World’s Best Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients
- 2 frozen deep-dish pie shells
- 4 large sweet potatoes
- 1 cup butter (226 g)
- ¼ cup half-and-half (60 ml)
- ½ cup Carnation evaporated milk (120 ml)
- 1⅔ cups granulated sugar (332 g)
- 4 extra-large eggs
- 2½ tablespoons vanilla extract (38 ml)
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon key lime juice
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Remove the pie shells from freezer to thaw just a bit.
- Place a large pot of water to boil on the stove. Slice the sweet potatoes in half longwise and place in the boiling water. Boil the sweet taters until a fork can easily be pushed through the cut side, about 15 minutes.
- While the taters are a boilin’, add the butter to a bowl and microwave until melted. In a large bowl, add the melted butter, half-and-half, evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and mix with a hand mixer.
- Remove the sweet potatoes from the water and drain. Using a clean dish towel, remove the skins, being careful not to burn your dainty little chef fingers. Add the taters to the bowl with the other ingredients and mix using the hand mixer. Add the key lime juice and mix to combine.
- Prick each pie shell with a fork four to five times. Pricking holes in the pie dough allows the steam to escape while it’s baking and avoids what I like to call the dreaded pimple pie.
- Pour the mixture into the shells. Bake the pies on the middle oven rack for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and place those gorgeous pies on a pie rack to cool for 1 hour. Behold the power you now possess as baker of the World’s Best Sweet Potato Pie.
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Let us know how it was!About This Recipe
Hands down, without a doubt, no question, this is my most prized recipe. Why? Well it’s the World’s Best Sweet Potato Pie, of course. But mainly because it was my great-grandmother’s recipe handed down to me from my mother.
It brings me joy to know that a recipe created in a small kitchen in Georgia probably 100 years ago is now bringing sweet potato joy to people all over the world. The question is, how much side-eye will I get at the family reunion for giving this recipe away? Fingers crossed.
Meet the Recipe Creator
Detroit native Scotty Scott is a private chef based in Texas and the founder of Cook Drank Eat. He is also the author of “Fix Me a Plate.”
Read more about the recipe and shared memories of sweet potato pie in his family in our article, “The Taste of Black Culture, Love and Tradition in Sweet Potato Pies.”
