, wrap it with three to four layers of plastic wrap. Ensure that the plastic wrap is sealed over the top of the pie.
Then, wrap your pie in aluminum foil. It can then keep in the freezer for up to one month. Thaw it in the fridge overnight when you’re ready to eat it.
If you have an airtight container, you can wrap the pie once, then store it in an airtight container and freeze it.
When to Serve Sweet Potato Pie
This pie is perfect for the fall season. Serve it on any of these festive occasions!
Christmas Party or Christmas Dinner
Frequently Asked Qestions
For your sweet potato pie recipe, you can bake or boil the main ingredient. We prefer to boil as it’s easier and there’s not much difference in flavor.
Probably because there’s too much liquid in it. It also might need to bake for longer.
If you think there’s too much liquid in the filling before you bake it, mix in a tiny bit of flour. If it’s runny while it’s baking, keep it in the oven until the center of it is set.
A baked pie can keep up to four days when stored properly in the refrigerator.
Homemade sweet potato pie should be refrigerated. Most recipes used condensed milk, not whole milk, but it still should be kept cool.
While using canned sweet potatoes may seem like it’ll make an easy sweet potato pie recipe even easier, we recommend using fresh. Our sweet potato pie recipe calls for fresh, boiled sweet potatoes.
Is Sweet Potato Pie Like Pumpkin Pie?
Known as pumpkin pie’s Southern cousin, sweet potato pie may seem similar to its orange relative on the surface. It’s made with similar ingredients:
- Condensed milk
- Eggs
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
Instead of pumpkin, sweet potatoes are added to the filling. Pumpkin sometimes has a bit nuttier flavor than sweet potatoes. Where the two pies mostly differ is in regards to their texture.
Pumpkin pie is creamy and dense. The texture of the best sweet potato pie is airy and light.
How Do You Know When a Sweet Potato Is Done?
Sweet potatoes take about 15-20 minutes to cook when they’re boiled. Poke them with a fork to see if they’re tender. They’ll take less time to cook if you chop them into smaller pieces.
When you’re learning how to make sweet potato pie, it’s important to note that the pie will be done when the center is set. You can insert a knife into the center and if it comes back clean, your pie is done. The center also won’t jiggle if it’s cooked all the way through.
Can I Make It in Advance?
If you have a lot of different recipes to make in preparation for a holiday meal, you can make an easy sweet potato pie in advance. We mentioned earlier that it’ll keep in the fridge for up to four days. Additionally, you can also make it a month ahead of time and pop it in the freezer.
One thing you can do a week in advance is to cook the sweet potatoes. Get your potatoes boiled and store them in the fridge before you’re ready to make the pie. That’s one less thing to worry about when you’re making the recipe for homemade sweet potato pie.
More Recipes You’ll Love
We’ve curated the best sweet potato pie recipe for you to make your next holiday meal or when you have a hankering for something sweet.
For more recipes for holiday or fall meals, check out one of our other articles.
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Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Pie Filling
- 1 3/4 cup pureed sweet potatoes
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted, cooled
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup milk, whole or 2%
- 1 tbsp bourbon
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Prepare 1 pie crust and save a little to make cutouts to deocrate the pie.
- Peel and cube the sweet potatoes.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Then add in the sweet potatoes and boil for about 15 minutes until soft. You’ll be able to stick a fork all the way through.
- Then strain, saving 1 tbsp water to puree them with.
- Add the sweet potatoes into a blender with 1 tbsp of the water they were boiled.
- Blend until they are perfectly pureed, similar to a can of pureed pumpkin.
- In an electric mixer, combine the sweet potatoes, soft butter, both sugars and eggs and blend.
- Add in the milk, bourbon, vanilla, spices and salt and blend.
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and continue mixing.
- Pour into a prepared pie crust and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 50 minutes until the center of the pie does not wiggle.
- Let the pie cool for 30 minutes before serving.
Notes
- We used a ceramic 10 1/2″ diam., 2 1/2″ high pie dish for this recipe. You can buy it here.
- Make sure the butter is super soft. You can even melt it and let it cool before adding it to the pie. If you it’s not, it will leave tiny little flakes of butter throughout the pie. This is OKAY for flavor but looks better without butter flakes.
- Let the pie cool to room temperature before serving.
- Puree the potatoes to the same consistency you would have in canned pumpkin.
- Save some dough to make pie cutouts to decorate the pie once it’s cooled. Bake the cutouts separately on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Nutrition
If I use homemade bourbon vanilla do I just use 2 T instead of 1 T of bourbon and 1 T vanilla?
Hi Lorraine! You can definitely do that!
Sweet Potato Pie is far superior to pumpkin pie, in my opinion. I think nutmeg has a really strong flavor, so I cut the amount in half and it was perfect.
I love the addition of the small leaves for toppings. My family is going to devour this and I’m so excited to make this for our Thanksgiving dinner too! Beyond excited to try this!
Heavenly!! It just melts in your mouth!! This is on our holiday menu!