Learn how to make the best sweet potato pie with this easy recipe. The sweet potato pie filling is sweetened with maple sugar and flavoured with bourbon to give this fall pie a unique flavour.
This sweet potato pie is a great alternative to the classic Thanksgiving pumpkin pie! The formula and method for both are very similar and also resemble this delicious apple butter pie! In each case, the main difference is the purée used.
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Ingredients
To make this maple bourbon sweet potato pie, you will need a disk of all-butter pie crust. You can either get it from your local bakery or you can make it from scratch, using a food processor, a stand mixer, or by hand. Here's what you need to make this pie recipe:
- pie crust—I prefer to make my pumpkin and sweet potato pies with a par-baked all-butter pie crust to ensure that the bottom of the pie crust is fully baked in the end
- sweet potato purée—homemade sweet potato purée is best
- cream—use whipping cream with a fat content of 35 %. Don't use a lower fat cream because the filling may not be as smooth and creamy
- maple sugar—I prefer to bake most recipes with maple sugar instead of maple syrup because the flavour is concentrated and you don't have to worry about the additional moisture the syrup would bring to the recipe
- bourbon—I used Jack Daniel's, which is referred to as Tenessee Whisky (basically bourbon) with a flavour profile that pairs well with the flavours of this pie
- eggs— I used large eggs. Let them come to room temperature before using them
- spices—warm spices like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves
- salt—I bake with Diamond Crystal Fine Kosher salt. Add half the amount if you are baking with regular table salt
- vanilla—I like to bake with pure vanilla extract (the real kind)
Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions and Variations
Here are a few ways to make changes to this recipe. Remember to test the changes you make to ensure they work:
- Sweet potato—canned sweet potato purée does exist, but I haven't tried it because it's so easy to get fresh sweet potatoes and to make homemade sweet potato purée. But by all means, use what you need to use!
- Maple sugar—I love baking with maple sugar, but if you don't have access to any (or it's too expensive), please replace it with the same weight of light brown sugar.
- Spices—I used a classic combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves, but you can choose to focus on any of these individually or use a commercial pumpkin spice blend or even apple pie spice mix
- Bourbon—I used Jack Daniel's, which is known as a Tenessee whisky. I chose it because of the flavour notes (sweet, spicy notes with hints of caramel, vanilla, and oak). It has a sweet aroma but it's not actually sweet. Use an alcohol that you think would pair well with sweet potato and maple. For a non-alcoholic version, replace it with the same volume of apple cider
- Vanilla—I used pure vanilla extract but you can replace it with the same amount of vanilla bean paste
Instructions
I like to make sweet potato and pumpkin pies with a par-baked pie crust to ensure the bottom crust is completely baked. No soggy bottoms! For this recipe, you will need to prepare a pie crust. Follow this recipe for perfect pie crust by hand.
Here are the steps to make this sweet potato pie, including how to par-bake the crust:
Step 1—Start by par-baking your pie crust. Dock it with a fork (image 1) to prevent air bubbles as it bakes, then line the pie shell with parchment paper and fill it up to the top with pie weights or dry beans (image 2). Once the pie crust has set, you can remove the pie weights and continue baking the crust until it looks dry (image 3). As soon as you take it out of the oven, brush the surface of the crust with an egg wash to seal it (image 4). Let the crust cool down.
Tip: I don't brush the crust edges with egg wash because they have enough time to brown nicely given the crust is par-baked and baked again.
Step 2— Combine the sweet potato pie filling ingredients (image 5) and whisk them until smooth (image 6). Pour the sweet potato pie filling into the par-baked pie crust (image 7).
Step 3—Place the unbaked sweet potato pie on a sheet pan (image 8) and bake it until the edges are set but the centre still jiggles (image 9). The sweet potato will flatten as it cools and it may crack a little (image 10).
Step 4—Don't worry about any cracks that form, the filling will still be moist and delicious. Once the pie has cooled completely, you can decorate the pie (and cover the cracks!) with pie crust cookies and homemade whipped cream (image 11). Freshly grate a little nutmeg over top.
Hint: Flavour the whipped cream with a little bourbon to bring out the flavour of the pie filling.
Top Pie Baking Tip
I like to bake my pies on the bottom oven rack to ensure the bottom crust bakes properly and completely. I've found that baking a pie on any other oven rack, even the rack just above (before last rack) results in a slightly underbaked pie crust.
Bonus: If you have a baking steel or a pizza stone, preheat the oven with the steel or stone on the bottom rack to drive even more heat to the bottom of the crust.
Pie Baking FAQs
If you didn't par-bake your crust or you didn't place your pie on the bottom rack of the oven, your pie crust may end up under-baked. Next time, make sure to position the oven rack at the lowest level for best results. Baking on a pizza stone or bbaking steel will also help.
This happens some times (as you can see from my photos!). Some say it's because the filling is overbaked, but I don't think that's always the case. If your sweet potato pie filling cracks, that's what whipped cream is for! Nobody will ever know!
Store the baked pie in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, especially once you've garnished it with whipped cream. You can freeze the baked pie (without whipped cream) after cooling completely for up to a month. Wrap it as tightly as possible in a few layers of plastic wrap, and then heavy-duty foil.
Related
If you are in the mood for pie, here are some other pie recipes to try:
What to Serve With It
I love to serve homemade pie à la mode, meaning with ice cream. This sweet potato pie would go really well with these homemade ice cream flavours:
If you tried this recipe for maple bourbon sweet potato pie (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Maple Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 9-inch pie crust edges crimped, unbaked
Egg wash
- 1 large egg(s)
- 10 mL water
- 1 pinch Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
Sweet potato pie filling
- 465 grams sweet potato purée preferably homemade
- 188 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
- 150 grams maple sugar
- 60 mL bourbon
- 3 large egg(s)
- 10 mL vanilla extract
- 2.5 mL ground cinnamon
- 2.5 mL ground nutmeg
- 1.25 mL ground ginger
- 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 0.625 mL ground cloves
Garnishes (optional)
- pie crust cookies
- 375 mL sweetened whipped cream flavoured with a splash of bourbon (see notes below)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 °F (220 °C). Move the oven rack to the lowest level of the oven.
- Retrieve the pie shell from the fridge. Dock the pie crust with a fork to create little air holes for steam to escape. Line with a big square of parchment and fill the pie with dry beans or pie weights, enough to fill the pie shell up to the top of the crimped edges.
- Par-bake the pie crust for 15 minutes.
- Remove the pie shell from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Carefully lift off the parchment with the pie weights. Set aside. Put the pie shell back in the oven and continue to bake for another 3–5 minutes until the bottom looks dry and set.
- Take the par-baked pie shell out of the oven. Lower the oven temperature to 350 °F (175 °C).
Egg wash
- Whisk together the egg, water, and a pinch of salt while the pie shell is baking.
- As soon as the par-baked pie crust comes out of the oven, brush the bottom and sides with egg wash but do not brush the edges! Let the pie shell cool completely while you make the filling. Save the leftover egg wash for the pie crust cutouts.
Sweet potato pie filling
- In a large bowl (preferably one with a pouring spout like this), whisk together the filling ingredients until thick, creamy, and homogenous.
- Once the par-baked pie shell has cooled, pour the filling in it.
- Bake the sweet potato pie until the edges are set but the centre still jiggles a little. This takes about 45 minutes.
- Take the pie out of the oven and place on a cooling wrack. Let the pie cool to room temperature before serving.
- Decorate with whipped cream and pie crust cookies before serving.
Notes
- If you are short on time, use a store-bought pie crust. I prefer to use frozen pie crust from my local bakery, made with butter.
- Use canned sweet potato purée if you don't have time to make it fresh. But I prefer to use homemade purée.
- I used Jack Daniel's as my bourbon of choice, which is a Tennessee whisky (basically bourbon)
- Par-bake the crust before filling to ensure that it will bake properly to a golden-brown crispy crust.
- Bake the filled pie until the filling is set around the edges but still jiggles slightly in the middle.
- I like to make homemade pie crust cookies using the pie crust scraps and the leftover egg wash. Sprinkle them generously with cinnamon sugar. I like to use the harvest cookie cutter set for creating decorative pie crust cookies to top fall pies and you can buy the set on Amazon.
- For the bourbon-flavoured whipped cream, I whipped 190 mL (¾ cup) of whipping cream (35 % fat) with 18 grams of icing sugar and 10 mL (2 teaspoons) bourbon.
Charlie Rose Mason says
I have not yet tried it but I can't wait. I am bringing to a family gathering.