The best sweet potato pie recipe! A smooth (not stringy) sweet potato filling is infused with rich fall spices and vanilla and baked in a buttery pie crust for the most delicious sweet potato pie – made completely from scratch!
There are two ways to cook the sweet potatoes to use in this recipe: 1) Roast them: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Wrap sweet potatoes in foil and bake for 30-40 minutes until soft (baking time varies based on the size of your sweet potatoes).
Remove from oven, open foil and let the sweet potatoes cool.
Or 2) Slow cook. Cook them in a slow cooker on high for two hours with ¼ cup water. Remove them from the slow cooker and transfer the sweet potatoes to a bowl to cool before removing the skin.
Make the Pie Crust
Put the dry crust ingredients in the container of a food processor fitted with the “S” blade and pulse to combine.
Add butter and ice-cold water and pulse until the dough just holds together when pinched.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and gather into a ball.
Form the dough into a flat disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour, and up to one day, before using.
Make the Sweet Potato Filling
Once the sweet potatoes are cooled to room temperature, remove the and put the flesh and the heavy cream in a high-powered blender or food processor. Discard the skins, then blend/process until smooth.
Add the vanilla, brown sugar, sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves ginger and eggs into the blender with the sweet potato/cream mixture. Blend 15-30 seconds until mixture is smooth.
Assemble & Bake
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Place the pie crust dough on floured surface and roll into a 12” circle (you may need to let it rest for a few minutes to soften enough to roll it).
Transfer to 9” round pie plate and crimp the edges.
Pour the filling into the unbaked pie crust and cover the crust with a pastry shield
Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees F.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a few crumbs (not wet). It may be a bit wobbly still, but it will firm-up as it cools.
Allow the pie to cool on a wire rack for 2 hours at room temperature. Then transfer it to chill in the refrigerator for 2 more hours. (Be patient! This is important). Serve or refrigerate until ready to serve.
Video
Notes
I often make this sweet potato pie recipe the day before we plan on eating it and chill it overnight.Ingredient Substitutions
Pie Crust. I give instructions on how to make an all butter pie crust in this post (you make half of the recipe in the post), as well as in the recipe card. You can use store bought, if preferred.
Heavy Cream. Half & half, full-fat coconut milk or coconut cream are all possible substitutions for heavy cream.
Light Brown Sugar: Dark brown sugar or coconut sugar can be used in place of light brown sugar.
Spices. I included my favorite combination and ratio of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger). You can play around with this if you'd like, but I suggest making the recipe as-written first.
StoreStore leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 1 week.FreezeThis sweet potato pie freezes exceptionally well in one of two ways:
Freeze the entire pie. Simply bake and chill the pie, then wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and foil and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before cutting and serving.
Freeze individual slices. If you have a few leftover slices you want to freeze, place them on a baking sheet and put them in the freezer to flash-freeze them. Then, once they're frozen, wrap them in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator for about 6 hours.