Maple Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet potato pie topped with whipped cream and grated nutmeg.

5 from 1 vote

Maple Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie

Learn how to make the best sweet potato pie with this easy recipe. The sweet potato pie filling is made without evaporated milk or canned milk, using whipping cream instead, and flavoured with maple sugar, bourbon, and fall spices.

Prep Time40

Cook Time1

Chill time1

Total Time2 40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 233kcal

Author: Janice Lawandi

Equipment

Leaf cutter

Ingredients

1 9-inch pie crust edges crimped, unbaked

Egg wash

1 large egg(s)
10 mL water
1 pinch Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Sweet potato pie filling

465 grams sweet potato purée preferably homemade
188 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
150 grams maple sugar
60 mL bourbon
3 large egg(s)
10 mL vanilla extract
2.5 mL ground cinnamon
2.5 mL ground nutmeg
1.25 mL ground ginger
1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
0.625 mL ground cloves

Garnishes (optional)

pie crust cookies
375 mL sweetened whipped cream flavoured with a splash of bourbon (see notes below)

Metric - US

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 °F (220 °C). Move the oven rack to the lowest level of the oven.
Retrieve the pie shell from the fridge. Dock the pie crust with a fork to create little air holes for steam to escape. Line with a big square of parchment and fill the pie with dry beans or pie weights, enough to fill the pie shell up to the top of the crimped edges.
Par-bake the pie crust for 15 minutes.
Remove the pie shell from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Carefully lift off the parchment with the pie weights. Set aside. Put the pie shell back in the oven and continue to bake for another 3–5 minutes until the bottom looks dry and set.
Take the par-baked pie shell out of the oven. Lower the oven temperature to 350 °F (175 °C).

Egg wash

Whisk together the egg, water, and a pinch of salt while the pie shell is baking.
As soon as the par-baked pie crust comes out of the oven, brush the bottom and sides with egg wash but do not brush the edges! Let the pie shell cool completely while you make the filling. Save the leftover egg wash for the pie crust cutouts.

Sweet potato pie filling

In a large bowl (preferably one with a pouring spout like this), whisk together the filling ingredients until thick, creamy, and homogenous.
Once the par-baked pie shell has cooled, pour the filling in it.
Bake the sweet potato pie until the edges are set but the centre still jiggles a little. This takes 40–45 minutes.
Take the pie out of the oven and place on a cooling wrack. Let the pie cool to room temperature before serving.
Decorate with whipped cream and pie crust cookies before serving.

Notes

If you are short on time, use a store-bought pie crust. I prefer to use frozen pie crust from my local bakery, made with butter.
Use canned sweet potato purée if you don't have time to make it fresh. But I prefer to use homemade purée.
This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
I used Jack Daniel's as my bourbon of choice, which is a Tennessee whisky (basically bourbon)
If you notice that lumps of sweet potato in the filling, strain it through a fine-meshed sieve before pouring into baked crust to smooth out the lumps.
Par-bake the crust before filling to ensure that it will bake properly to a golden-brown crispy crust.
Bake the filled pie until the filling is set around the edges but still jiggles slightly in the middle.
I like to make homemade pie crust cookies using the pie crust scraps and the leftover egg wash. Sprinkle them generously with cinnamon sugar. I like to use the harvest cookie cutter set for creating decorative pie crust cookies to top fall pies and you can buy the set on Amazon.
For the bourbon-flavoured whipped cream, I whipped 190 mL (¾ cup) of whipping cream (35 % fat) with 18 grams of icing sugar and 10 mL (2 teaspoons) bourbon. You can omit the bourbon and add a splash of vanilla bean paste instead.

Nutrition