I love sweet potatoes! People try to compare them with pumpkins a little too often for my liking. And though pumpkins are perfectly fine and I’ve even used them in a delicious recipe on this blog, they just don’t compare to sweet potatoes. In my opinion, there’s no better combination of flavors than sweet potatoes, cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg. So it should come as no surprise that sweet potato pie is one of my favorite desserts!
My love for sweet potato pie goes back to my childhood. I was blessed to have two grandmothers who bake their behinds off and their sweet potato pies were out of this world! Both of my grandmothers are from the south, Grandma Cook was from Arkansas and Grandma Johnson is from Alabama, and I credit their southern upbringing for creating some of my favorite dishes. As a little girl, I’d sit in the kitchen watching them work, in awe of the miracles they made from simple flour, sugar, and butter. Baking is an art form and it’s a gift to be able to watch the masters at their craft.
As a granddaughter, it’s my job to take these sweet memories and try to replicate them. But as a burgeoning baking blogger, it’s my goal to try to improve upon them. Going back to sweet potato pie, there are few things you can do to improve upon perfection, but I wouldn’t be worth my salt if I didn’t at least try. And that’s what I did.
About the Recipe
I set out knowing that I LOVED the flavor of the sweet potato pies I grew up with, so I didn’t want to tinker too much with the taste. So instead of flavor, so I focused on improving the texture. In my opinion, a good sweet potato pie should be thick, dense, and smooth so I knew I needed to focus on the actual potatoes. The funny thing is that even though I’ve tasted hundreds of sweet potato pies, I wasn’t sure how either of my grandmothers prepared the potatoes. So I decided to experiment. Even though Grandma Cook passed on, I could have asked Grandma Johnson, but my sense of adventure overtook me. I mean, where’s the fun in just asking for the answer when you can make three pies and try to find it out on your own?
Baked vs. Boiled Sweet Potatoes
In the name of science, I decided to try two popular ways to cook sweet potatoes for my pies: baked and boiled.
Fun fact, in preparation for this blog post, I placed my first order on Amazon Prime Pantry. Now, I’m the type of person who avoids using grocery delivery services because I don’t know who is picking my produce and whether they have as discerning of an eye as I do, but I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised! The sweet potatoes (and apples!) that I got were up to my standards and made for delicious pies.
Back to the potatoes. I used four medium potatoes for each pie. For the baked potatoes, I rinsed each potato and made a few fork pricks all around the potato to make sure the steam could be released. According to Google, baked potatoes sometimes explode if the skin is not pricked before baking, but I’ve never seen that happen… Maybe that’s an experiment for a later date. After pricking them, I wrapped each potato in foil paper and put them on a baking sheet and baked them at 400 degrees for about an hour, checking for doneness after about 45 minutes. I unwrapped one potato and stuck a fork all the way through to ensure proper doneness. I wanted my potatoes to be super soft and I waited until I could cut through the potato, like a knife running through soft butter. I left them cool for about 20 minutes and then peeled and set them aside.
For the boiled potatoes, I rinsed them and put them into a pot with enough water to cover the tops of the potatoes. I turned my stove on high and let the water do its thang. I left the skin on and boiled them for about 30 minutes until the softness was similar to the baked potatoes. I took them off of the heat and let them cool for about 20 minutes before peeling.
The Verdict?
After peeling the potatoes, I immediately saw that the boiled potatoes were stringier than the baked potatoes, but I couldn’t discern other noticeable differences in texture. After mixing both batches of filling and baking the pies, it was time for a taste test. While both pies were delicious, the pie using baked potatoes had a deeper flavor and I preferred it over the pie using the boiled potatoes. The longer bake time allowed the sugars in the potato to carmelize, creating a really delightful dessert. If you truly can’t spare the extra 30 or so minutes it takes to baked your sweet potatoes, the boiled potatoes worked just fine, but you’d be missing out 🙂 However, my students seemed to enjoy both pies and I haven’t heard any complaints as of yet.
But Wait! There’s More!
Truth be told, I was very happy with the sweet potato pie made with baked sweet potatoes. The flavor was great and it reminded me of the childhood pies I devoured. But there was still something I wanted to try. Even though the baked pie was great, the texture wasn’t as smooth as I wanted it to be. So I went to the internet. Apparently, folks have found great success using sieves to smooth out the textures of their pies. I was intrigued and to the pantry I went to find a sieve. Fortunately for me, Rakim anticipated my baking needs and we had a sieve at the ready.
So I set out to make another pie. This time, for Thanksgiving with my family. I baked the sweet potatoes and after cooling, but before mixing in the other ingredients, I pushed the peeled, baked sweet potatoes through my sieve with a rubber spatula. At this point, I must admit that it was kind of tough. I pride myself on being a former collegiate athlete and I’ve thrown heavy objects for fun for more than a decade, but pushing those sweet potatoes through that sieve was tough work. I guess I’ve gotten out of shape… But the effort was totally worth it! After mixing in the spices, milk, and eggs, I pushed the mixture through the sieve again, this time it was much easier.
The result was the creamiest, smoothest sweet potato pie I’ve ever tasted! And my family agreed! My biceps will have to forgive me because I am definitely making this pie for Christmas too!
Do you have any tried and true methods to make a silky smooth sweet potato pie? Did you try this recipe out and have suggestions or thoughts? Let me know in the comments!
Silky Smooth Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
- 1 Pie crust, store-bought or homemade
- 4 Sweet potatoes
- 1 cup sugar, granulated
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¾ cup Evaporated milk
- ¼ cup Condensed milk
- 4 tbsp Butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Allspice
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Instructions
Preparing Sweet Potatoes
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Rinse sweet potatoes and prick 3-4 sets of fork holes in each potato
- Wrap each sweet potato in aluminum foil and place on baking pan.
- Bake for 1 hour, checking for doneness at 45 minutes. Potatoes should be softened all of the way through.
- Set aside to cool
Filling Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Peel baked sweet potatoes and push them through a mesh sieve using a rubber spatula
- Add sugars, butter, both milks, and spices to the potato mixture and mix well. Taste mixture to ensure proper flavoring
- Add eggs and mix well. For added smoothness, you can push the mixture through a sieve a second time.
- Pour filling into prepared pie crust and smooth top with a rubber spatula
- Bake pie for 1 hour or until the pie is set all the way through. You'll notice that the pie puffs up. It will sink back down as it cools.
- Allow pie to cool for at least one hour before cutting and enjoy with a dollop of whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon
The sweet potato pie with the baked sweet potatoes was great!
Thanks so much, Fryking! I’m glad you enjoyed the pie!