A creamy custard pie with roasted sweet potato filling and fall spices, this classic Southern sweet potato pie is the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving dessert table and a nice alternative to traditional pumpkin pie.

Ever notice how not everyone likes the pie choices at Thanksgiving? Over the last few years, it's become abundantly clear that pumpkin pie is not a favorite for all in my house.

But sweet potato pie they like, so sweet potato pie it is. This traditional pie of the South is now making a yearly appearance on our table for the preferred dessert pie. Along with this Dutch Caramel Apple Pie.

After purchasing a few not so good sweet potato pies, I decided to make my own. It's really quite easy and homemade always tastes better to me. After scouring my cookbooks and the internet, I mostly relied on this sweet potato pie recipe from my Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

Why This Recipe Works

Baking the sweet potatoes for the filling adds depth of flavor as the potatoes caramelize as they roast and end up sweeter than if boiling the potatoes. It's an easy extra step and worth the time.
While similar to pumpkin pie, it's a little milder and denser but not too sweet with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a bit of brown sugar and rum to balance it all out.
Use a frozen pie shell to save time, no need to thaw or pre-bake. Thanksgiving is the perfect time for a shortcut like this. I'm all for crust from scratch, but this is just as good in my opinion with everything else I've got going on in my kitchen!

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need for this pie:

Sweet potatoes that you'll roast in the oven for the filling, scooping out the flesh and mashing for the filling.
Frozen pie shell I like the deep dish one from Aldi's.
Eggs, milk and heavy cream for the custard filling.
Both granulated and brown sugars
A little cinnamon, nutmeg and salt for the spices.
Rum
Melted butter

How to Make Sweet Potato Pie

Step 1: Bake the sweet potatoes in the oven until very tender.

Step 2: Peel off skin, scoop out flesh into a bowl. Mash with a potato masher or fork.

Step 3: Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat until smooth. Pour into frozen pie shell.

Step 4: Bake about one hour until the filling is firm and set. Let cool completely.

Recipe Notes and Tips

Definitely bake the sweet potatoes instead of boiling them. Roasted and caramelized makes a huge difference in flavor.
You can swap out the rum for bourbon, if you'd like. If you want to omit the rum, I would add a little vanilla extract, maybe 1 teaspoon.
No need to thaw the frozen pie shell, just fill it up frozen. If using a prepared refrigerated pie dough, just line the pie plate and pour in the filling. You do not need to par-bake the pie shell first.
Three pounds of sweet potatoes should yield two cups of mashed for the filling, about three large sweet potatoes.
Baking time might vary by oven, the pie should be firm and set but still a little jiggly in the center.
Let pie cool completely before slicing. Store covered in the refrigerator. It's delicious served with a dollop of whipped cream!

This old fashioned sweet potato pie is a Southern tradition that's quite popular as an alternative to pumpkin pie for the holidays. Although my husband thinks it tastes like pumpkin pie, my kids disagree and think sweet potato is way better and I'm inclined to agree.

I think it's perfect any time of year and is so easy to make it from scratch, I hope you'll give it a try. It's guaranteed to get rave reviews, I promise! xxo- Kelly🍴🐦