Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet Potato Pie is a slice of pure comfort—creamy, spiced just right, and absolutely irresistible! This Southern classic features smooth sweet potato filling kissed with warm cinnamon and nutmeg, all nestled in a flaky pie crust. With just a handful of simple ingredients and straightforward steps, you’ll have a dessert that’ll make everyone ask for seconds.

Love More Sweet Potato Recipes? Try My Southern Maple Sweet Potato Casserole or this Cranberry Apple Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Rich, smooth, and perfectly spiced, this Sweet Potato Pie is a classic Southern dessert that feels like a warm hug. Made with creamy mashed sweet potatoes, cinnamon, and nutmeg, it’s baked in a flaky crust until golden and fragrant. Topped with whipped cream, it’s a cozy, nostalgic treat perfect for the holidays.

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Ingredients You’ll Need

For the Filling:

• 1 (1 pound) sweet potato
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup milk (whole milk works best)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Crust:

• 1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust (homemade or store-bought—no judgment here!)

Why These Ingredients Work

You have to use a real sweet potato. The canned stuff tastes like the can. I don’t know how else to describe it. It just does. Butter makes this taste like dessert instead of baby food. The sugar sweetens it but also does something with the texture—makes it firm up right. Without eggs you’ve got orange soup. The spices need to be there but not too much. My grandmother used to say you should taste sweet potato first, spices second. She’d make me taste the filling before it went in the oven and if I tasted cinnamon before sweet potato she’d add more sweet potato. Vanilla is what makes all the flavors stop fighting with each other. And the milk thins it out so it’s not paste. My first attempt I didn’t use enough milk and cutting into it was like cutting into a brick.

Essential Tools and Equipment

• Large pot for boiling sweet potato
• Mixing bowls (medium and large)
• Potato masher or fork
• Hand mixer or whisk
• 9-inch pie pan
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Knife for testing doneness
• Optional: food processor for ultra-smooth filling

How To Make Sweet Potato Pie

Step 1: Prep the Sweet Potato

Throw your sweet potato in a pot of boiling water. Don’t peel it first. Just wash it and toss it in. Boil for 40-45 minutes until a fork goes through like it’s not even there. Then run cold water over it so you can touch it and peel the skin off. It comes off easy when it’s cooked right.

Step 2: Mash Until Smooth

Put it in a bowl and mash it. Get every single lump out. Put the butter in while everything’s hot so it melts without you having to work for it.

Pro tip: I bought a food processor after I borrowed one from my neighbor Lisa. She moved three years ago and I still miss having her next door. Anyway, 30 seconds in the food processor and you’re done. So much easier.

Step 3: Add the Sweet Ingredients

Add your sugar, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla. Mix it until you can’t see separate ingredients anymore. Should be orange-ish gold and smooth.

Step 4: Assemble Your Pie

Pour it in the pie crust. Smooth the top if you want it to look nice for photos. It’ll be really full. Don’t panic. I’ve never had one overflow and I’ve made this at least fifty times.

Step 5: Bake to Golden Perfection

Put it in the oven at 350°F. Set a timer for 55 minutes. When you stick a knife in the middle and nothing wet comes out on the knife, it’s done. It puffs up in the oven and looks really cool through the glass door.

Step 6: Cool and Serve

Leave it on the counter for three hours minimum. Do not cut it before that. I don’t care how good it smells. I made that mistake at my first Thanksgiving hosting and served everyone soup in a crust.

You Must Know

Soft butter means you can press your finger into it but it doesn’t melt on your finger. Not melted butter that you let cool down. Actual soft butter. I screwed this up twice before I figured it out. And you really really really have to let it cool all the way. I know you don’t want to wait. Wait anyway. I served this too early at a Super Bowl party once and had to throw the whole thing away. Forty people saw it. I’m still embarrassed.

Personal Secret: I put in a little bit of salt that’s not in the recipe. Like barely any. Maybe a pinch.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

• Put egg white on your crust before you add the filling. Keeps the bottom from getting wet and gross. Wish someone had told me this years ago.
• No food processor? Use a strainer and push everything through. Your hand’s gonna hurt. Do it anyway.
• Turn your pie around halfway through baking. My oven cooks hotter in the back. Yours probably does too.
• Little wobble in the middle when you take it out is perfect. That’s what you want. It finishes cooking while it’s sitting there.
• Don’t beat the eggs in too hard. I did that once and got this huge crack across the top. Tasted fine but looked terrible for my Instagram post.

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Citrus Twist: Put orange zest in it. About a tablespoon. I had this at a restaurant in Charleston where I had to wait 45 minutes for a table and it was worth it just for the pie. Asked the waitress what made it different and she asked the kitchen for me.

Spice It Up: Use ginger instead of nutmeg sometimes. Or add allspice. I like both.

Brown Sugar Swap: Do half and half brown and white sugar. Gets you this darker, deeper taste. Really good.

Graham Cracker Crust: My sister started doing this two years ago and now she won’t shut up about it. But she’s right, it’s better.

Bourbon Boost: Put a tablespoon of bourbon in the filling. Tastes sophisticated. My husband’s fancy coworker asked for the recipe.

Maple Magic: Use maple syrup instead of some of the sugar. Real maple syrup costs like $15 but it’s worth it.

Make-Ahead Options

I always make this the day before now. Tastes better after sitting overnight. Everything blends together or something. I don’t know the science. Just let it cool, cover it with plastic wrap, put it in the fridge.

Freezing instructions: I froze a piece in November and ate it in January and it was still good. Wrap it really tight in plastic wrap and then put foil over that. Thaw it in your fridge the night before you want it.

Crust prep: Make the crust the day before if you want one less thing to do day-of. Keep it in the fridge.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

• One pound of sweet potato is about a cup and a half when you mash it up. Ish. Close enough works.
• Don’t have time to boil? Stab holes in the sweet potato with a fork and microwave it 8-10 minutes. Turn it halfway. Not as good but works when you’re desperate.
• Should feel like pumpkin pie texture but a little more substantial.
• Crust edges getting dark too fast? I keep aluminum foil already cut into strips in my drawer for this exact reason. Life changing.
• Take it out of the fridge 15-20 minutes before you serve it. Cold pie tastes dull.

Serving Suggestions

Pie doesn’t need much but here’s what I do:

• Whipped cream
• More cinnamon on top
• Vanilla ice cream if I’m trying to impress someone
• Caramel sauce if I’m really trying to impress someone
• Pecans if I remembered to buy them

Perfect pairings: Coffee, tea, milk. My dad has a glass of milk with every dessert he’s ever eaten. This pie is good with milk. It’s a Thanksgiving dessert but I made it in August last year because I had sweet potatoes I needed to use. Tasted just as good.

How to Store Your Sweet Potato Pie

Room temperature: Two hours max. Good for parties where it’s sitting out while people eat.

Refrigerator: Cover it and it’s fine for four days. Gets hard when it’s cold so take it out a little bit before serving. Big difference in how it tastes.

Freezer: Wrap it twice—plastic then foil. Good for two months frozen, maybe more. Let it thaw in the fridge overnight.

Reheating: Don’t really need to but 15 seconds in the microwave warms it up if you want. Or ten minutes in a 300 degree oven.

Allergy Information

Contains: Eggs, dairy (milk and butter), wheat (regular pie crust)

Dairy-free option: Plant butter and oat milk. My friend Sarah who’s vegan eats this version and doesn’t complain about it.

Egg substitution: Never tried it. Maybe those fake egg things? But pies need real eggs to work right so I don’t know.

Gluten-free: Buy a gluten-free crust. Done.

Nut-free: No nuts unless you put them on top yourself.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Why did my pie crack on top?

Left it in too long or mixed the eggs too hard. Mine cracked at my sister’s wedding shower because I was distracted talking to people and forgot to check it. Everyone ate it anyway but it looked bad in the photos.

What’s the difference between sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie?

Sweet potato pie tastes like more. More flavor, richer, thicker. Pumpkin pie is lighter. Both are good but if I had to pick one forever it’d be sweet potato.

My filling looks runny—did I mess up?

No that’s how it looks before you bake it. It gets solid in the oven from the heat and the eggs. Then keeps getting more solid as it cools. Give it three hours at least before you touch it. I know it’s hard. Do it anyway.

💬 Tried this recipe? Leave a comment and rating below! Tell me what happened. Did it work? Did you change stuff? Did your family like it? I actually read these.