Move over Pumpkin Pie! This Classic Yam Pie will soon become your favorite Fall dessert.
I will admit that I love sweet potatoes for the simple fact that by the time most cooks are done preparing them, they’ve become more of a ‘candy’ than a vegetable – at least here in the states, and especially around the holidays. For example, it isn’t odd to see sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving prepared mashed with brown sugar, molasses, sweet cream, and then topped with melted marshmallows – and that’s my family’s favorite savory take on them.
In all honesty, that’s also my favorite version of them – but we’ll keep that as our little secret.
With that in mind, and with Thanksgiving planning looming large, I decided I wanted to try my hand at a recipe I had first learned from a close friend of mine from when my son was still in grade school – Classic Sweet Potato Pie.
Rather than prep the sweet potatoes as a candy and then have them masquerade as a dinner table item, this pie is unabashedly a dessert item, pairing deliciously with your choice of caramel sauce, whipped cream, or – preferably – a whipped marshmallow topping.
Now, while you certainly ‘can’ get away with a store-bought crust, that doesn’t mean you ‘should.’ Especially not when the crust really isn’t even the hard part of this recipe. After all, that’s the one part of this recipe that I purposefully called ‘Basic.’ Hint: The name is indicative rather than ironic.
How basic? Chop up half a cup of butter, and blend that together with flour, sugar, and salt, then add in some cold water to make a dough, work it together, and ‘blanket’ it over your favorite baking dish. That’s it. Seriously, that’s all there is to it, and it will taste a universe better than anything you buy in the store.
Pinch the sides of the dough to the baking dish with a fork for effect and pre-bake the crust on its own for about 10-12 minutes.
For the filling, we start with two large sweet potatoes – shocking, I know. Bake the sweet potatoes at 350 degrees until they are for tender roughly forty to fifty. Then add the sweet potatoes, sans their skin, to a large bowl with heavy cream, milk, eggs, brown sugar cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla, and mix until these ingredients area thoroughly incorporated. You want a uniformly dark orange puree.
Then pour the puree into the pie crust, and bake at 350 degrees for about one hour and fifteen minutes, or until you can poke the center of the pie with a knife, and have the knife come out clean.
Classic Sweet Potato Pie
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Ingredients
For the Basic Pie Crust:
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- 2 tbs. sugar
- ½ tsp. salt
- 4 oz. unsalted butter – cubed
- 4 – 5 tbs. cold water – as needed
Filling:
- 2 large sweet potatoes – baked until fork tender
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup milk
- 3 eggs
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar
- ¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
- 1 tbs. vanilla
Instructions
For the Crust:
- Place the cubed butter, flour, sugar and salt.
- Using a steel manual pastry blender to cut flour into crumbled pieces.
- Add the cold water slowly to form into a dough.
- Dust a clean surface with flour and roll out the dough to fit a 9 ½ -inch pie dish, with a little draping over the sides.
- Pinch the dough around the sides and press down with a fork.
- Pre-bake the crust for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on a rack before filling.
For the Filling:
- Preheat Oven 350 degrees F.
- Bake the sweet potatoes until fork tender; let cool and remove the skin.
- In a large bowl place, the sweet potatoes; add the heavy cream, milk, eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.
- Using an electric mixer on low speed mix until the ingredients are all incorporated.
- Pour into the pie crust.
- Bake approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let cool before serving.
- Store in the refrigerator.
- Category: Dessert
Then let the pie cool, and serve.
Enjoy!
[email protected]'s Recipes says
I have never had a sweet potato pie…that sweet potato looks really tempting!
Claudia Lamascolo says
This looks sensational I just want to take a cyber slice!
Joanna @ Everyday Made Fresh says
Hmm, yum! I love your take on my family’s favorite holiday pie. This was the pie that graced every holiday get together in our family. It was the only orange colored pie that I had ever eaten until I met my husband, after I was grown. Growing up in the south, we did sweet potato pie, and if you requested pumpkin you were looked at like you had an extra eye growing on your face. So sweet potato it always was, and ever will be! 🙂
Lauren @ Delicious Little Bites says
I love sweet potatoes in any and all shapes and forms! Your pie looks amazing and I’m seriously craving a bite right now!
Noel Lizotte says
Heck with waiting for Thanksgiving! I think I should make this on Wednesday! I mean … why not?
beautiful pictures!!!
Sharon says
Sweet potatoes large, how large?
How many cups of cooked sweet potatoes would u say that it takes to make this pie?
Thanks,
Sharon
Emily says
I just got some sweet potatoes from a friends garden! I somehow did not think about making a pie with them, that is such a better idea than eating them plain 🙂
Marlynn | UrbanBlissLife says
This looks so delicious! Sometimes pumpkin pie can be overwhelming over the holiday season, so it’s always nice to change up the options!
Karyn says
This looks so good..I have never tasted sweet potato pie before! And it looks quite easy to bake
Veena Azmanov says
OH I love sweet potato and this classic is always a winner!! Can’t wait to try it. Pretty pictures too!! Love the color
Juli Purcell says
Oh wow! You outdid yourself on this one and it looks amazing!!!!
Adriana Lopez Martin says
Pumpkin, cherry, sweet potato and apple pie are my favorites this season. So good and flavorful you never go wrong offering good slide of homemade pie
Elaine @ Dishes Delish says
Mmmm. Sweet potato pie! My favorite. I will definitely try your delicious recipe for Thanksgiving as I’m on pie duty! Awesome recipe!
Beth says
Oh my word! That sounds amazing! I’m a huge sweet potato fan! I must make this! I think I’ll make it for Thanksgiving!
Jacque says
I keep telling myself I need to make this in place of pumpkin pie. I have pinned this to remind me while planning our dinners. Thank you!
Bintu - Recipes From A Pantry says
How come I’ve never had sweet potato pie?! It looks totally delicious I need to try this recipe soon
prasanna hede says
I am used to having sweet potatoes in so different way and never thought of a pie! Wow thats wonderful.
swathi says
Sweet potato pie looks delicious holidays without pumpkin and sweet potato pie is hard to imagine, this perfect crispy crust and delicious creamy pie I am in for dig in.