Best Sweet Potato Pie Recipe Soul Food

A homemade southern Sweet Potato Pie has a rich flavor coming from the blend of warm spices, it also has a souffle-like texture thanks to the eggs and evaporated milk. This freezer-friendly pie has a buttery and flaky pie crust made from scratch and beats any store-bought pie crust any time! By far this sweet potato pie recipe is the best I ever made. Don’t forget to watch the video tutorial to help you make this amazing treat.

Best Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

Let’s agree that sweet potato pie is the most loved pie in the south beside Pumpkin Pie. There are many different recipes out there but believe me, I am sharing the best I recipe with you, and although this is a big claim yet I’m comfortable that you will enjoy every bite of this pie. My love for this sweet potato pie recipe comes from different angles listed below:

• The pie crust is made from scratch and is flaky and buttery, the crust will remind you of shortbread cookies but a little lighter.
• The filling is creamy, fluffy, rich, and full of flavors coming from the warm spices, baked sweet potato, evaporated milk, and vanilla.
• Perfectly sweetened.
• Sweet potato pie freezes well and can be refrigerated for up to three days without any change in its taste or texture. I will explain more on how to freeze the pie later in this post.
• Similar to my Pumpkin Pie Recipe, this pie melts in your mouth, and you won’t help but ask for more!

Ingredients in Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

Sweet potato: In this recipe, I didn’t boil the sweet potatoes but peeled them, cut them in medium-size slices, and baked them. Baking the sweet potatoes bring out more flavor and makes them tastes sweeter. You can use canned sweet potato puree, make sure there is no sugar added nor spices or other flavors.

Evaporated milk: I found that using evaporated milk instead of regular milk adds richness to the pie filling and creaminess to the texture.

Sugar: Although I have used white sugar, you can use brown sugar, but that will make the pie darker in color and a little heavier in texture. The sweet potato pie will still taste amazing!

Eggs: You need eggs because it will add a custard-like structure and ads body to the pie.

Butter and Oil: The butter is essential because it adds an amazing flavor to the pie and helps it stay firm when it cools down. I have added oil in this sweet potato pie recipe, it is the reason why the filling of the pie maintains a beautiful texture when refrigerated.

Blend of warm spices: Nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger powder.

How to make sweet potato pie?

If you have made my Pumpkin Pie Recipe, you will find that making sweet potato pie is as easy with few differences.

1. Make the pie crust by adding all the ingredients together using a pastry cutter or your hands. You can make the dough ahead of time. You can even roll out the dough and place it in the baking pie pan (use aluminum baking pans when freezing a rolled-out pie crust.), and you can freeze it for up to three months.
2. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes and mix them with cooking oil and bake them for 42 minutes while flipping the slices after 20 minutes of baking.
3. In a bowl, add the freshly baked sweet potato slices, and all the ingredients. Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer mix all the ingredients (except the eggs) until smooth. Add the eggs and beat for three minutes, and when combined pour the filling into the pie crust.
4. Bake the pie for one hour or until the filling is firm with a little jiggle in the middle.

Do you serve sweet potato pie warm or cold?

Serving sweet potato pie warm with cold whipped cream will take you straight to heaven, but that’s how I see it! You can serve the sweet potato pie cold too. The flavor doesn’t change, but the texture of the pie changes a little.

Warm sweet potato pie has a fluffier lighter texture, and that’s because the butter in the filling is melted. A cold sweet potato pie has a much firmer texture, and you can get a clean slice when you cut through the pie, which will ensure a beautiful looking slice when served to your guests.

In my house, we love sweet potato pie, cold or warm!

Can you freeze sweet potato pie?

You can freeze a baked sweet potato pie for up to one month, but you have to keep a few steps in mind.

If you are planning to freeze the pie, then make sure to use a disposable aluminum pie pan. These pans are thin and will allow the pie to freeze faster than regular baking pans, which will stop ice crystals from forming, Ice crystals usually form at the bottom of the pie and make it soggy when thawed. Using an aluminum pie pan will eliminate the soggy crust.

How to freeze a baked sweet potato pie and how to thaw it:

• Allow the pie to cool completely at room temperature.
• Wrap the pie tightly with plastic wrap all the way around and then wrap with aluminum foil.
• Place the wrapped pie in a freezer friendly bag or an airtight container.
• Write the date on the bag or the container and freeze up to one month.
• To thaw the pie, remove it from the freezer bag or the airtight container. Remove the aluminum foil too. Place the pie (which is now wrapped with plastic wrap only.) in the fridge to thaw overnight.
• You can heat the pie in the oven for a few minutes before serving.

More Sweet Potato Recipes You Will Love

Sweet Potato Casserole.

Sweet Potato Pound Cake.

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Best Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

This Best Sweet Potato Pie makes a shortbread-like crust, and a soufflé like filling, the flavor of spices used is balanced so is the sweetness.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Dish: Sweet potato pie

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 42 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 57 minutes minutes

Servings 9

Author Muna Kenny

Ingredients

The Pie Crust

• 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon fine sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter should be chilled and cut in cubes
• 2 to 3 tablespoon chilled water

The Sweet Potato Pie Filling

• 500 gm or 1lb sweet potato
• 3 tablespoon oil divided (use 1 tablespoon in the filling and two tablespoons to bake the sweet potatoes.)
• ¼ cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• ¾ cup fine sugar
• ½ cup evaporated milk
• 2 large eggs
• ½ + ¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
• ¼ teaspoon ginger powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Making The Pie Crust

• In a bowl, add all the ingredients except the water. Use a pastry cutter or a fork, cut the butter into the mixture; it should resemble a coarse meal or wet sand texture. You will see bits of butter in the mixture, but that’s alright.
• Add the chilled water and mix well for a few seconds using a wooden spoon or a spatula. Transfer the dough to the working surface and fold the dough into itself to form a ball. The dough should come together easily and shouldn’t be sticky. Press down the dough and form a disc.
• Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
• Lightly flour the working surface, place the dough on the working surface, and lightly dust it with flour.
• Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to fit in a 9-inch pie pan. Start rolling the dough from the center and work your way out in all directions.
• Dust the dough with flour whenever it gets sticky but don’t overdo this step, or the pie crust won’t come out flaky.
• Roll the dough onto the rolling pin and then unfold it into the pie pan.
• Gently fit the pie crust to the pie pan using your fingers. Prick the crust all over with a fork and refrigerate until you are done preparing the filling.

Making The Filling

• Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
• Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into medium slices. Add two tablespoon oil to the slices and mix well.
• Place the sweet potato slices on a non-stick baking sheet, or you can line a baking sheet with parchment paper, which will help in cleaning up later.
• Bake the sweet potato slices for 20 minutes. Flip the slices and bake for 22 minutes.
• In a big mixing bowl, add the baked sweet potato slices while hot. Add all the ingredients to the hot sweet potato slices EXCEPT the eggs.
• Using a hand mixer, beat the ingredients on low for one minute, increase the speed and beat until combined.
• Add the eggs to the previous mixture and beat on medium speed for three minutes until fluffy.
• Pour the pie filling into the chilled pie crust and bake for 55 minutes or until the edges of the pie filling is firm and the center is a little jiggly.
• The pie will puff up and rise like a souffle but will sink a little when it cools, and that’s normal.
• Let the pie come to room temperature and serve with whipped cream, or if you wish you can serve the pie warm.

Video

Notes

– The pie pan is different from cake pans. If you want to use a cake pan to make this pie, it is fine, but the pie filling may not rise much since the cake pan is deeper than pie pan.

– You can freeze the pie crust (without the filling) for up to three months. Wrap the pie crust with a plastic wrap twice and then wrap it with aluminum foil. Place the wrapped pie in a Ziploc bag or airtight container. Write the date and freeze.

Nutrition

Calories: 275kcal

This post was previously published in 2016 and is now updated with new images, a video, and more text.

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