Southern Sweet Potato Pie

Southern sweet potato pie is similar to pumpkin pie but made with real sweet potatoes. The smooth, tasty pie recipe is best-loved around the holidays with the spices of fall and the comforts of home.

 

A Southern Tradition

Sweet potato pie is more of a southern dessert, although it is eaten throughout the country and the world.

Although pumpkin pie uses a lot of similar ingredients, sweet potato pie is a little more creamy and smooth and less dense. So, you get a bit of a different feeling in your mouth from this recipe, but definitely a good one.

Ingredients For Sweet Potato Pie

• Mashed sweet potatoes
• Melted butter
• Granulated sugar
• Milk, evaporated milk, or heavy cream
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground ginger
• Ground cloves
• Ground cinnamon

Full printable recipe with measurements and instructions listed at the bottom of the post in the recipe card.

How To Make Sweet Potato Pie

Grab your sweet potatoes, peel them, and slice them into chunks.

Add the sweet potatoes to a pot of boiling water and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or until you can easily insert a fork in the center.

Drain the sweet potatoes and add them to a large bowl.

Next, mash the sweet potatoes in the bowl.

I used a hand mixer for this step, but you can also use a potato masher.

Next, pour the melted butter into the bowl with the mashed potatoes.

The butter is going to add such a rich flavor to this pie.

Pour the heavy cream into the bowl.

For this recipe, you can use milk, heavy cream, or evaporated milk. Any of those choices will work well.

Next, add the granulated sugar.

Add the ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground cloves, and ground cinnamon to the bowl.

This is really where the flavor comes in. I love each of these spices and when you bake the pie, it gives off such a comforting smell throughout the house.

It’s the perfect pie for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Finally, add the vanilla extract and eggs to the bowl, and mix everything until it is combined.

Preheat your oven to 425-degrees.

Carefully pour the pie into the unbaked pie crust.

I ended up having a little bit of extra sweet potato pie filling and didn’t use all of it because it would have overflowed.

TIP: I suggest getting a cookie sheet out and covering it with tin foil and placing the empty pie shell on it before adding the filling.

That way, if it spills over while putting it into the oven, you won’t have a baked caked-on mess at the bottom of your oven.

And, if you place the pie shell on the cookie sheet before adding the filling, you won’t have to move it twice–once to the cookie sheet and then to the oven. It just saves a step and sometimes a mess.

Place some tin foil around the edges of the pie crust, or top it with a pie shield for the first half of the baking.

Bake the pie at 450-degrees for 15 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350-degrees, and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

TIP: If you’re toward the end of your cooking period and the pie edges look like they are getting a little too brown, place the pie shield over the top again.

Once the pie bakes, let it sit out for about 15 minutes and then refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.