Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

My suitemate Ahra shares my love for sweet things and desserts of all kinds. Unlike our other two suitemates, we loveeee chocolate, suffer from intense cravings for sweets late at night, agree that milkshakes make a great dinner, become overly excited in the ice cream aisle at the grocery store, and devour all of the things I bake.

Ahra definitely enjoys my baking the most, and of course I appreciate all of her enthusiastic feedback. She really likes sweet potato pie and recently mentioned that she wanted to eat pecan bars, so when I came across a recipe for Sweet Potato Pecan Pie, I knew she would love it. This dessert combines two wonderful pies into one, and it’s great for indecisive people like me who can never decide what to bake!

I had to make some significant substitutions in this recipe, but the end result was still delish. I’m sure it would have been even BETTER if i’d had all the right ingredients, though. We all really liked this pie, except for Deborah who hates sweet potato (she just ate the crust and pecan pie layer). We ate half of it last night, and polished off the rest today for lunch!

Again, my pictures make this pie look really unappetizing, but let me tell you, it is really, REALLY good 🙂

Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

Source: adapted from Closet Cooking

Ingredients

For the sweet potato filling:

• 1 9-inch pie crust (I used this recipe from Joy of Baking)
• 2 cups roasted, mashed sweet potato
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (I used honey)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (I omitted this because I didn’t have any, and added about 1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves)
• 2 tablespoons bourbon (Again, didn’t have any, so used Kahlua instead)

For the pecan filling:

• 1 1/2 cups pecan halves
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup maple syrup (I used light corn syrup)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon bourbon (I used Kahlua)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the pie crust in a 9-inch pie plate.

2. To make the sweet potato filling, in a large bowl, combine sweet potatoes, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and bourbon in a large bowl. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and spread evenly.

3. Arrange the pecan halves on top of the sweet potato filling.

4. To make the pecan filling, in a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, maple syrup, eggs, butter, vanilla, and bourbon. Pour mixture on top of pecans.

5. Bake in preheated oven for about 40-50 minutes, until pastry is golden brown and pecan layer is set.