Classic Sweet Potato Pie has a smooth sweet potato and brown sugar custard in a buttery, flaky crust for a dessert that is most often reserved for the Holidays, but should be a feature throughout the year!
Table of Contents
Ingredients and substitutions for Sweet Potato Pie
- Plain flour: This is the best option for that flaky pastry, cake flour is not recommended here. If you live in the UK, see the FAQ's section as to a the type of flour to use here.
- Butter: Cold and cubed helps you press it into your flour without heating it up too much as you work it. Make sure that butter is fully coated with flour so no puddles form during baking.
- Ice water: Ice water helps ensure your pastry comes together quick, resulting in that perfect texture.
- Sweet potato: You'll only need a small sweet potato for the puree here. Though orange sweet potato is the most common; you could choose a purple one in equal measure for a striking color to your pie.
- Eggs: As well as adding structure to the sweet potato custard, the eggs will bind everything together, so are essential.
- Brown sugar, maple syrup and honey: The three types of sweetener here add a depth of flavor and allow a softer texture to the custard for a smooth and fall flavored pie. The brown sugar could be substituted with raw sugar. The gram weight of the maple syrup is 79 grams.
- Spices: The ground cinnamon and nutmeg elevate the filling. You could substitute the nutmeg with allspice in equal measure.
- Heavy cream: The foundation of our custard filling. It's also great to top our pie with whipped cream. The gram weight of the heavy cream equals 120 grams.
- Walnuts: The crunchy maple walnuts give this pie a twist, without deviating too much from traditional with pecans making a great replacement in equal measure.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Sweet Potato Pie:
Step 1: Begin your pastry: Place the flour and salt into a bowl, stirring and then incorporating the cubed butter until it resembles large breadcrumbs.
Step 2: Ice water: Pour in ice water to form your dough until it holds together.
Step 3: Chill: Shape into a disc, cover and chill for 1 hour to rest.
Step 4: Roll out: On a lightly floured surface and to ¼ inch thickness and large enough to fit into your pie dish.
Step 5: Press and shape: Press the dough into your pie dish, trim the edges and shape the edges to your preference.
Step 6: Chill and bake: Chill the dough and pierce. Parbake with rice or baking beans before removing and baking until golden.
Step 7: Filling: Blend all the ingredients for the filling until smooth.
Step 8: Bake: Until slightly jiggly in the center.
Step 9: Cool and chill: Cool the pie and chill for several hours.
Step 10: Walnuts and serve: Cook the walnuts and when ready to serve, top with whipped cream, the walnuts and slice.
Step 11: Serve up: Dig in!
FAQ's for the best Sweet Potato Pie
Plain flour in the UK has a lower protein amount which contributes to the dough strength, type of crumb and texture of your pastry, in this case. Plain flour in the Unites States for example has the same level of protein as Bread flour in the UK so the best flour to use here will be 175 grams / 1 ¼ cups bread flour. This will help you ensure a flaky pastry and making it easier to shape without being flimsy which is often the feeling of unbaked dough.
You can if you are short on time with shortcrust pastry being the best option to substitute for homemade flaky pastry.
To achieve a flaky crust for your Sweet Potato Pie, it's important to keep the ingredients cold, use cold butter, and handle the dough gently. Additionally, blind baking the crust before adding the sweet potato filling can also help maintain its flakiness.
The recipe for the pastry was tested 5 times to get the ratio of butter and ice water correct for the pastry to be buttery and flakey, without being stiff or too buttery.
The filling was tested 3 times to get the final result we see in the recipe below. The tests included differing ratios of sweet potato puree to ensure the flavor is nice and strong, but not overpowering the creamy texture a sweet potato pie is known and loved for. It was also tested with varying ratios of spices and milk instead of heavy cream which made the filling a wee bit lighter, but the moisture in homemade sweet potato puree makes the heavy cream a better filling ingredient.
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Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
Pastry
- 150 grams / 1 ¼ cups plain flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 110 grams / 3.88 ounces butter chilled and cubed
- 62 milliliters / ¼ cup ice water
Sweet potato filling
- 423 grams / 1 ⅔ cups sweet potato puree
- 110 grams / 2 large eggs room temperature
- 145 grams / ⅔ cup light brown sugar
- 80 grams / ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 40 grams / 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 grams / 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 113 grams / ½ cup heavy cream
(Optional) Topping
- 28 grams / ¼ cup walnuts roughly chopped
- 30 grams / 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
To serve
- Whipped cream
Instructions
Pastry
- Place the flour and salt into a bowl and stir to combine.
- Add the cubed butter and toss through the flour to coat completely in flour.
- Press each cube between your fingers to thin out and continue tossing through the flour, trying to ensure the butter becomes no smaller than the size of peas.
- Add in a little of the ice water and stir to combine, continuing 1 tablespoon at a time until a dough forms, but ensuring it’s not too sticky, but that there are no dry portions in the base of the bowl.
- Press firmly into a disc, wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Lightly flour your surface and both sides of your dough and roll out to ¼ inch thickness.
- Flipping the dough and adding a small sprinkle of flour, where necessary.?Roll the dough around your rolling pin and place into your pie dish.
- Pressing therein and trimming the edges, folding ½ inch of the dough under the edges and pinching firmly.
- Return the dough to the fridge for 20 minutes to chill.
- Preheat the oven to 220C/425F.
- Remove the chilled pastry and pierce with a fork all over. Lay greaseproof paper to cover the entire pastry.
- Fill with baking beans or rice right up to the edges of your crust.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the edges are golden, remove the baking beans and continue to bake until golden all over, approximately 10 further minutes.
- Remove and allow to cool completely.
- Lower the oven to 180ºC/350F.
Sweet potato filling
- Place the puree, eggs, sugar, syrup, honey, spices and cream in a bowl and whisk to combine or mix with a stick blender until smooth.
- Pour into the pastry shell and smooth out evenly.
- Bake until it no longer jiggles in the center, approximately 45 minutes.
- Remove and allow to cool completely at room temperature before placing in the fridge to chill.
(Optional) Topping
- Add the maple syrup, walnuts and nutmeg into a pan and cook on medium until bubbling, stirring so it doesn’t stick. Remove from the heat and set aside.
To Serve
- When ready to serve, decorate with a little whipped cream and sprinkle over the maple walnuts.
- Slice it up and serve.
- Dig in!
Notes
- Sweet potato: You'll only need 1-2 small sweet potatoes for the puree here. Though orange sweet potato is the most common; you could choose a purple one in equal measure for a striking color to your pie.
- Brown sugar, maple syrup and honey: The three types of sweetener add a depth of flavor and allow a softer texture to the custard. Though the brown sugar could be substituted with raw sugar. Note, the type of honey used here will affect the flavor slightly, so it's best to choose one with a lighter flavor than say one that has lavendar or wild thyme undertones.
- Walnuts: The crunchy maple walnuts give this pie a twist, without deviating too much from traditional, though pecans making a great replacement in equal measure.
- Spices: The ground cinnamon and nutmeg compliment the filling and add depth of flavor. You could substitute the nutmeg with allspice in equal measure.
- Flour in UK for your pastry: Plain flour in the UK has a lower protein amount which contributes to the dough strength, type of crumb and texture of your pastry, in this case. Plain flour in the Unites States for example has the same level of protein as Bread flour in the UK so the best flour to use here will be 175 grams / 1 ¼ cups bread flour.
- Pie dish: The pie dish used here is 18 cm / 7 inch which is around average, though a substitute would be a deep tart tin.
- Baking beans: This helps to keep the pastry in shape as it bakes. Uncooked rice is a great substitute, but make sure you have sufficient to come right up to the edges of your crust.
- Store-bought pie crust: If you're short on time, don’t feel comfortable making the crust or prefer convenience, you can easily use store-bought pie crust here.
- Best refrigerated: Due to the heavy cream in the filling, sweet potato pie does need to be kept refrigerated when not being served.
Nutrition
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