Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

This sweet potato pie is a Southern custard pie made with 2 cups of roasted, mashed sweet potatoes, white and brown sugar, melted butter, eggs, evaporated milk and a little cinnamon and nutmeg, poured into an unbaked 9 inch crust. It bakes at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes and cuts into 8 slices after about 2 hours on the cooling rack.

The step that decides the texture comes before any mixing. Roast the sweet potatoes, do not boil them. Boiled potatoes soak up water and give you a loose, pale filling. Roasted ones turn sticky and sweet, and the pie sets dense and smooth with a deep orange color.

What You Need for One 9 Inch Pie

• Sweet potatoes: 2 large, about 1½ pounds, to get 2 cups of smooth mash
• Sugar: ¾ cup granulated plus ¼ cup brown sugar, light or dark
• Eggs: 2 large
• Dairy: ½ cup evaporated milk (or half-and-half) and ½ cup melted unsalted butter
• Flavor: 1 teaspoon vanilla, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon ginger or a pinch of allspice if you like
• Crust: one unbaked 9 inch pie crust, store-bought or homemade
• Oven: 400°F to roast the potatoes, 350°F to bake the pie

Dark brown sugar gives a stronger molasses note, light brown sugar keeps the flavor closer to the sweet potato itself. Evaporated milk gives a slightly firmer slice that travels well to a potluck; half-and-half makes it creamier and can need the full 60 minutes in the oven. For the crust, my all butter pie crust works well here, rolled out and fitted into the dish without blind baking.

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Roast the Sweet Potatoes, Do Not Boil Them

Scrub the sweet potatoes, prick each one several times with a fork and roast them on a lined baking sheet at 400°F for 45 to 60 minutes. They are ready when a knife slides into the thickest part with no resistance and dark, sticky syrup bubbles out onto the parchment. That syrup is the reason roasting works: water leaves the potato and the sugar stays behind.

Let them cool completely before you peel them. Peeling them hot lets steam escape into the mash and thins it. I learned that the hard way. Once cool, the skins slip off with your fingers.

Mash until there are no lumps at all. Some sweet potatoes are stringy. Beat the plain mash with a hand mixer for about 30 seconds and the fibers wrap around the beaters, so you can pull them off and throw them away. For the smoothest filling, press the mash through a sieve. Measure 2 cups and save any extra for breakfast.

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Mixing the Filling by Hand

Melt the butter and let it cool for a few minutes. Hot butter poured straight onto eggs starts to cook them, and the finished pie tastes eggy.

In a large bowl, whisk the mashed sweet potatoes, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and melted butter until smooth. Then stir in the evaporated milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and the ginger or allspice. Use a whisk, not a mixer on high. Whipped air rises to the top in the oven and leaves a foamy, cracked surface. The filling should look like thick, glossy custard and pour slowly from the bowl.

Fit the crust into a 9 inch pie dish, pour in the filling and smooth the top with a spatula. Tap the dish on the counter once or twice to pop any bubbles.

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How to Bake a Sweet Potato Pie

Bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes. Set the pie dish on a baking sheet that has been heating in the oven, on the lower third rack. The hot sheet and the low position brown the unbaked bottom crust under the wet filling, and the sheet catches any drips.

Start checking at 50 minutes. The edges should look set and slightly puffed, and when you nudge the pan a 2 to 3 inch circle in the middle should still jiggle like gelatin. A toothpick pushed in near the center comes out mostly clean. If you use an instant-read thermometer, the center reads about 175°F. If the crust edge browns before the filling is ready, cover it loosely with strips of foil.

Move the pie to a wire rack and let it cool completely, at least 2 hours. The center keeps setting as it cools. Cut it warm and the slices slump.

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Sweet Potato Pie vs Pumpkin Pie

Both are spiced custard pies, but they taste different. Sweet potato pie is denser and naturally sweeter, with a buttery, almost caramel flavor from the roasted potatoes and the ½ cup of butter. The spices stay in the background: here it is only ½ teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg. A pumpkin pie is earthier and lighter, leans harder on the spice, and usually starts with canned puree. If your table already has pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie is the one that tastes like a different dessert, not a second version of the same one.

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Cracks, Weeping and Other Problems

• Cracked top: the pie baked past the jiggle stage, or the filling was whipped with a mixer. Pull it while the middle still wobbles. A cracked pie still tastes fine under whipped cream.
• Watery or weeping filling: the potatoes were boiled, peeled while hot, or the pie was cut before it cooled. Roast, cool, and give it the full 2 hours on the rack.
• Stringy texture: fibrous potatoes. Beat the plain mash and pull off the strings, or press it through a sieve.
• Pale, soft bottom crust: baked too high in the oven. Use the lower rack and a preheated baking sheet.
• Grainy or eggy taste: the butter was still hot when it met the eggs, or the oven ran hot. Check your oven with a thermometer if this keeps happening.

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Making It Ahead for Thanksgiving

Roast and mash the sweet potatoes up to 3 days before you bake and keep the mash covered in the fridge. The whole pie can be baked a day ahead: cool it completely, cover it and refrigerate. Serve it at room temperature or lightly chilled. The flavor is fuller on day two, when the nutmeg and vanilla come forward.

This is an egg and milk custard, so it belongs in the fridge once it has cooled. Do not leave it out for more than about 2 hours after that. Covered leftovers keep for up to 4 days. To freeze, wrap the cooled pie or single slices tightly and freeze for up to 1 month, then thaw overnight in the fridge. A few minutes in a 300°F oven firms up a crust that went soft.

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Where This Pie Comes From and How to Serve It

Sweet potato pie grew out of Black Southern cooking. Enslaved cooks in the American South turned sweet potatoes, which were cheap, plentiful and kept well through winter, into a holiday dessert, and families still bake it from handed-down recipes. Some cooks add coconut milk, others more ginger.

Serve slices at room temperature with lightly sweetened whipped cream or my whipped cream frosting, a few candied pecans, or a thin drizzle of caramel sauce or maple syrup. For a Thanksgiving dessert table, it sits well next to a pecan pie and a chocolate pie. With coffee the next morning, it makes a good breakfast too.

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Short Answers on Sweet Potato Pie

Is sweet potato pie a dessert?

Yes. It is a sweet custard pie, served as dessert, most often at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is not the same as sweet potato casserole, which is a side dish.

Do you put baking powder in sweet potato pie?

No. The 2 eggs set the filling as it bakes, the same way they set any custard pie. Baking powder would make it puff and crack.

Can I use yams or canned sweet potatoes?

The orange “yams” sold in most US supermarkets are sweet potatoes, so they work the same way. Canned sweet potatoes in syrup are softer and sweeter: drain them well, mash, measure 2 cups, and taste the filling before adding all the granulated sugar.

Can I boil the sweet potatoes instead?

You can, but drain them very well and let them steam dry in the colander for 10 minutes before mashing. Expect a softer, lighter colored filling than with roasted potatoes.

Pin this sweet potato pie to your Thanksgiving board so it is there when you plan the dessert table. If you bake it, tell me in the comments which sugar and which milk you used. It helps other bakers decide.