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Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Topping Recipe

Filed under Bakery, Dessert, Holiday, Thanksgiving

Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Topping

I've had so many friends rave about sweet potato pie that when I found a recipe for one I just had to try it. Given that I completely botched the first pie crust (forgot to chill it before baking it -grrr) and many steps require chilling this or that for an hour, the whole production took a lot longer than I thought it would. Was it worth it? Yes! This is a delicious sweet potato pie and worthy of any Thanksgiving table.

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Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Topping Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plus another 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp heavy cream
1 pre-baked pie crust (see pie crust recipe for instructions on pre-baking a pie crust)
3 Tbsp butter
1 cup of pecans, half of them lightly chopped, the other half whole

Method

1 Make the pie crust. (See pie crust recipe for instructions on pre-baking a pie crust.) If you use a store-bought frozen crust, you do not need to pre-bake it, just defrost it 10 minutes and prick the bottom all over with a fork before using.

2 Make the sweet potato purée. In a large saucepan, cover the sweet potato pieces with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the sweet potato pieces are soft when poked with a knife or fork. Drain. Purée in a food processor until smooth. You may need to add back a little liquid (a tablespoon or two of water) to get a smooth consistency. Let cool completely before using.

3 Prepare the pie. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Place rack at bottom of oven. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and maple syrup until smooth. Add the sweet potato purée, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 3/4 cup of cream. Mix until completely smooth. Pour into cooled crust.

4 Bake the pie. Bake on lowest rack for 50 minutes, until filling has set. You may want to tent the edges of the pie with aluminum foil or a pie crust protector to prevent the pie crust edges from burning. Cool on rack for one hour. Then transfer to refrigerator and chill completely.

5 Make the pecan topping. Melt 3 Tbsp butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add 1/2 cup of brown sugar and cook, stirring, until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add 1 Tbsp cream, and mix in. Add the pecans, mix to coat the pecans with the sugar mixture. Let cool for 1 minute. Pour mixture over cooled pie. Use a rubber spatula to spread topping over the top of the pie. Cool until topping has hardened, about 30 minutes.

Serves 8.

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Posted by Elise on Nov 19, 2006 and indexed Pecans, Pie, Sweet Potatoes, Thanksgiving, Yam

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Comments

I grew up eating sweet potato pie (my grandfather being a chef and from the south it was a holiday favorite). I make mine with pecans too. Yours looks wonderful!

Posted by: Michele on November 15, 2005 9:52 PM

Elise, if you had never had sweet potato pie, then probably you've never had "little" sweet potato pies (with the sweet potato filling placed inside a rolled out biscuit and folded over, sizzled in frying pan, sprinkled with 10x sugar, and eaten immediately.) Delicious.

I just bought some sweet potatoes yesterday and plan to make these little pies. I will try and take a picture of them and put the recipe on my blog--hopefully in the next day or two. Thank you for the "big" sweet potato pie recipe.

Posted by: Deb on November 16, 2005 4:37 AM

My grandmother-in-law, who makes the best sweet potato pie, told me that the secret to her pies is "a lot of butter and a lot of sugar."

I have found that you can pretty much apply this secret to any dessert :)

Posted by: BBQ Junkie on November 16, 2005 6:50 AM

I love sweet potato pie, actually more than pumpkin pie. I've never made one myself. This one sure looks good. I think I'll try it this Thanksgiving. Gotta love Everyday Food magazine - you're making me want to resubscribe! :)

Posted by: Lori on November 16, 2005 7:19 AM

The little sweet potato pies recipe is now posted here:

http://girottifamily.typepad.com/mountain_musings/2005/11/little_sweet_po.html

Posted by: Deb on November 18, 2005 3:38 PM

As a northern, I'm new to sweet potato pies. I've always been a fan of pumpkin pies and pecan pies as well as of sweet potatoes in general. So I had to try this recipe. I made two and served one last night at Christmas Eve dinner. It was delicious and well received. I will say, though, that it was difficult to cut because the topping really hardens like a candy coating. So with that and the whole pieces of pecan, it is easy to push the topping into the pie in the process of cutting. Also, I had doubled the recipe to make two pies and bought 9" pie crusts, but I ended up with enough filling to make a third (possibly exceeded the amount of potato a little). I may attempt to make the third pie by mixing the topping ingredients straight into the filling. If I do, I'll post the results.

Posted by: Ben on December 25, 2005 7:24 AM

I made this for the office's Thanksgiving party this year (2007). Everybody loved it. I baked the pie in muffin pan and got 18 mini pies.

Thank you very much for the recipe.

Posted by: sucheela on November 15, 2007 11:29 AM

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