Spice up your Thanksgiving dessert spread with this easy sweet potato pie. With a crisp crust and silky smooth filling spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, this sweet potato pie is so delicious and light, your guests will be coming back for more. Thank you to for sponsoring this post! RW Garcia is a family owned company that was started 35 years ago with the simple idea of making delicious and healthy, gluten-free snacks from sustainable ingredients.
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I’ve been cooking and baking nonstop to prepare for the big day. While the main and side dishes will stay the same, I’m going to switch up the dessert menu a wee bit. In addition to apple and pumpkin pies, I will be surprising guests with a sweet potato pie. I’m a huge sweet potato fan so a sweet potato dessert would eventually make its way to the blog! This sweet potato pie was inspired by my love for the classic sweet potato casserole. With a crisp crust and silky smooth filling spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, this sweet potato pie will become your Thanksgiving staple.
For as long as I could remember, I’ve loved sweet potato cakes and pies. Most people think that sweet potato only has savory application in a salad, soup, or side dish so let’s change that preconceived notion! I gave my classic sweet potato pie an upgrade using RW Garcia’s Sweet Potato Crackers in the crust which created a beautiful speckled color. I like RW Garcia’s crackers ground up and used as a crust for fish and chicken and thought it would be a fun addition to the pie crust. Instead of being an all flour pie crust, it has some added nutrition from sweet potato, corn, flaxseed, sesame seeds, and chia seeds. All RW Garcia’s products are non-GMO verified, certified gluten-free, lower in sodium, and free of artificial additives and preservatives if you’re looking for a delicious and healthy cracker to use in your cooking and baking. You can visit RW Garcia and type in your zip code to find the nearest grocery store that carries the Sweet Potato Crackers.
To save time, I started with roasting the sweet potatoes in the oven for 1 hour while I made the pie crust. Flour, powdered sugar, ground RW Garcia’s Sweet Potato Crackers, and butter came together in minutes with the help of an apple vinegar water mixture and my trusty food processor. Adding vinegar to the pie crust helps tenderize the dough by inhibiting gluten formation, makes it easier to work it, and creates a flaky crust. Other things that I find helpful for getting a good crust is keeping your equipment and butter as cold as possible so the butter does not melt and become overworked. Once the dough came together, I let it rest in the fridge for an hour for the gluten to relax before rolling it out.
Once the dough was ready, I rolled it out in between two parchment papers to about 12 inches to fit a 9-inch pie pan. I trimmed off the excess dough, leaving a 1-inch overhang from the pie plate. With my thumbs and index finger, I pinched the overhang to form a fluted edge. Crimping the edges takes practice but once you get the hang of it, it will become second nature. For the dough scrap, I rolled them up and created decorative leaves for the pie crust. The crust went into the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up to prevent shrinking during baking.
While the crust sat in the freezer, I worked on my sweet potato pie filling. This is a one bowl kind of situation where pureed sweet potato, heavy cream, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg are whisked together. You can use a food processor, a hand-held whisk, or old fashioned whisk to get it done.
The pie filling went directly into the baked pie crust and back in the oven. I tented the edges of the pie crust with foil to prevent it from over browning.
The smell of sweet potato pie baking in the oven will make you want to dig your fork into it but let it cool down to an appropriate temperature first. Earthy sweet potato mixed with gentle spices of cinnamon and nutmeg created that classic fall vibe while brown sugar gave the filling a sweet molasses taste.
Take a bite of the sweet potato pie and you’re met with a crispy, flaky crust against a light, silky smooth filling with a dollop of whipped cream to round out the flavors. The flavor of this sweet potato pie is so delicious, your guests will be coming back for seconds or more! Don’t be surprised if your guests ask for it again next Thanksgiving!
For more fall dessert recipes, check out these recipes: pumpkin olive oil bundt cake, red kuri squash tarts, salted caramel quince tarte tatin, and Dutch apple pie.
If you try this recipe, please let us know how you like it! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #beyondsweetandsavory on Instagram. We truly appreciate your feedback and incorporate them to continually improve our recipes.
Easy Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
Sweet potato pie
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 2 ounces unsalted butter, cubed
- 2 medium eggs
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 9-inch baked pie shell
- Whipped cream for serving
Pie shell
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup ground RW Garcia Sweet Potato Crackers
- ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 8 tbsps unsalted butter, cold (1 stick)
- ⅓ cup iced water
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
Instructions
Sweet potato pie
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Toss the chopped sweet potatoes and butter on the tray, making sure they are in a single layer and roast for 1 hour until tender and lightly caramelized.
- Transfer the cooked potato to a food processor and process until smooth.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine sweet potato puree, sugar, eggs, heavy cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla and whisk until well combined.
- Spread the sweet potato mixture over the baked pie shell, smooth the top with an offset spatula, and use foil paper to cover the edges of the pie to prevent it from burning during baking.
- Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F or until set.
- Decorate the pie with baked decorative leaves.
- Let it cool to room temperature before serving.
- When ready to serve, slice the pie into 8 pieces and top with whipped cream.
Pie shell
- For the pie shell, combine flour, RW Garcia ground Sweet Potato Crackers, sugar, and butter in a food processor and pulse until the butter is the size of peas, about 12 times.
- In a small bowl, whisk together iced water and vinegar.
- With the machine running, pour the water vinegar mixture down the feed tube and pulse until the dough begins to form.
- Transfer the dough to a floured surface and form the dough into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Roll the dough in between two sheets of parchment papers until you get about 12 inch diameter and ⅛ inch thickness.
- Use the pastry to line the base and side of a 9-inch pie pan leaving a 1 inch overhang.
- Use your thumbs and index finger to pinch the overhang to form a fluted edge. Freeze the pie for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Prick the base of the pie with a fork.
- Brush the edges with the beaten egg.
- Line the pastry case with parchment paper and fill it with pie weight (or uncooked rice or beans) and bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is light golden.
- Remove the parchment paper and pie weight and bake for another 5 minutes until the base is just dry. Remove from the oven and let it cool.
- Combine all the pieces of dough scraps and roll it out to about ⅛ inch thickness and use a leaf cutter to punch out decorative leaves for the pie. Brush the leaves with the beaten egg.
- Place all the decorative leaves on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in a single layer.
- Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F during the last 12-15 minutes while the pie crust is baking.
- Remove the decorative leaves from the oven and let them cool to room temperature.
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