This Purple Sweet Potato Pie is a fun twist on the classic sweet potato pie. It is made with purple sweet potatoes instead of regular sweet potatoes for a beautiful vibrant purple color. It also has a cheesecake like creaminess and texture you won’t be able to resist.
Sweet potato pie has roots in Southern and soul food, usually served during the holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, right alongside pumpkin pie and apple pie. But between you and me, I will gladly eat this pie all year round.
Table of Contents
I highly recommend you put this purple sweet potato pie on your list to bake this year. It is the best sweet potato pie and will become your go-to every holiday season. If you need more reasons, here’s why:
- The gorgeous purple color is completely natural, from the sweet potato, no food coloring!
- It is creamy with a cheesecake like quality and decadence.
- The filling is spiced with warm cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger for the perfect Fall holiday vibe.
- The buttery pie crust has a subtle nutty taste from ground pecans, complimenting the season.
Ingredients and substitutions
As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. But here are some notes and substitution tips for each ingredient:
- Flour – I use all-purpose flour for all of my recipes to keep things simple. However, for the pie crust, you could substitute pastry flour if you wish.
- Pecan – Finely ground roasted pecans are added to the flour mixture to create the pecan pie crust. If you have raw pecans, you can simply toast them in a frying pan over medium heat until brown and fragrant. You can easily replace pecans with your favorite nuts.
- Sugar – I like my pie crust on the sweeter side so I used granulated sugar to sweeten it. Other types of sugar can be used like light brown sugar, dark brown sugar or raw sugar.
- Butter – unsalted butter is used. Make sure it is cold. If you use salted butter, be sure to omit all of the salt called for separately in the pie crust.
- Salt – a little bit of kosher salt is used to enhance the flavor of the pie crust.
- Water – use iced water to hydrate the pie dough and to bring it all together. You want to make sure it is cold so the butter doesn’t melt. You could use some type of alcohol, such as vodka, to replace some or all of the water. Alcohol inhibits gluten formation and will create a flakier crust in the end.
- Sweet potatoes – I use Stokes purple sweet potatoes, which you will most likely find at a typical grocery store. You may be able to find Okinawan or Hawaiian sweet potatoes, which also have purple flesh, at Japanese or Asian grocery stores. Of course, you can always substitute regular sweet potato or canned sweet potato in this recipe, but you’ll miss out on the gorgeous color.
- Cream cheese – This adds creaminess and makes the sweet potato pie filling cheesecake-like.
- Condensed milk – This is the main source of sugar in this recipe and it also adds creaminess to the pie filling.
- Eggs – This is afterall a custard base pie, so eggs are used to thicken the filling.
- Vanilla extract – Warm spices will be used in this recipe to add flavor, but a little bit of vanilla is added to enhance the flavor profile and add complexity.
- Spices – I used a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger for a traditional holiday flavor. Feel free to substitute or add spices that you love. Other spices that will go well with sweet potato pie are allspice, clove, and cardamom.
How to make sweet potato pie
Make the pie crust
This purple sweet potato pie is made with a delicious homemade pecan pie crust. I’ve written a whole separate post all about it. You can refer to this pecan pie crust recipe for all the process photos and tips.
Note: You can always use a regular all-butter pie crust for this recipe. Or if you’re looking to simplify things, you can use store bought pie shell as well.
Make the sweet potato pie filling
Roast the sweet potato in the oven while par-baking the pie crust. Continue roasting after you remove the pie crust since it takes longer for the potatoes to cook, 45 minutes to 1 hour or more, depending on the size of your potatoes.
Once done, allow the potatoes to cool before making the filling. Peel the potatoes and mash them in a bowl with a potato masher until creamy.
Tip: You can roast the sweet potatoes ahead of time to cut down on waiting time.
Beat together softened cream cheese and condensed milk. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Finally, add the mashed sweet potato, vanilla, spices and beat until smooth.
Place the par-baked pie crust on a baking sheet, add a pie shield or wrap foil around the edges. Pour the filling into the crust and bake until the middle is still slightly jiggly.
Be patient and wait for the pie to cool completely, then chill it in the fridge, preferably overnight, before slicing to ensure the filling is set completely. Serve with plenty of whipped cream.
More baker’s tips
- How much sweet potato to buy – start with a little bit more than 1 pound of sweet potatoes. You’ll discard the skin and end bits after roasting and end up with around 15 ounces of sweet potato flesh. This is the same amount if you were to use a can of sweet potato.
- If using canned sweet potato – make sure it is sweet potato puree and not yam in syrup.
- Roasting potatoes ahead of time – you can roast fresh sweet potatoes the day before to speed up the process while making the pie.
- How to cook purple sweet potatoes without roasting – you can steam them or microwave them in plastic wrap. However, roasting caramelizes the sugar for better flavor.
- Store bought pie crust can be substituted to save time.
- For a smoother texture you can strain the pie filling through a fine mesh sieve or press the mashed potato through the sieve before adding it to the filling mixture. However, since the sweet potatoes are completely cooked through and soft, I don’t think straining is at all necessary.
FAQs
Purple sweet potatoes are sweet potatoes with purple flesh. The most common purple sweet potatoes you’ll find at the grocery stores are Stokes purple, which are cultivated in North Carolina.
Other purple sweet potatoes you may find are Okinawan sweet potatoes, also known as Hawaiian sweet potatoes. Despite their name, these are actually native to the Americas.
Sweet purple potato tastes sweet as expected of a sweet potato. The texture is firmer and a little bit drier than the typical orange flesh variety.
There are so many different types of sweet potatoes, most have white color flesh or orange flesh. The one with orange flesh are the typical sweet potatoes used for pie and casseroles. And purple sweet potatoes have purple flesh.
For the most part, they all taste sweet and creamy once cooked. Purple sweet potatoes tend to be firmer and drier.
While sweet potatoes and yams are both tubers, they are quite different, especially in taste, texture and appearance. Sweet potatoes are sweeter and softer while yams are more earthy and neutral in taste.
Ube is actually a purple yam, it is not a sweet potato so it doesn’t taste sweet on its own. However, you can still use it in this purple sweet potato pie recipe because it will yield a purple filling, and the sweetness will come from the sweetened condensed milk.
I have never worked with fresh ube before but I’ve made a pie with frozen ube. You can buy frozen ube, grated or chunks, at most Asian grocery stores. I would recommend the chunks for this recipe so you can roast or steam them before adding them to the pie filling.
Storage
- Refrigerator: store leftover pie in the refrigerator, it will last 3 – 4 days.
- Freezer: you can freeze sweet potato pie for up to three months but the texture may change. You can thaw the pie in the refrigerator overnight.
More holiday worthy pie recipes
- Pear Cranberry Pie
- S’mores Pie
- Pistachio Pear Frangipane Tart
- Dutch Apple Pear Pie
- Macadamia Nut Pie
📖 Recipe card
Purple Sweet Potato Pie
Equipment
- Pie Dish
- Potato Masher
- Whisk
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (167 g)
- ⅓ cup pecans (38 g)
- 2 rounded tablespoons granulated sugar (31 g)
- ¼ rounded teaspoon kosher salt (2 g)
- 5 ounce unsalted butter (cold & cubed)
- 2 – 4 tablespoon cold water
Sweet Potato Pie Filling
- 8 oz cream cheese (microwave 30 seconds to soften, 227 g)
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz, 397 g)
- 3 large eggs
- 15 oz purple sweet potato (roasted and mashed, 425 g)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ginger
Instructions
- Toast pecans in a skillet over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until brown and fragrant. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, ground toasted pecans finely in a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade.
- Switch to the plastic dough blade. Add flour, sugar and salt to the food processor bowl. Pulse to mix. You may need to use a spatula to scrape the pecans off the side and bottom of the bowl.
- Add cubed cold butter to the flour mixture, pulse several times until butter is about pea and bean size. Variations in size are okay.
- Turn the food processor to “on” position and drizzle cold water over the dough mixture through the water hole, as soon as the dough starts to pull together turn the food processor off. You may need to stop the food processor in between and get a spatula to mix up the flour at the bottom.
- Turn the dough out on a working surface lined with a piece of plastic wrap, and shape into a disk. Wrap well and rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
- Take the disk of pie dough out of the fridge and roll into a circle about 2” larger than your pie dish. Use extra flour to keep the dough from sticking to the counter and roller.
- Carefully place the dough over the pie dish, lightly press the dough into the bottom and side of the pie dish, let the excess dough hang over the side. Trim the excess dough leaving just enough to fold under and create a fluted edge.
- Cover the pie dish with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated, or freeze (preferred), for 15 – 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Remove pie crust from the freezer and dock the bottom and sides of the pie dough with a fork.
- Place a large piece of parchment paper over the frozen pie dough, pour dry beans on top to fill the whole pie crust. Make sure the parchment is large enough to cover the edges of the crust entirely.
- Place the pie dish on a large baking sheet.
- Pierce the sweet potatoes with the tip of a paring knife and wrap them in foil, place them next to the pie dish on the baking sheet.
- Place the baking sheet with the pie crust and the sweet potatoes into the oven.
- Bake pie crust for 25 minutes with beans, then carefully remove the parchment paper along with the beans and bake for another 5 minutes.
- Remove the pie crust from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, continue to bake the sweet potatoes for another 15 – 30 minutes until cooked through. Check the potatoes by piercing it with a paring knife or fork in the thickest part of the potato, if the knife or fork goes through easily, it is done.
- Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven and let them cool to the touch on a wire rack.
- Once the potatoes are cool enough to peel, preheat the oven to 350°F and make the pie filling.
- Peel the potatoes and mash them in a bowl with a potato masher.
- In a larger bowl, whisk together softened cream cheese and condensed milk. Beat in the eggs until smooth. Add mashed sweet potato, vanilla and spices and beat until smooth.
- Place the pie dish with the par-baked crust on a baking sheet, pour filling into the crust. Cover the edge with a pie shield or thin strips of foil.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until the middle is still slightly jiggly.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until the filling is completely set, preferably overnight, before slicing.
Notes
- Start with a little bit more than 1 pound of sweet potato. You’ll discard the skin and end bits after roasting and end up with around 15 ounces of sweet potato flesh. This is the same amount if you were to use a can of sweet potato.
- If using a can, make sure it is sweet potato puree and not yam in syrup.
- You can roast the sweet potatoes the day before to speed up the process while making the pie.
- If you don’t want to roast the sweet potatoes, you can steam them or microwave them in plastic wrap. However, roasting caramelizes the sugar for a better flavor.
- Store bought pie crust can be used to save time.
- Press the mashed sweet potatoes or strain the pie filling mixture through a fine sieve mesh if you desire a smoother filling.
Nutrition
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