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Buttermilk Sweet Potato Pie

Buttermilk Sweet Potato Pie

As Thanksgiving approaches, I always begin to wonder how I can put a little twist onto one of my favorite traditional recipes to make holiday dinners a little more interesting. A good example of this is baking a chocolate pumpkin pie instead of a more traditional one, or turning the pie into some pumpkin pie bars to make them easy to pass around to a big group. A small change from pumpkin pie is to bake a sweet potato pie, and as sweet potato pie just about screams Southern classic to me, I opted to combine it with another classic, buttermilk pie, to create a Buttermilk Sweet Potato Pie for the holidays.

The pie is easy to whip up in a food processor and you can either use a graham cracker crust or a regular, pre-baked pastry crust. I like the slight crunch of graham crackers with a custardy pie, so I opted for the former. Premade graham cracker pie crusts are also a great time saver when the holiday season gets into full swing. You can use either homemade cooked, pureed sweet potatoes or buy canned sweet potato puree. If you opt to use leftover sweet potatoes, you might need to add a tablespoon or two of water to them to soften them up, as they can dry out in the refrigerator.

The flavor of this pie is a bit difficult to describe because there is no single flavor that dominates this pie, though it is very tasty. wonderful sweet flavor from the brown sugar and sweet potato, great little extra buttery boost from the buttermilk. The vanilla and nutmeg come through, but only to add subtle dimension to the rest of the flavors. The consistency is similar to that of pumpkin pie, but it is bit lighter and more tender. It’s not too filling, so it is a good choice after a big meal.

There is one caveat to this pie and it is in the sweet potato itself. If you use canned sweet potato puree, you’ll end up with a very smooth pie. If you use leftover baked sweet potatoes, even after pureeing and straining them (which I have done), the pie still may have a slight bit of extra texture to the custard filling, since sweet potatoes are starchy and it’s a rare batch that is sikly smooth after cooking. I’ve found that this happens with pumpkin pies that use fresh pumpkin versus a canned puree as well, and while pureeing the potato and pressing it through a wire strainer will help significantly, it’s just something to keep in mind in case your pie is not as silky smooth as a plain buttermilk pie with no added textural elements.

Buttermilk Sweet Potato Pie
1 cup cooked, pureed sweet potato
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 9 or 10-inch graham cracker pie crust

Preheat oven to 350F.
Press sweet potato puree through a wire strainer to make it as smooth as possible, adding a tablespoon or two of water if you are working with leftover potatoes to make them a bit more pliable.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine all ingredients except the flour, and whiz until smooth. Add in flour and pulse the food processor a few times until it is fully incorporated.
Place the pie crust on a baking sheet and place baking sheet on the middle rack of a preheated oven. Pour filling into pie crust (it is thin enough that it will slosh if you put it in the pie crust and attempt to carry it over to the oven.
Bake for 50-55 minutes, until pie is set and jiggles only very slightly when the pan is bumped.
Cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight, before serving.

Serves 10

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17 Comments
  • kittymama
    November 4, 2008

    I make a very similar buttermilk sweet potato pie from the Lee Brothers’ Southern Cookbook. The combination of flavor is delicious. You might want to try their method, though ,which is to separate the eggs and add the whites at end, whipped to soft peaks and folded in. It makes the pie really light and creamy. I always make mine with steamed sweet potatoes, put through the food mill. I don’t think the texture is a problem at all.

  • SeattleTallPoppy
    November 4, 2008

    YUM! This looks wonderful. I’m off to the store for ingredients!

  • CookiePie
    November 4, 2008

    Beautiful pie! I love sweet potato pie, and now you can get really fabulous canned mashed sweet potato, so it’s even easier 🙂 I bet the buttermilk is delicious in here – I’ll have to try it. Thanks for sharing!

  • Nicole
    November 4, 2008

    kittymama – I think you have an excellent point about steaming the sweet potatoes. It will keep them moist and definitely give you a good result. I’ve had sweet potato pies that were a little hit-and-miss made with previously baked sweet potatoes, which could easily have been the problem since they are a little drier.

  • Lisa magicsprinkles
    November 5, 2008

    I love twisting it up. Making new recipes out of traditional ingredients is so much fun! This looks delish – thanks for sharing the sweet potato secret.

  • Caddie
    November 5, 2008

    Oh, this sounds perfect! Do you think I could make it with yogurt instead of buttermilk (maybe thinning the yogurt a tiny bit with water or skim milk)?

  • Chocolate Shavings
    November 5, 2008

    Now that’s a great looking cake!

  • Lauren
    November 5, 2008

    Wow this looks great! I have a bunch of sweet potatoes and I’m tired of eating them plain or baking sweet potato biscuits. I’ll report back this weekend after baking this pie 🙂

  • My Sweet & Saucy
    November 6, 2008

    Boy does this look tasty!

  • Diane
    November 27, 2008

    This pie was great!! I made it today for the family and it was fantastic!!! A big hit!!!

  • Jennifer
    November 25, 2009

    If your sweet potato or pumpkin puree is not perfectly smooth, you either did not cook it until soft enough or you did not process it enough. I always whiz my purees in the food processor before use. If it’s a drier item, like sweet potatoes, drizzle in a tablespoon or so of water to make a silky puree that will make a perfectly smooth pie.

  • This is a great WordPress Blog. What theme are you using?

  • ellie
    November 19, 2011

    delicious! great light texture and satisfied my craving for a sweet potato pie with that yummy buttermilk richness!

  • Lori
    November 24, 2011

    I printed out the recipe and baked the pie straight-away – I was really really excited!

    I made the pie non-dairy (by using soymilk curdled with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice in place of the buttermilk) and I added 1/4 tsp of cinnamon to the filling – just because I love cinnamon.

    The pie came out amazingly! The texture was great and it had just the right amount of delicious flavor!

    Thank you so much for this recipe!

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