My grandma's sweet potato pie recipe is always asked for any time someone tries it for the first time. A delicious homemade crust filled with perfectly sweet potatoes that have a flavor of wonderful warm spices.
Naturally, sweet potato pie is always searched for during the fall season. We always serve it after Thanksgiving dinner as a dessert - or just to have available during that week when the kids are out of school for the holiday season.
They eat so much I don't know how to keep up half the time and having something like this on hand is less expensive than them eating a whole pantry worth of snacks!
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- It's inexpensive.
- You should have these simple ingredients in your pantry most of the time.
- The pie crust is delicious. Once you master how easy it is to make yourself you'll always do it that way. A flaky buttery crust.
- This seriously is the best sweet potato pie recipe for any pot luck, office party or family gathering during the fall.
🧅 Ingredients
- Butter
- Fresh Sweet Potatoes
- Flour
- Granulated Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Salt
- Ice Water
- Baking Powder
- Cinnamon
- All Spice
- Nutmeg
- Ginger
- Heavy Cream
- Eggs
- Vanilla
See recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities.
🥣 Instructions
- Step 1: Place pierced sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and cover the whole sheet with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated oven (350°F) for about 1 hour, until the potatoes are soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- Step 2: While the sweet potatoes are baking add the flour, salt and granulated sugar to a medium mixing bowl and use a whisk to mix. Using a cheese grater - grate a whole stick of frozen butter into the flour mixture. Stir occasionally to make sure the butter doesn't clump together.
- Step 3: Once the whole stick of butter has been grated add the ice water and mix/knead with your hands until a good dough has formed. Shape into a disk and wrap with clingwrap. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Step 4: Remove from the refrigerator and roll out on a floured surface. Drape over a 9" Pie dish then flute the edges with your fingers and thumbs. Pop the pie dish into the freezer for about 15 minutes.
- Step 5: While the pie crust is in the freezer, preheat the oven to 400°F and start working on the sweet potato filling.
- Step 6: Add remaining butter, softened, to a large mixing bowl and add the white sugar and brown sugar. Beat until creamy, this will take about 3 minutes.
- Step 7: Add the eggs one by one, followed by the cooled sweet potatoes. With the mixer still beating add the heavy cream, spices and vanilla.
- Step 8: Once fully mixed remove the unbaked pie crust from the freezer and fill with the sweet potato mixture.
- Step 9: Bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 400°F then turn down to 350°F and bake a further 45 minutes. Remove from the oven when the center of the pie is set, and allow to cool completely on a wire rack to room temperature before serving.
Hint: When you remove the pie crust from the freezer to fill with the pie filling work fast. You don't want the crust to warm up at all. The firmer and colder it is when it goes into the oven the more success you will have with it not melting/wilting.
🔄 Substitutions and Variations
- Store-bought Pie Crust - instead of a homemade pie crust you could use a frozen pie crust. Some people would just rather not go to the extra effort of making a pie crust.
- Corn Syrup - instead of sugar. I've heard some people do this.
- Evaporated milk - some recipes use this - though I'm not sure why. It's a cheap substitute for heavy cream that they used to use during the war and depression.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice - you could use this instead of the different spices used in this recipe.
- Boil Potatoes - you could boil the sweet potatoes, it would be quicker. I prefer to the baking process though. It adds a little caramelization flavor plus the potatoes are not as wet.
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🔌 Equipment
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I have a list of equipment that I used to make this old fashioned sweet potato pie in the recipe card below.
📘 Related Recipes
- Amish Pumpkin Pie Recipe - and old fashioned pumpkin pie recipe that has withstood the test of time.
- White Pumpkin Pie - a surprisingly different take on the traditional pumpkin pie.
- Amish Pie Crust Recipe - a no fail pie crust that is perfect for almost any pie.
🧊 Storage
Once the pie has cooled to room temperature you should store in the refrigerator in an airtight container, or wrap with plastic wrap.
Add the whipped cream at the time of serving - this is optional.
💡 Tips
Expert Tip: Try to find sweet potatoes that are short and fat, or rounder. The long skinny potatoes tend to be more stringy in texture.
If you’ve tried my Grandma's Sweet Potato Pie Recipe or any other great recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section below, how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers!
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Grandma's Sweet Potato Pie
This old fashioned sweet potato pie is the perfect fall dessert. It's perfectly sweet, soft and full of fall spices.
Ingredients
- 4-5 Medium Sweet Potatoes (about 1.5lb)
- ½ Cup Butter, + 5 Tablespoons, divided
- 1-¼ Cup All Purpose Flour
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Cup Granulated Sugar, + 1-½ Teaspoons, divided
- 3 Tablespoons Ice Water
- ¼ Cup Light Brown Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs, room temperature
- 3 Tablespoons Heavy Cream
- 2-¼ Teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ Teaspoon Nutmeg
- ¼ Teaspoon Allspice
- ¼ Teaspoon Ginger
- Whipped Heavy Cream for serving
Instructions
- Place one stick of butter into the freezer.
- Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork and place on a baking sheet covered with foil. Bake in the oven at 350°F for about 1 hour.
- Remove the foil and allow to cool, then peel the skin off the potatoes with your hands.
- While the potatoes are baking, add the flour, salt and 1-½ teaspoons sugar into a mixing bowl Take the frozen stick of butter and grate into the flour mixture, stirring with the flour every now and then so as to not have the butter stick to each other.
- Once all the butter is grated into the flour add the 3 tablespoons of ice water then mix with your hands. Knead until a dough has formed. Make a flat disk and wrap with plastic wrap.
- Place in the refrigerator to cool, for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out on a floured surface, making sure to flour the rolling pin and your hands. Drape over the 9" pie dish and flute the edges using your fingers and thumbs.
- Place the pie crust into the freezer. Preheat your oven to 400°F.
- Add the 5 tablespoons of softened butter to a large mixing bowl and add the remaining sugar and brown sugar. Beat for a few minutes until creamy.
- Add the eggs, one by one and once fully incorporated add the cooled sweet potatoes, cream and spices. Beat on medium for a minute or two until completely mixed.
- Remove the pie crust from the freezer and quickly spoon the mixture into the pie crust. Smooth out with a spatula and pop straight into the preheated oven.
- Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes then turn down the oven to 350°F for a further 45 minutes.
- Remove the pie from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before serving.
- Pipe cream on the top to serve (optional).
Notes
Between taking the pie crust out of the freezer and filling with the sweet potato pie filling you need to work fast. Otherwise the pie crust will warm up and then melt in the oven.
Try to use the rounder sweet potatoes, not the long and skinny ones. The longer, skinnier sweet potatoes can tend to be a little on the stringy side.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 517Total Fat 17gSaturated Fat 10gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 88mgSodium 516mgCarbohydrates 82gFiber 4gSugar 23gProtein 10g
Penny says
The recipe was delicious