Maple-Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

If there's one thing better than a sweet potato pie — and it's hard to find many things that are — it would have to be a maple-bourbon sweet potato pie, and especially one made completely from scratch. Well, thanks to recipe developer Jessica Morone, our dreams have become reality with her take on the classic pie. "I love regular sweet potato pie, but this is even better because it adds the flavors of maple and bourbon," Morone says. "It's creamy, delicious, and packed with flavor."

Against popular belief, sweet potato pie is not a dessert reserved solely for Thanksgiving or fall in general. Sweet potatoes are easy to source year-round, as are maple syrup and bourbon, though that last ingredient may be as easy to find as simply checking your bar cart. The only real quandary here may revolve around making both the crust and pie filling from scratch, but as Morone assures us, "There are a few possibly tricky areas, but they are easy to navigate." So grab your sweet potatoes and that bottle of bourbon and let's get to baking something a little more exciting than your run-of-the-mill sweet potato pie.

As expected, you'll need sweet potatoes (two large or three medium), maple syrup, and bourbon to make this pie — and Morone notes the special nature of that last inclusion. "The bourbon is really the special ingredient in this," she explains, adding, "The alcohol cooks out and leaves a very smooth, deep flavor with hints of caramel, oak, and nuttiness." Other filling ingredients include melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, evaporated milk, grated nutmeg, and allspice.

You'll also need ingredients to make the pie crust, and luckily that list is pretty short. Be sure to have all-purpose flour, salt, sugar, very cold cubed butter, and ice water on hand to make the flaky crust. If you absolutely don't have time to make the crust, no worries — "to save time you could use a store-bought pie crust," says Morone.

Kick things off by adding the flour, salt, and sugar to a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Next up, add in the cold butter cubes and blitz until they combine with the dry ingredients, forming a crumbly, coarse mixture. Now add in the water, and do be sure that it's ice-cold. "You want to use cold water in the pie dough because that's what makes it flaky," Morone explains. Once you pulse in the water, a cohesive dough should form.

Remove the dough from the food processor and use your hands to form it into a disc-like shape. Finally, wrap it up in plastic and let it chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 F and turn your attention to the sweet potatoes. Pierce them all over with a fork, then place them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until they're soft and tender throughout. "When you cook the sweet potatoes, make sure you test them by putting a fork into them to check to make sure they are soft," Morone advises, warning, "Undercooked potatoes will end up lumpy and hard." Once the potatoes are thoroughly softened, remove them from the oven and, once cooled, peel off the skins.

Reduce your oven's temperature to 375 F and grab the pie dough from the fridge. Roll it out onto a clean, lightly-floured surface until it is about ⅛-inch thick and 1 inch wider around than your pie dish. Transfer the rolled-out dough to the pie dish and gently press it into the crevices, then trim off excess dough around the edges and flute it for extra visual appeal.

Next, place a sheet of parchment paper or foil on top of the crust and fill it up with either dry beans or pie weights. Bake the crust for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until it starts to turn golden brown. Once it gets some nice color to it, remove the crust from the oven and take out the beans/parchment layer.

Place the cooked, peeled sweet potatoes into a large bowl and either mash them with a masher or use an electric hand mixer to get them super smooth. Next, add in the melted butter, maple syrup, brown sugar, bourbon, vanilla extract, eggs, evaporated milk, nutmeg, and allspice, then mix or beat to combine. 

Pour the filling into your par-baked pie crust then pop the whole pie into the oven, allowing it to bake for 45 to 50 minutes — the filling should just barely be set when you take the pie out. Once baked, allow the pie to fully cool down to room temperature. 

Now that the pie has cooled down, go ahead and slice it up and serve as desired. You really can't go wrong enjoying a slice of this pie as-is — the maple and bourbon flavors will stand out without being overbearing, and you'll be questioning why you haven't been adding those ingredients all along. Of course, it's nice to add a creamy element: "Whipped cream and ice cream are great toppings on this," Morone suggests. "You could also grate some fresh nutmeg on top."

If you simply cannot finish each slice of pie in time, Morone says that leftovers will keep well. "You can store leftovers covered in the fridge for up to three days," she advises.