How To Cook Sweet Potatoes For Pie
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Sweet potatoes are a delicious root vegetable and the star of many dishes, especially in Southern sweet potato recipes and soul food sweet potato pies.
They are rich in flavor and yield a naturally creamy texture when baked. Their inherent sweetness is the base for favorite African-American recipes.
Cooking sweet potatoes for sweet potato pie
Unlike pumpkin pie where you can use a canned pumpkin purée, sweet potatoes must be cooked to soften, mashed, and mixed to make a homemade sweet potato pie purée.
With so many important recipe steps, it’s always best to know what mistakes to avoid when making this iconic Southern soul food dessert. Either Jewel or Beauregard sweet potatoes are recommended because they are the best sweet potatoes for baking. Learn more about why in my post about what type of sweet potatoes are best for sweet potato pie.
Is it better to boil or bake sweet potatoes for pie?
When cooking sweet potatoes for pie, the preferred culinary method is to roast or pressure cook them. Roasting is simply baking the sweet potatoes in the oven at a temperature of at least 400 degrees F because the intense heat breaks down the starches into sugars, resulting in a sweeter potato. The result is a more developed flavor of the mashed sweet potatoes for your pie filling.
Then, you simply gather the potato flesh and discard the skin. Then, you mix the softened flesh with sweet potato pie spices, and a few other ingredients in an electric mixer to make the pie filling and pour the filling into the pie crust.
Should sweet potatoes be soaked in water before baking?
This step is not necessary when cooking sweet potatoes for pie.
Do you need to bake sweet potatoes in foil?
When making pie, you won’t need to cover the sweet potatoes in foil. However, you can line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper for the potatoes to roast.
Do sweet potatoes get sweeter when baked?
Sweet potatoes need time in the hot oven for their enzymes to convert starch into sugar. Because of the intense oven temperature, roasting (baking above 400 degrees F) is the ideal method to cook sweet potatoes for sweet potato pie to make them extra sweet.
Can you microwave sweet potatoes for pie?
Don’t try to save time using a microwave because your sweet potatoes may cook unevenly. And the microwave is likely to take longer with more check-ins.
Cooking sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot for pie
Pro tip: You can save time by using the Instant Pot to pressure-cook sweet potatoes for pie. This modern kitchen appliance delivers intense heat to convert the potato starches into sugar for a sweeter dessert. Yet, it only takes 12 minutes to cook the potatoes instead of roasting them in the oven for almost an hour.
Check out my recipe for Instant Pot sweet potato pie to get step-by-step guided instructions with pictures.
When to peel sweet potatoes for pie
The easiest and preferred method is to peel the potatoes after they are cooked (roasted or pressure-cooked). Then, the potato skin will be softened to peel the sweet potatoes quickly and almost effortlessly to prepare them for mashing.
Equipment
- Large baking pan
- Hand-held or stand electric mixer
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pound sweet potatoes washed and scrubbed (equals about 3 cups when softened and peeled)
- 12 oz evaporated milk
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter melted (or vegan butter)
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ginger minced
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Wash and scrub the sweet potatoes and set them aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- See my recipe for homemade almond flour pie crust, or you can use a store-bought pie crust, dough, or pie shell that may or may not come with its own pie pan. Grease the pie pan, place the uncooked pie crust in it, and set it aside.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or foil, and roast the sweet potatoes on it for 40 minutes or until tender. Pro tip: Use the Instant Pot to save time and cook the potatoes in only 12 minutes!
- Remove the cooked potatoes from the oven, and once they're cool to the touch, peel and discard the skin.
- Gather 3 cups of sweet potato flesh.
- Add the sweet potato flesh, evaporated milk, brown sugar, egg, melted butter, vanilla extract, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt to a large bowl.
- Mix with a hand-held or stand electric mixer until the ingredients are combined and smooth.
- Pour the sweet potato mixture into the pie crust.
- Bake the sweet potato pie at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until the pie is puffed and firm in the center. (Remember that cooking appliance times and oven temperatures will vary.)
- Allow the sweet potato pie to cool for at least 4 hours before slicing, then serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
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I thought it would be too hard to make sweet potato pie like my mom’s from scratch. Thank you for sharing this easy method.