This Southern Sweet Potato Pie is the perfect fall and Thanksgiving dessert to make and share with family and friends. Easy to make with simple ingredients, it’s the perfect make-ahead sweet treat!
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Full Recipe Ingredients/Instructions are available in the
recipe card at the bottom of the post.
You can find important tips/tricks in the
blog post.
I love the flavors of fall, lots of warming spices come into play and my thoughts always turn to delicious sweet pies. A traditional Southern sweet potato pie is one of my favorite fall desserts.
The sweet potato filling in this easy sweet potato pie is silky smooth. When it’s topped with some whipped cream I’m in heaven! You can make your own pastry crust, but if pushed for time a store bought pastry crust will work just fine.
It’s one of my preferred Holiday pies and lucky for me, my kids love it too. So I always end up making this pie most often around the Holidays. This has become my best sweet potato pie recipe and is enjoyed by everyone I serve it up to.
This is a great pie to serve up for Thanksgiving or Christmas along with my Simple Pumpkin Cake! However, it also makes a great weekend treat any weekend during fall, with my family and friends.
Ingredients
- Pie crust (store-bought or homemade)
- Sweet potatoes – prefer to roast my sweet potatoes in the skin and then peel them for this recipe. Some have boiled it and had great results.
- Butter – adds richness and flavor to the pie. I use unsalted butter.
- Light brown sugar – this adds an incredible depth of flavor to this pie.
- Large Eggs, Evaporated Milk, and Vanilla Extract
- Spices – Ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and salt
How To Make Southern Sweet Potato Pie
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mash cooked sweet potatoes in a bowl.
- TOP TIP: I like to either bake my sweet potatoes in the air fryer or microwave them for 8-10 minutes. I never boil them.
- Add remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth and combined.
- Pour in prepared pie crust. You can see my crust broke a little, lol. It was still mighty good though.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until pie is set in the middle.
Can you make Sweet Potato Pie ahead of time?
Yes! This is the perfect make-ahead dessert. In fact, you want to let the pie sit for at least an hour before serving it. Once the pie has cooled to room temperature, cover it loosely with plastic wrap of foil and it will keep well for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
Can you freeze Sweet Potato Pie?
If you are super organized and planning ahead, then you can freeze the pie. It’s best to freeze the pie before you bake it or it can become soggy once thawed.
Place the filling in the crust and then wrap securely in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag. Defrost the pie in the fridge overnight before baking. The pie will keep well frozen for up to 3 months.
Recipe Notes and Tips
- Take the butter out of the fridge 30 minutes before you plan to bake. This allows the butter to soften, making it easier to incorporate into the other ingredients.
- Sweet potato pie is best when it has cooled, so wait to serve it.
- The best sweet potato pie is made at least a day ahead and chilled. Remove from the fridge at least 30 minutes before serving.
- Don’t boil the sweet potatoes or they will take on too much liquid and the filling will be soggy.
More Easy Dessert Recipes
- Purple Sweet Potato Pie
- Chess Pie
- Pumpkin Pie
- Old-Fashioned Pinto Bean Pie
- Watergate Salad
- Sweet Potato Pudding
- Blueberry Biscuits
- Homemade Chocolate Pudding
- Air Fryer Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes
If you’re looking for more delicious sweet potato recipes, try my candied sweet potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes recipes.
Watch this video tutorial and see how I make this sweet potato pie from start to finish.
FAQs:
As with any sweet dessert, there is sugar in this pie, however, this is not a heavily sugar laden pie. Sweet potato is a healthy, nutrient-rich vegetable that is full of fiber, so a better sweet pie option than fruit-based pies. As with all things, a sweet treat now and again will do no harm.
Sweet potato pie has a lovely creamy texture and as it uses similar spices of vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, is not dissimilar to a pumpkin pie.
The flavors in both of these traditional Thanksgiving pies are similar, but sweet potato pie is less dense and more light and airy. It’s sweeter and more creamy and I find it much richer in flavor.
The pie is cooked when the pie filling has set and is no longer liquid. You can check but inserting a toothpick into the filling, if cooked it will come out clean.
You can serve this pie warm at room temperature, or chill it in the fridge. It is entirely down to personal taste.
Over-baking the pie is the main cause of the filling cracking. Cook until the filling is just set.
Whether or not you have strings in your sweet potatoes will depend on the growing conditions of your sweet potatoes. If the soil is too fertile, you’ll get stringy sweet potatoes. Try to purchase short plump sweet potatoes to avoid stringiness. If you need to get rid of strings, pulse the sweet potatoes in a food processor after baking them.
If you have tried to make this delicious Southern Sweet Potato Pie, or any other recipe on my blog, then please rate it and let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Southern Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
- 9- inch pie crust store-bought or homemade
- 1.5 lbs sweet potato about 2 medium sweet potatoes
- ¼ cup butter softened
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- ½ cup evaporated milk
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Bake or microwave the sweet potatoes:
- Air fryer – 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 35-40 minutes.
- Oven – 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 45-50 minutes.
- Microwave – prick potatoes all over, microwave for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mash sweet potatoes in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth and combined. Pour in prepared pie pan.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until pie is set in the middle. Remove and allow to cool for at least 1 hour.
Video
Notes
- Prepare pie crust according to your recipe or package directions.
- Sweet Potato Pie is best when it has cooled, so wait to serve it.
- The best sweet potato pie is made at least a day ahead and chilled. Remove from the fridge at least 30 minutes before serving.
- Don’t boil the sweet potatoes or they will take on too much liquid and the filling will be soggy.
Nutrition
This post was originally published on 8/17/2020. It has been updated with additional helpful tips.
Tanya
Saturday 24th of December 2022
I just whipped this recipe up and put in the oven a few seconds ago. I tasted the remaining mix left over in the bowl and it's AMAZING. I am so happy to have found this recipe.
Thank you for sharing.
Ps. This is my first time making sweet potato pie from semi scratch (I used premade pie shell) can't wait for tomorrow to serve it. ❤️
Tanya
Sunday 25th of December 2022
Thanks Tanya! Love your name by the way :) Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy the finished pie :)
Katie
Monday 28th of November 2022
Made (and consumed) my first sweet potato pie thanks to your delicious recipe! I would say I followed the recipe to a tee, but I had a slight mishap and ended up having to blend the pie filling. Thankfully it still turned out fantastic. :)
Tanya
Monday 28th of November 2022
Thanks Katie! So happy the pie worked out for you.
Ivy Brantley Reid
Thursday 24th of November 2022
Very good! I added meringue. Very similar to my grandma’s!
Tanya
Monday 28th of November 2022
Thanks Ivy! Love that you added meringue too. Sounds delicious!
Mona Anderson
Thursday 24th of November 2022
Very delicious! A few of my small sized potatoes didn’t cook all way through ( forgot to poke holes before baking) so I picked those little chunks out of the mix. The spices were on point. Thank you for sharing.
Tanya
Monday 28th of November 2022
Thanks so much Mona! Glad to hear the pie worked out in the end.
Emma
Wednesday 23rd of November 2022
Fantastic!! I made this with mashed potatoes as the “crust” because my father is unable to swallow anything but soft foods! It looks amazing!🤗