Grandma’s Old Fashioned Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

This southern old-fashioned sweet potato pie recipe is a family recipe that has been passed down for generations! It has a all butter flaky homemade pie crust and a smooth and creamy brown butter sweet potato filling that will literally melt in your mouth!

This sweet potato pie recipe is the perfect pie for holiday meals and is a classic dessert for any Sunday dinner!

Love sweet potato recipes? Try this sweet potato pound cake with cream cheese frosting, sweet potato cornbread, and Bourbon Sweet Potato Casserole.

What You’ll Need

• 9-inch pie pan
• Potato Ricer or Potato Masher
• Pie Weights
• Large pot
• Medium Bowl

Necessary Ingredients

A few simple ingredients go a long with my grandma’s sweet potato pie recipe. It’s my favorite pie recipe because it only requires pantry staples. Also, you’ll need a 9-inch pie dish for this recipe.

Buttery Pie Crust

If using a store bought pie crust, skip these ingredients.

• Cold Butter – I use salted butter because I love a flavorful pie crust. If you prefer unsalted butter, you can absolutely use that. Also, make sure that your butter is cold, this is what makes that flaky pie crust!
• All purpose flour
• Cold Water – make sure that the water is ICE water COLD. This helps to keep the butter cold and prevent the pie crust from becoming soggy.
• Spices – yes, we’re using spices in the pie crust! Every bite of this pie has flavor, including the crust! You’ll need a little cinnamon and nutmeg. These spices go so well with the sweet potato flavor.
• Sugar – to sweeten the crust a little bit!

Sweet Potato Filling

• Sweet potatoes – you’ll want to use fresh sweet potatoes as opposed to canned sweet potato puree for this recipe. The sweet mashed potatoes give this pie it’s smooth custard-like texture. Sweet potato puree has a bit more water so it doesn’t thicken as nicely in the oven.
• Brown Butter – the browned butter adds a caramel nutty flavor. It’s quite simple to brown butter, but has the best flavor. Check out how to make brown butter, I also provide more details in the recipe card.
• Brown Sugar – light brown sugar and dark brown sugar both work well here. Dark brown sugar has a deeper molasses/caramel flavor, so I tend to use that most often. Use whichever you prefer!
• White Sugar – for added sweetness.
• Spices – ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and ground cloves give this pie a lot of flavor.
• Evaporated milk – evaporated milk adds creaminess to the texture of sweet potato pie without curdling while baking. It’s an ideal choice when baking a custard pie.
• Vanilla Extract – for added flavor.
• Large Eggs
• Flour – this thickens the filling.

Tips

• To save time, use a store bought pie crust! You’ll want to get a 9 inch pie crust so keep that in mind!
• Make sure that the roasted sweet potatoes have come to room temperature prior to adding the ingredients to make the sweet potato pie filling. If the potatoes are hot, it’ll cook the eggs and the filling will be lumpy. No good.
• To make your sweet potato filling extra smooth, press them through a fine mesh sieve. This takes some time but it’s worth it! (See the recipe card for more details)
• Do not overmix your sweet potatoes if adding to a food processor. They’ll become gluey from overmixing! When you roast sweet potatoes, the starch in the potatoes swells. When you blend them, they’ll release too much starch. You’ll end up with a gummy filling as opposed to a smooth and creamy sweet potato pie. Mix until just smooth.
• For best results, I recommend using fresh sweet potatoes for this recipe as opposed to canned sweet potato puree. The canned puree tends to have more water in it which prevents filling from thickening up while baking.
• I recommend using a potato ricer for this recipe to get the potatoes nice and smooth. This is a “nice to have”, not mandatory! A potato masher works just fine.
• Make sure that the pie weights completely fill the pie pan to the top of the pie crust. You can also use uncooked rice or uncooked beans. Just don’t use them to cook after.

How to make Black Folks Sweet Potato Pie

Make the Pie Crust From Scratch

If using store bought pie crust, skip this step!

• First thing, combine cold butter, flour, salt, sugar, and spices in a large mixing bowl. Pinch flour and butter together until butter is incorporated into the flour. You can also use a food processor.
• Create a well in the middle of the bowl. Slowly begin adding cold water to the flour mixture, start with one tablespoon at a time. The dough should not be wet, it should be crumbly and shaggy. (see photos below)
• Turn dough out onto a well floured work surface and press pie dough together until a cohesive dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap and allow the dough to sit in the refrigerator for an hour.

Make the Sweet Potato Pie Filling

• While the pie dough is resting in the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Add the sweet potatoes to a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 35-45 minutes, until fork tender. Allow them to cool, then remove the skin and place into a large bowl.
• In a separate pan, brown the butter and allow it to cool. Once the sweet potatoes have cooled, mash them until smooth. (you can also add into a food processor for about 10 seconds) Be sure to remove any stringy fibers from the sweet potato flesh.
• Add the brown sugar, vanilla extract, brown butter, evaporated milk, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg ginger, cloves, and a pinch of salt and mix together. Then add eggs and mash together until eggs are fully incorporated.

Blind Bake the Pie Crust

• Roll the pie dough out until it’s about a 1/4 inch thick. Place into a pie pan and trim off any excess pieces that don’t fit into the pan. If you’d like to crimp the pie crust edges, do so here.
• Polk holes in the bottom of the crust so that air bubbles do not form while baking.
• Add parchment paper to the pie pan and add pie weights to the unbaked pie crust and place in the preheated oven for 17-20 minutes, until the edges of the crust is golden brown.
• Remove the pie weights from the pie shell and continue to bake for another 12-13 minutes, until the bottom of the pie is golden brown.

Bake the Pie

• Add the sweet potato filling to the pie pan. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the center of the pie is slightly jiggly.
• Allow your baked sweet potato pie to cool completely on a wire rack.

Serve

To serve, I added a little brown sugar meringue on top. When I was a little girl, my grandma would put marshmallows on top of the pie, but I like to put a twist on this family recipe by adding a meringue instead. You can also top with whipped cream.

(Tip: add the meringue topping only after the pie has cooled completely. If the pie is warm, the meringue will melt) To make the brown sugar meringue topping, use a hand mixer / electric mixer to whip the egg whites. Start on medium speed then increase to high speed and add the cream of tartar. Continue to mix for another minute then slowly begin to add brown sugar. Whip until glossy and then add vanilla extract.Whip until glossy and pipe on top of the pie. Pro tip – use a torch to brown the meringue for those gorgeous browned streaks!

Dollop a little ice cream on a pie plate and serve this delicious homemade sweet potato pie for everyone to enjoy!

How to Store Sweet Potato Pie

You can store any leftover pie in the refrigerator in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap for up to 5 days. You’ll want to store this without the brown sugar meringue as meringue tends to become syrupy after sitting for a while.

You can also freeze the pie by slicing it and wrapping it in plastic wrap, then wrapping in aluminum foil, and placing in a ziploc bag. It’ll last for 2-3 months. When that sweet tooth is calling and you’re ready to reheat it from frozen, allow it to thaw then warm it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes at 325 degrees F.

Recipe FAQs

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