Sweet Potato Pie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to boil or bake sweet potatoes for pie? ›

Many recipes for sweet potato pie call for steaming or boiling the sweet potatoes before making the filling. This leads to water-logged sweet potatoes. Instead, baking sweet potatoes whole concentrates their flavor and sweetness.

What do I do if my sweet potato pie filling is runny? One thing I love about this sweet potato pie is the addition of flour to get the perfect texture. Also, be sure to chill the pie for at least 3 hours once it cools. This allows the filling to set.

The theory is that soaking draws out starch from inside the potatoes, helping them crisp up. I've tested soaking sweet potato fries many times, and I've found that it doesn't make them much crispier, if at all.

Why You Should Bake Sweet Potatoes Instead. While boiling makes sweet potatoes tender, it doesn't help much with their flavor. Most dishes that call for boiled sweet potatoes would be improved if you used roasted or baked sweet potatoes.

Yams and sweet potatoes differ in flavor and appearance, and they are not related. Sweet potatoes are in the morning glory family, while yams belong to the lily family. Yams aren't as sweet as sweet potatoes, and they are starchier and drier. Their texture and flavor are more similar to potatoes or yuca.

Sweet potato pies usually contain milk and eggs, so they are essentially baked custard pies and should be stored in the refrigerator. Rule of thumb: If a pie contains milk, cream and/or eggs, refrigerate it. You'll also want to refrigerate pies containing evaporated or condensed milk products.

Flour as Pie Filling Thickener

Teaspoon for teaspoon, you will need to use about twice as much flour as you would cornstarch or tapioca to achieve the same thickening effects. Adding too much flour to your pie filling will turn it cloudy and pasty, with a distinctly floury taste.

After adding the dough to the pie plate, he sprinkles another heaping teaspoon of crumbs on top of the dough before adding the filling. These crumbs act as a second moisture, absorbing every last bit of moisture from the crust. Say it with us: crisp, golden and perfectly flaky crust.

Cooking Prematurely: It's important that your oven is at 350°F when you put in your pie. If it's still too hot from roasting the potatoes or not fully preheated, it'll disrupt the baking process and may cause cracking.

You may not have drained your sweet potatoes well enough. If your pie is falling apart, you must watch your measurements as this will effect the finished product.

How do you fix too much sugar in a sweet potato pie? ›

Your best bet might be to add something to the filling to counter the sweetness. Something tangy like sour cream or buttermilk can help. And the topping? If your filling is sweet already, you can skip the marshmallows on top and opt for a more savory topping like a nutty crumble mixture.

Overmixing: Overmixing the sweet potato filling can lead to a mushy texture. When mixing, especially after adding eggs, mix and mash only enough to combine the ingredients. Overmixing can add excess air, leading to a softer texture.

When you heat a sweet potato, an enzyme starts breaking down it's starch into a sugar called maltose. Maltose is made up of two glucose molecules bound together, and tastes about a third as sweet as regular table sugar, also known as sucrose. Maltose contains no fructose.

Boil sweet potatoes until they are cooked through. Boil large whole sweet potatoes for 40-50 minutes. Boil small to medium whole sweet potatoes for 30-40 minutes. Boil 1-inch cubes for 12-15 minutes.