Blue Ribbon Group Best Sweet Potato Pie Recipe
Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Pie Winner
This Best Sweet Potato Pie recipe is an award-winning creation. It won best overall pie at the 2016 Iowa State Fair. One taste and you will know why it won. Recipe credit goes to Tanya Hardy. The pie is an all-time favorite of ours, locked forever in our memory because of its creamy consistency and fantastic flavor. Seriously, soooooooo creamy!
The recipe calls for a pound of sweet potatoes, equating to about 2 cups mashed. Butter, sugar, milk and eggs account for its creamy deliciousness. The flavor comes from nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and vanilla.
The crust recipe calls for solid vegetable shortening as the fat and makes for a nice flaky crust. You can certainly make your own personal favorite crust recipe. Use pre-made dough or a pre-baked crust if that’s your thing. No judgement here.
You top and decorate the pie with homemade whipped cream and pecan halves or chopped pecans. Either way is delightful.
Tanya won her bragging rights from the fair, as well as the pie division sponsors: Machine Shed Restaurants, Gold Medal Flour, and us, the Blue Ribbon Group, as one of the recipe contest organizers. Her recipe is unforgettable and quite easy to make. We had ours on the table within 3 hours, start to finish.
Best Sweet Potato Pie Recipe – Baking Tips
- Plan for an hour for prep and three hours, start to finish.
- Peel the potatoes right before you’re going to boil them.
- Prepare the crust while the potatoes are boiling.
- You can also boil the sweet potatoes ahead of time if desired.
Need a new recipe to help celebrate the holidays? Give this award-winning pie a try. And if you are looking for a pumpkin pie, be sure to also try this award-winning one. We hope you love both of these pies as much as we do!
Cyndi
Blue Ribbon Sweet Potato Pie
Crust:
1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 tablespoons cold water
Filling:
1 pound sweet potatoes (2 cups)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped Cream Topping:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon white vanilla
4 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup pecan halves
Boil sweet potatoes whole (with skin) for 50 minutes, or until done. Once done, run cold water over the potatoes and remove the skins.
While sweet potatoes are boiling, prepare the crust. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, combine the shortening, flour, and salt in a medium-sized bowl, until mixture is crumbly. Add water one teaspoon at a time and mix with a fork or your hands until the mixture starts to stick together and can be worked into a ball of dough. Depending on the humidity, you may need to add more water. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to fit a 9 inch pie pan. Place the crust in the pan. Press the sides of the crust around the pan to create a ridge.
Measure cooked and skinned sweet potatoes into a large bowl. Add butter and mix well with a mixer. Stir in sugar, milk, eggs, nutmeg, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is smooth. Pour filling into unbaked pie crust.
Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let pie cool before adding the whipped cream topping.
To make the whipped cream, use a mixer to beat whipping cream, vanilla, and sugar in a chilled bowl. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Decorate the top of the pie with whipped cream and pecan halves or chopped pecans.
