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Homemade sweet potato pie is a Southern classic and one of my favorite pies!
A flaky pie crust is filled with a rich and creamy sweet potato filling and a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Serve this delicious pie on the picnic table or the holiday table, and watch it disappear!
We Love Sweet Potato Pie
- Homemade pies are the perfect way to end a holiday meal.
- Use a pre-made pie crust or a homemade crust if time allows.
- It uses ingredients you likely have on hand, don’t wait for Thanksgiving, this pie can be made any time of year.
What’s in Sweet Potato Pie?
- Sweet potatoes – Sweet potatoes are available year-round and they’ve got sweet orange flesh.
- Dairy – Evaporated milk, butter, and sugar give this pie its signature moist and airy texture.
- Eggs – Use fresh large eggs, these will help the pie set.
- Spices – Traditional spices like vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon give sweet potato pie its savory flavor. Try adding a DIY pumpkin spice blend and use it all year long.
- Pastry – This sweet potato pie filling is tucked into a single pastry crust. We prefer homemade but frozen or store bought works just fine too.
Variations – A graham cracker pie crust can be switched out for the regular crust. Make sweet potato pie REALLY stand out with a homemade topping of candied pecans or a drizzle of caramel sauce.
How to Make Sweet Potato Pie
- Cook and mash the sweet potatoes. Run through a potato ricer, blender, or mixer to break up the strings.
- Combine all the ingredients (except the crust).
- Pour into uncooked crust and bake (as per the recipe below). Cool before serving.
Top this sweet potato pie recipe with freshly whipped cream.
Tips for a Great Pie
- Cook sweet potato pie in advance, cool, and cover with plastic wrap until ready to serve. Leave at room temperature at least 60 minutes before serving.
- To get the strings out of sweet potato pie, you can use a potato ricer (image above) or mix longer with a hand mixer (the beaters will collect some of the strings). The filling can also be blended if desired or run through a fine strainer.
Storing Leftovers
Keep leftover sweet potato pie covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Whole cooled pies and leftover pie portions can be frozen if wrapped tightly in plastic wrap for up to 6 weeks. Thaw in the refrigerator before serving.
Our Favorite Holiday Pies
Did you make this Sweet Potato Pie? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds sweet potatoes cooked and mashed, approximately 2 cups
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup evaporated milk
- ¼ cup butter melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch ground nutmeg
- pinch salt
- 9 inch pie shell uncooked
- whipped cream for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F
- Run cooked sweet potatoes through a potato ricer and put through a strainer to remove the strings.
- In a large bowl combine all ingredients (except pie shell).
- Mix with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Pour into uncooked 9″ pie crust and bake for 55-60 minutes or until set.
- Cool to room temperature before serving. Top with whipped cream.
Video
Notes
- Use an electric mixer to thoroughly mix the pie ingredients.
- Cook sweet potato pie in advance, cool, and cover with plastic wrap until ready to serve. If chilled, leave at room temperature at least 60 minutes before serving.
- To get the strings out of sweet potato pie, you can use a potato ricer or mix longer with a hand mixer (the beaters will collect some of the strings). The filling can also be blended if desired.
- If the crust begins to brown too much, use a pie shield or cover with foil.
- Sweet potato pie can be kept at room temperature or covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Sweet potato pie can be frozen for up to 6 weeks. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature before serving.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert, Pie, Side Dish
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Excellent recipe. Thank you!,
Good morning…I have an extra can of sweet potatoes and I was wondering if I could Sub those for the real thing? Thanks in advance for any reply.
Sure you can! Be sure to drain them very well as canned potatoes are softer and have more moisture. If not drained well the pie will be softer.
I swapped la lachera sweetened condensed for evaporated. I swapped cloves in my boiling water in place of nutmeg. I added a teaspoon lemon. And 3 teaspoon brown sugar. Put on 450 for 30-40 min..
Those substitutions sound great, J. Thanks for sharing.
The recipe was very simple and good. I baked the sweet potato at 425 for 50 min, and use a whisk to break out the lumps. Next time, I will add more sugar to increase the sweetness and I will also try to smooth out all the lumps.
Didn’t like pumpkin spice
This pie is even better if the yams are baked for 45-50 min first at 425 degrees, before mashing and baking in the pie shells. I add All Spice, to bring out the potato flavor.
This pie is bet prepared with a stand mixer to get the batter super smooth, to avoid chunks of potatoes, in the final batter.
I baked the sweet potatoes but I didn’t notice it was stringy until I mixed all the other ingredients. Before I bake it, is there anything I can do to fix it.
If mixing with a hand mixer, the mixer should catch some of the strings and they can be discarded. You could try running it through a fine strainer/sieve and see if that helps. Let us know how it works out for you!
About to try those Christmas 2020 I’ll let you know how it turns out. With homemade evaporated milk
I really like this amazing sweet potato pie recipe and i found this recipe really an amazing recipe.
For anyone overseas
Pumpkin spice is mixed spice.
I absolutely loved this recipe and will definitely be using it as my recommendation for thanksgiving dinners! My family loved the pie I made so much
Absolutely loved it!
Made it today, ingredients are so simple and instructions are so easy to follow! Just trying pie now after it has cooled down for a bit and it is delicious! This is now my go-to recipe, thank you :)
You’re welcome Cindy!
Guuuuurl that pie is gorgeous! I am making this as a treat for the fam! Thanks for sharing!
Hey so I need to make something sweet potatoy for our late Thanksgiving this weekend and forgot and now I need to add an extra dish. I already bought a large can of yams. (I know real ones are better, but I am already peeling too many potatoes.) I don’t want to make a boring, typical casserole with marshmallows or whatnot. I don’t like pre-made pie shells. Do you think it would taste good with a graham cracker crust? And any suggestions on how to make the crust different from my pumpkin pie crust?
Thanks
This reply may come a little too late but yes, I think this would be great with a graham crust.
I’ve never made sweet potato pie before, actually I’ve never made a home made pie before, yesterday was my first time and I made 6 homemade pumpkin pies and they turned out delicious, I will never buy a store pie again, well I ended up with a great deal of sweet potatoes, quite a bit, I have a big family, and I don’t want them to go to waist, so why not, let’s try it
Your recipe sounds delicious, and doesn’t sound complicated and I love that the most
The question I did have was, I noticed for the sugars it says sub in half brown sugar for a richer flavor
Have you actually tried this yourself and how does it change the pie?
Also it says something about condensed or evaporated milk for have tried it with both or have you only ever used the evaporated milk? What is actually the difference?
Can u even used the condensed with the sweet potato pie?
Please wish me luck I’m fixing to get started on my pies, I’m really excited because your recipe sounds delicious like I said earlier, thank you for sharing.
Hi Katie! A sweet potato pie is similar in texture to a pumpkin pie. I’ve only made it as written and it worked perfectly for me. As for the changes suggested by readers, I haven’t tried them so I can’t say for sure how they work out. Evaporated milk is unsweetened milk that has some of the water removed so it’s a bit thicker and creamier. Sweetened condensed milk is thick and very sweet with a different consistency. They cannot be used interchangeably in most recipes. I hope that helps!
Let us know how it goes!
Spend with Pennies recipes/blog is literally the best healthy recipes anywhere, I read it almost every day with my coffee in the morning and find great recipes for lunch or dinner.
We are honored to be part of your daily routine Gershon! Thank you!
A egg/dairy free version of this recipe will be my goal to find, as this pie looks totally scrumptious!
Thank you Connie. Hope. you find one!
Can this be frozen after baked
I suggest to freeze prior to cooking your pie. You will need to thaw the pie completely before baking it. If you freeze a cooked sweet potato pie, it will become soggy – it would be edible, but just not as great if you baked it fresh!
I’m diabetic but love sweet potatos. Could I use Stevie instead of the sugar?
I’m sure that would work just fine. I would suggest looking at the package of Stevia to see how much to replace the needed sugar. Let us know how it goes.
I noticed after 55 minutes the center is still very wet, so added about 10 more minutes.
Great!
Can you substitute Brown Sugar for the White Sugar and if so how much?
Thank you,
I’ve only made the recipe as written so can’t say for sure. Let us know how it goes if you try it Terri!