Easy Must-Try Sweet Potato Pie Recipe (With Homemade Buttery Flaky Pie Crust)

Delicious black folks sweet potato pie perfect as a family dessert or sweet tooth quencher on a cold winter afternoon. Made with sugar, butter, milk, spices, brown hands, and love. The golden child of Soul food and African-Americans’ favorite dessert.

• Save

A classic African-American holiday dessert

Sweet potato pie is American’s favorite pie. It’s definitely my favorite and I don’t know too many people who don’t love it as much as I do. Sweet potato pie is very popular during the holiday season.

My family would make 5-6 every Thanksgiving. We’d top it with cool whip and cinnamon and eat it for dessert with cold milk on the side.

Some people, like my grandmother, love to chug it down with a cold cup of egg nog or eat a warm slice in the morning with a side of hot tea. And if you’re like my family, you make it all year round.

But that’s not surprise, Im black and Sweet potato pie is a African-American delicacy. Something we’ve mastered and that’s become associated with our culture. You wont find a black without a sweet potato pie made for Thanksgiving.

It’s almost like, if you dont make it well, or like it, your black card gets revoked! Hahaha! Peach cobbler which I have a recipe for here Homemade Peach Cobbler recipe is slowly becoming another popular dessert in the Black community.

But yeah, I don’t remember any of my black neighbors, family members, or friends of family who didn’t know how to put their foot in it (which means make it good, lol). Some of us have a family recipe that’s been past down for generations

And even without a recipe, it’s just one of them foods like Macaroni and cheese or fried chicken that most black folks know how to make pretty good and have mastered from watching our parents cook it so much.

But while everyone else typically makes it for the holidays, black folk make it all year round because it’s become apart of our culture and because of that, many consider it black folks food or a soul food dessert although it’s popular in general in the states.

Sweet potatoes vs Yams

Ok so let me give you guys who may get the two confused a little history lesson on not only the difference but why the confusion has come about to begin with.

I spoke about the differences between yams and sweet potatoes under my Candied Sweet Potatoes Recipe which yall should check out btw.

Let me explain the differences below and then I’ll get into why some people think they’re the same.

• The shape: Sweet potatoes typically have thick centers and taper off in size with pointy smaller ends while Yams are more like a cylinder, long and relatively even in size from top to bottom with circular ends.
• Skin color: Sweet potatoes are always orange in color, while Yams are always brown.
• Skin texture: The skin on a sweet potato is thin and smooth while the skin of a Yam is rough, and sometimes like the texture of a tree bark.
• The flesh: The flesh of sweet potatoes comes in a variety of different colors; most commonly orange, but also white, and purple – the flesh of a Yam is always white.
• The taste: Sweet potatoes are moist and SWEET, and Yams are dry and starchy.
• Popularity: Sweet potatoes are popular worldwide, especially in the States. Yams are an African and Caribbean thing.

• Save

Why do people call sweet potatoes, Yams?

Black folks in the U.S. refer to SWEET POTATOES as “YAMS” because during slavery times African slaves began calling sweet potatoes YAMS because they resembled the shape of the Yams they saw in Africa.

So to distinguish SWEET POTATOES from starchy REGULAR potatoes, they called them Yams and that just became a thing people did. But while they did it to just differentiate the two, it became a misnomer used within the black community.

Future generations weren’t educated on why sweet potatoes were mistakenly referred to as Yams and started thinking they were the same vegetable not knowing they are completely different.

Now I’m pretty sure once Africans tasted them they realized they were different. I mean, how could they not, sweet potatoes are sweet after all whereas Yams are starchy.

I would like to think most of us know they’re different now but I had friends whom I recently heard refer to sweet potatoes as Yams and vice versa.

And I had to explain to them that 1, they’re two completely different vegetables, and 2 why our people started calling sweet potatoes Yams in the first place.

Childhood memories of sweet potato pie

Ok so sweet potato pie wasn’t just a holiday thing for my family like it is for most who only make a few during the holiday season (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s). We made it all year round.

Two memories I have as a kid that stands out the most is my grandma who would warm a slice up during cold winter morning and chug it down with a warm cup of glass. It was like breakfast for her.

I can also remember seeing several pie dishes across the kitchen table, mostly during Thanksgiving, and see my aunts pour the filling into the pie pans.

I would be the first nephew or niece sitting by their sides waiting for them to be done with the mixing bowl so I could eat the leftover filling with my fingers.

Oh and how could I forget, seeing my aunt take a slice upstairs with an ice-cold cup of milk late at night while everyone was sleeping knowing Grandma Val would kill her if she knew she was eating upstairs. Haha!

I can also remember going grocery shopping with my mom grandma or one of my aunts and remember them saying to one another, “Get some yams”. 

Again, not knowing there’s a difference between yams and sweet potatoes. LMBO! As a kid I was always kind of mesmerized by the funny shape of candied sweet potatoes and their orange color.

I thought they had a very intriguing look. Haha! And I remember how they would slice them in half to boil them because they were sometimes too long to fit into the pot.

All these childhood memories of sweet potatoes, and plenty more, still stick with me to this day.

• Save

Patti LaBelle sweet potato pie

Young adult memories I have of it are first me trying to make a recipe of my own because of how much everyone talked about Patti LaBelle’s sweet potato pie when it came out. Errrrrrrybody was talking about it and it was mainly sold at Walmart.

Can you believe I never really tried it? I say never really because all I had was a scoop of someone’s and not even a slice or enough to judge it for myself.

But my fellow Philadelphian, the great Miss Patti, is who inspired me to create my own recipe for sweet potato pie and I was overwhelmed by the amount of people who loved it. This is when I knew I needed to actually put numbers to how I made it.

If anyone knows, especially my supporters who have been following me since the beginning (2014 on YouTube), I did tutorials on how to make different things but never gave measurements until 2016 when I created this website.

Everyone knows I love to freestyle cook not cook with measurements. Old church mothers from the South cooked with their eyes and let god lead their hands.

But when I realized that I had so many people who were new to the kitchen following me and needed a starter package lol I realized how important it was to put measurements to food and create an actual RECIPE for things.

This was beneficial to me too because how else could you have a food website or write a book without an actual recipe? Besides, as good of a cook, as I think I am, whenever I make things, it tastes similar each time but never quite the same.

But if you put numbers to it and actually make a recipe, it would taste the same every time so yea. But anywaaaays, before I move onto the important stuff like the tools you’ll need for this recipe and the ingredients, I heard a lot of people talk about the nutmeg in Patti’s recipe.

The one thing I made sure of, was to not use a lot of 2 common ingredients some people can strangely overdue it with.

The lemon, and nutmeg. Both are too strong and will ruin a good sweet potato pie to me. Butter, sugar, and cinnamon along with vanilla are the 3 most important ingredients to me and what people look for most.

Nutmeg is kind of strong and too much can ruin it. I can’t stand sweet potato pies with a lot of nutmeg. Lol! Anywhooo, onto the cookware.

Cookware and utensils you’ll need:

• Pot: You need a pot to boil the fat heavy-weight potatoes! lol
• Measuring spoons and cups: How else are you supposed to know you’re using an accurate amount of ingredients the recipe calls for? 
• Large mixing bowl: You need a large mixing bowl to prevent everything from splashing everywhere when you’re blending the ingredients in.
• Hand mixer: This makes blending everything easy.
• Spatula: The spatula ensures everything is evenly blended and incorporated like the filling that splashes on the sides of the bowl the hand mixer can’t get to.
  
  Gotta use that good ole spatula to scrape everything down and back into the middle of the bowl. Lol!
• Rolling Pin: For flattening the dough and lifting the pie crush.
• Pie dish: To bake the pie.
• Knife: To level out the flour scooped into the measuring cups and to cut into the pie.
• Pie lifter: This makes it much easier to lift and serve slices of pie.

Ingredients you’ll need:

• Sweet potatoes: Lol! Well, we can’t make sweet potato pie without sweet potatoes right?
• Butter: Butter gives the pie an amazing flavor and gives the filling a nice consistency.
• Eggs: Eggs provide structure and help to shape the pie.
  
  It also adds flavor believe it or not and is a leavening ingredient as well that helps the pie rise.
• Flour: The flour thickens the filling and provides structure like the egg. If you don’t add a little flour and will collapse and won’t hold up.
• Evaporated Milk: Flavor flavor flavor… evaporated milk gives the filling a special flavor and helps with the consistency and stop it from drying out while baking.
• Lemon Juice: The lemon juice helps to balance out the flavors because this is a very sweet pie obviously.
  
  So adding lemon just gives it the hint of tartiness it needs so it’s not just sweet and bland.
• Vanilla: This is very important in baking. It makes everything taste better and you will instantly notice something’s lacking without it.
  
  I don’t care if you’re making pudding, pie, muffins, cookies, or cake. Vanilla is a major player in the pastry world. 
• Light corn syrup: Corn syrup gives the filling a silky amazing consistency and adds it’s own unique sweetness to the pie.
• White Sugar: Sugar is to obviously sweeten the pie but it helps to keep it moist once it’s done as well.
• Cinnamon: Cinnamon is a MUST when it comes to sweet potato pie.
  
  Who makes sweet potato pie without cinnamon? It’s what gives it its classic flavor.
• Nutmeg: Nutmeg is as important to sweet potato pie as Cinnamon but I don’t use a lot because it’s pretty potent and has a little zing to it.
• Salt: Salt is important because it enhances the flavors so adding a pinch to the filling is vital. 

Ingredients for homemade buttery flaky pie crust:

• Flour You do this to prevent the dough from sticking when you flat it out with the rolling pin.
• Butter: An important ingredient for pie crust and helps with flakiness.
• Buttermilk or water: You need buttermilk or water to bring the dough together to form a cohesive mass of mess! Lol!
  
  It’s not going to stick without a liquid. You also need it to hydrate the flour to activate the gluten.
• Brown sugar: Brown Sugar is used for the same purpose it’s just not as sweet and has a molasses flavor.
  
  I put this in the flour to spice up the pie crust.
• Cinnamon: Add this to spice up the pie crust so it’s not bland.
• Salt: The salt helps with browning and enhances flavor.

• Save

About the sweet potatoes and filling

• Bake or Boil? When I make sweet potato pie I boil my potatoes. My aunt (and others I’ve spoken too) claim baking them is a better option because they don’t lose any juices/flavor.
  
  But I prefer to boil them because they get tender in less time and the skin slides right off when you peel them.
  
  I baked mine before and didn’t notice any significant difference in taste so I just stick to what works best for me.
  
  And before I boil my potatoes, I like to slice them in half so they fit into the pot because as you know sweet potatoes are long and won’t fit unless you’re using a 40 qt size pot. lol!
• Remove the strings: One important thing about the filling. When the potatoes are done boiling and you’re ready to blend in all the ingredients, make sure to blend the potatoes with a hand mixer first.
  
  If you notice any strings on the blades, remove them! You do this so eating your sweet potato pie can be a more enjoyable experience. lol!
  
  The last thing you want is to bite into sweet potato pie and have to remove strings from your mouth or even worse have strings stuck in the back of ya throat! YUCK!
  
  So yea, I used a hand mixer and it picked up all the strings which I discarded before adding the ingredients. You do the same!
• Best time to taste test: Feel free to customize this recipe to your liking as I always say. Add a little more of this and a little less of that if you want.
  
  When you get done adding the ingredients to the filling, that is the time to taste test the filling to see if it’s to your liking.
  

  This is the time to add more of whatever you feel it needs more of because once you bake it, there’s no turning back.

  
  If you have any doubts about any of the ingredients I’m using, use a little at a time and taste the filling to make sure it’s to your liking before adding more.

Why is my pie crust hard?

Hard pie crust is a baking nightmare!! Probably one of the worst things that can happen when baking a pie!

It’s as bad as flat cookies or a sunken pie. Im going to explain what may have caused this and how to avoid it in the future. 

• Overworked the dough: More times than not, when your pie crust comes out hard, it’s because you overworked the dough at some point when making it.
  
  Either when you blended in the butter, brought everything together with your hands to form a perfect ball of dough, or when you flattened it out too much with the rolling pin.
• Too much water: If you use water or even buttermilk, too much can cause a tough pie crust because when the water evaporates the pie crust is baking, the structure of the pastry tightens up and shrinks. 

Keys to a good homemade buttery flaky pie crust

• Add a little liquid gradually: You just need enough liquid to make things damp enough to stick and come together.
  
  So after kneading the butter into the flour, bring it together with your hands and add a tablespoon at a time gradually – just enough until everything comes together and stick.
• Make sure the liquid is ice cold: Ice-cold water or buttermilk stops the fat (butter from getting too warm.
• Make sure butter is cold going into the oven: Remember, the colder the butter is when added to the oven, the flakier the pie crust will be.

How to make homemade buttery flaky pie crust

1. You’re going to first start off by adding flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt to a big mixing bowl.

2. You will then add in the cold butter and you want the butter to be cold because it helps create a slightly flaky pie crust.

• Save

3. Blend everything in with a hand mixer on low speed until you’re left with a crumbly mixture.

4. Create a hole in the center and pour in the buttermilk.

• Save

5. Blend the flour and buttermilk together with a hand mixer or mend it with your hands creating a ball of dough.

• Save

6. Once you create a ball out of the dough, cover it with plastic wrap and sit in the refrigerator to chill for an hour to get it cold.  

7. Coat the surface, the ball of dough, and the rolling pin with flour as seen in the picture below and get to rolling and flatten the dough into a 1/8th thick circular piece of pie crust.

• Save

8. Then to easily place the pie crust into the pie dish, slowly and carefully wrap the pie crust around the rolling pin, lift the pie crust up, and lay it into the baking pan or pie dish.

• Save

9. Add the filling to the dish and place in the oven and bake until done.

Phillyboyjay always makes things simple and the more you do this the easier it gets. You be making your own pie crust and never buying from the store.

It’s good to know how because you can spice your pie crust to your liking and give it more flavor

How to make sweet potato pie

1. Boil potatoes until tender then peel the skin off.

2. Place potatoes in a bowl and blend for a couple minutes and remove strings if needed.

• Save

• Save

3. Add ingredients and blend well.

Tips for best results

• Dust off any excess flour from the dough after flattening it and wrapping it around the rolling pin before adding it to the pie pan.
• Make sure to add the sweet potato pie to the oven quickly after adding in the filling.
  
  Adding it while the pie crust (mainly the butter in it) is still pretty cool results in a flaky crust. 
• Let the sweet potato pie sit for a while after it’s done to give the ingredients time to marry and time to stiffen.

• Save

Making it ahead of time

If you want to make your sweet potato ahead of time but keep it fresh for an occasion here’s what you do.

• Making and storing the pie crust: You can make the pie crust, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and sit it in the freezer until you’re ready to use it to make the pie.
  
  Just make sure, you sit it out long enough before you want to make it to give it time to soften because it will probably be pretty hard and impossible to manage.
  
  So let it sit out a few hours at room temperature to thaw out before you plan on making it.
• Making and storing the filling: You can make the filling ahead of time as well.
  
  Boil ya potatoes, and after you have them ready for the ingredients, blend everything in and store it in a Tupperware bowl tightly sealed with a lid or plastic wrap then place it in the freezer.
  
  When you’re ready to make your pie, sit the filling out a few hours before you’re ready giving it time to thawl out. It’s that simple!
• Make the whole pie and store it: Or, you can simply make the whole pie and store it in the freezer until it’s time to be served. The choice is YOURS!!!

What to serve with sweet potato pie?

• Milk: What’s better than warm sweet potato pie at night with a cold glass of milk while watching a movie?
  
  Talk about feeling like you’re in heaven. You will with this two-punch combination. There’s nothing better to drench your throat with after a sweet potato pie than a cold glass of milk.
• Egg Nogg: Egg nogg is an obvious answer. It tastes so good with sweet potato pie and is a classic holiday combo we all love.
• Tea: This is how old folks love their sweet potato pie. I remember my grandma eating it for breakfast on cold winter mornings.
  
  She would slice a piece of pie, warm it up for a few seconds in the microwave, and eat it alongside some hot Lipton tea. Yessssir! If you haven’t had warm sweet potato pie you’re missing out.
  
  I personally think it’s best when it’s hot – sweet potato pie can be very filling and comforting when you heat it up. 
• Vanilla Ice Cream: You can eat this with your favorite ice cream but some things you have to keep simple.
  
  Warm, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth sweet potato pie, scooped up in the same spoon with a little vanilla ice cream will make you do some things you might regret like slap yo mama! LMBO!
• Whipped cream: You can’t do anything wrong by serving sweet potato pie with a big squirt of whipped cream on top.
  
  Cool Whip is perfect for banana pudding but redi wip for sweet potato pie is the way to go. 

Frequently asked questions

Guys, this sweet potato pie is fiyaaaaah! Sweet potato pie can’t get too much better than this.

When I was creating this recipe my aunt who doesn’t even like sweets, couldn’t stop going into the kitchen to get more – it’s just that good.

So if you’re looking for an easy delicious sweet potato pie recipe, this is the one for you!!!

• Save

So check the recipe below and make sure to rate it and leave a comment below letting us know how you like it. And please don’t be a stranger subscribe so you’ll never miss any of my amazing recipes.

Enjoy, later.

PBJ~

• Save

Easy Must-Try Sweet Potato Pie Recipe (With Homemade Buttery Flaky Pie Crust)

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 8 reviews

Print Recipe

Print Recipe

Delicious Classic Sweet potato Pie, perfect for the Holiday season

• Total Time: 2hrs 20mins
• Yield: 8

Ingredients

Pie Crust Ingredients
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Cold Butter
5 Tbs Buttermilk
1/2 Tsp Brown Sugar
1/8 Tsp Cinnamon
1/8 Tsp Salt

Sweet Potato Pie Filling Ingredients
2 Lbs Sweet Potatoes
2 Large Eggs
1 Tbs All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup
1/2 Cup Butter
1/4 Cup Evaporated Milk
1 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
1-1/2 Cups Sugar
2 Tsps Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
1/4 Tsp Salt

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. Chop potatoes in half and place them in a large pot.
2. Cover with cool water and place over high heat.
3. Cover with a lid and boil until fork tender.
*While potatoes are boiling, kill 2 birds with one stone and make homemade crust*
4. Get a big mixing bowl and add in 1-1/2 cup flour, sugar, cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt, then stir in.
5. With a hand mixer, blend in cold butter
6. Blend in buttermilk, then with your hands form a round ball with the dough.
7. Pour remaining 1/2 cup flour on a flat surface.
8. Coat ball of dough and rolling pin with flour and roll out ball until flat and 1/8 inch thick.
9. Wrap flatten dough around rolling pin and lift into the baking pan, then sit in the refrigerator.
10. Once potatoes are done, fill pot with cool water, and let potatoes chill.
11. Once chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees, then peal skin and place each potato in a mixing bowl.
12. On low speed, blend potatoes with a hand mixer for 1 minute and remove strings, if any, from blades.
13. Add in the milk, butter, syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and blend again.
14. Then blend in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. 
15. Give it a taste test and add more of whatever ingredient you want if it’s not to your liking
16. Then blend in the eggs and flour. 
17. Pour filling into your dish of pie crust
18. Cover crust edges with aluminum foil or a pie crust shield.
19. Bake on 350 degree for 1 hr, then set aside to chill.

Notes

Make sure when you weigh potatoes in grocery store, they are a little over 2 lbs because once you boil potatoes and remove skin, the potatoes end up around 1.75 lbs.

• Author: PhillyboyJay
• Prep Time: 20mins
• Cook Time: 2hrs
• Category: Desserts
• Cuisine: American

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 16