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This Southern sweet potato pie is a great harvest fall dessert. It’s a slab pie, so it’s big enough to serve a crowd and great for fall spice lovers.
Sweet potatoes bring back memories of my grandmother’s skillet sugar potatoes. They were crisply fried in cast iron skillet and then covered with a yummy sugar glaze. Beyond amazing!
She would also bake them in the oven, (skin intact), until tender. The entire house smelled like fall, sugar, and spice…everything nice!
My uncle would get fresh sweet potatoes for her, and she would leave them sitting in a sunny spot until they were the perfect condition for baking.
I am not sure how she could tell when they were ready…it must have been a Southern thing! She knew just the right time to pop them into the oven. When I think of sweet potatoes, I always think of her.
Psst… pecans always remind me of her too because I used to pick them with her. You can get our pumpkin pecan cobbler or pecan praline recipes too.
Sweet potatoes just seem to go hand-in-hand with autumn, falling leaves, spices, and brisk cool days. A perfect time for a harvest dessert with family and friends.
Sweet potato slab pie with a store bought crust
We wanted something seasonal, scrumptious, and homemade… without having to make every single thing. Know what I mean?
While Southern cooks are proud of their “from scratch” recipes, most will admit to shaving some time off their preparations by using ready-made ingredients when necessary. This pie recipe uses a crust make from a store-bought sugar cookie roll.
As long as you don’t sacrifice taste, other needs must sometimes take priority. Simple doesn’t have to mean it doesn’t taste good. It just means it’s easier…nothing wrong with that! As the saying goes, “work smarter, not harder”!
Sweet potato pie on a slab… why? What is a slab pie?
Traditionally most sweet potato pies are baked in the typical round pie plate. However, if you can make the same tasty dessert and feed more people, why not?
Slab pies are made in a rimmed baking sheet (sometimes called a jelly roll pan). They are slightly shallower but a lot larger than a standard pie dish, thus the pie can feed more people. When cut into squares they resemble “slabs” of rich, tasty pie.
Substitutions for the pie crust and ingredients
If you aren’t a fan of sugar cookie dough (say it ain’t so), you can easily substitute regular pie pastry dough for your slab pie (adjust cooking times).
You might also try store-bought phyllo dough, spiced cookie dough, or use your favorite cookie recipe to match up with the sweet “taters”. Let your taste buds guide you.
If you don’t have all the individual spices on hand, you can substitute with a pumpkin pie spice blend. This can be more economical if you don’t do a lot of baking with these spices.
The heavy cream can be substituted with evaporated milk.
Can I modify this for a normal pie shell?
If you decide to go the traditional pie plate route, the recipe may make more than one pie (but that’s a good thing, right?).
With the quantities provided in this recipe, you can make two 9″ pies.
However, if you only want one sweet potato pie, you will need to halve the quantities of your ingredients. Depending on the number of people you want to serve, you can further fine-tune the recipe to meet your needs.
Possible toppings for the pie besides whipped marshmallow
This recipe calls for a decadent and gooey marshmallow crème topping. Not a fan of marshmallow? Try these flavorful alternatives below.
- Brown sugar and pecan crumble
- Walnut-Streusel topping
- Meringue
- Spiced Cream
- Dollop of whipped cream or Cool Whip
All the Southern pies we love:
- Sweet potato slab pie
- Peach crumble slab pie
- Apple slab pie
- Key lime slab pie
- Pecan pie
- Pumpkin pie cake (ok, so this one is not really a pie, but a wonderful pumpkin pie and cake hybrid!)
We hope you enjoy our slab style sweet potato pie recipe!
Sweet Potato Slab Pie (With Sugar Cookie Crust & Marshmallow Whip)
Equipment
- Jelly roll pan
Ingredients
- 1 roll sugar cookie dough store bought
- 3 cups sweet potatoes about 3.5 pounds
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp nutmeg ground
- 1 tsp cinnamon ground
- 1/2 tsp cloves ground
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Marshmallow Whipped Cream
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 7 oz marshmallow fluff
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Pie Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- On a floured surface, roll out cookie dough, slightly larger than your pan.
- Carefully transfer cookie dough to pan, fold edges down to meet the pan.
- Bake cookie dough according to package directions, approximately 11 minutes.
- Remove the pie crust from the oven and allow to cool completely.
- Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F.
- Place the sweet potatoes on a cookie sheet and bake them for 50-60 minutes or until soft.
- Remove the potatoes from the over, and carefully slice them open and scoop out the flesh.
- Lower the oven temperature back to 350 degrees F.
- Add the flesh to your stand mixer and mix the sweet potatoes. Add the butter and mix well. Add the sugar, heavy cream, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth.
- Pour the pie filling into the baked, cooled pie crust.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-50 minutes.
- Cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
Marshmallow Fluff Topping
- Prepared whipped topping on the day of serving.
- To make whipped topping, beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form, add in marshmallow fluff and vanilla extract, mix well.
- Add to the top of the pie. Enjoy!
Notes
- Cook time may be less depending on how “hot” your oven bakes. Adjust accordingly.
