Brown Butter Sweet Potato Pie is the perfect over-the-top Thanksgiving dessert with it’s nutty caramely flavor paired with all of the warm spices of the classic silky sweet potato pie. Serve with a tall swirl of whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon!

A slice of pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon sits on a white plate next to the remaining pie, evoking the rich aroma of browned butter and cozy memories of homemade sweet potato pie.

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Sweet potatoes just taste great in desserts. They have a slight sweetness to then naturally and have such a beautiful color. I’m always adding them to recipes like this sweet potato cheesecake and sweet potato cake.

Reasons You’ll Love This Pie

Brown Butter – It adds a nutty caramelized flavor that takes this sweet potato pie over the top.

Two Pies – This recipe makes two pies! If you’re going to two family dinners or just one to keep one for yourself, making two pies is perfect.

Easy Ingredients – These are easy to find ingredients in the grocery store.

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Ingredients You’ll Need

Overhead view of sweet potato pie ingredients, including mashed sweet potato, browned butter, sugar, eggs, pie crust, spices, flour, and vanilla extract on a white surface.

See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for all ingredients and quantities.

Pie Crusts – Two 9-inch crusts, store-bought that’s been thawed or homemade pie crusts will work.
Butter – I used salted butter but unsalted works fine. You can add in the addition of 1/4 teaspoon of salt if you’re using unsalted butter.
Sweet Potatoes – You’ll need about 5 medium sweet potatoes for this recipe. You can use canned sweet potatoes in a pinch, but I think fresh sweet potatoes are where it’s at.
Sugars – A combination of light brown sugar and granulated sugar are used in this sweet potato recipe. The light brown sugar adds a bit of molasses that is perfect with the other fall flavors.
Evaporated Milk – evaporated milk gives the pie a rich, creamy, and slight caramelized flavor to the pie.
Eggs – large eggs is what binds this custard together.
Extracts – This recipe calls for vanilla extract, caramel extract, and butter extract all for added flavors. If you don’t have the caramel extract or butter extract, you can go ahead and omit them.
Spices – I love a nice spiced up sweet potato pie, the combination of warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice are used.
Flour – This helps thicken up the sweet potato pie.

Substitutions and Variations

A Gluten-free crust works great here, just keep an eye out for browning.
You can use two premade pie crusts already in aluminum pie plates instead of rolling out your own.
Half-and-half, heavy cream, or full-fat coconut milk can be used instead of evaporated milk.
Dark brown sugar can be used instead of light brown sugar to add more molasses flavor to the pie.
If you don’t have it butter extract, skip it or replace it with additonal vanilla extract.
Allspice – Swap it out with an equal amount of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.
To add a fun topping, place mini marshmallows on top of the baked pie and place in the broiler for 30 to 60 seconds while watching it closely to make sure the marshmallows don’t burn.
Sprinkle a layer of chopped pecans that have been toasted between the pie crust and the sweet potato filling and then bake.
Instead of using a pie crust, make a gingersnap crust using the store-bought gingersnaps that are crushed and bind it together with melted butter.

NOTE: This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations

How To Make the Brown Butter Sweet Potato Pie

Start by peeling the sweet potatoes and giving them are large chop.Place them in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Let them boil over medium heat until fork tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.

A glass bowl of mashed sweet potatoes for sweet potato pie is surrounded by bowls of brown sugar, browned butter, flour, vanilla extract, spices, eggs, and a hand mixer on a white surface.

Drain the sweet potatoes really well and place in a mixing bowl. Mash with up with a potato masher or hand mixer.

Next work on the brown butter. Add the butter to a small saucepan and place over medium/high heat. Let it melt, come up to a boil, and then foam. Once you start to smell the nutty aroma and see brown bits coming up in the center of the foam, the brown butter is done.

Pour into a bowl and let the butter cool for about 30 minutes.

Roll out your pie crusts and place them in the 9-inch pie plates. I really like USA Pans pie pans.

A glass bowl with pumpkin puree, eggs, sugar, flour, spices, and browned butter is being mixed with a light blue electric hand mixer on a white surface—perfect for making a luscious sweet potato pie.

In the bowl of sweet potatoes, add the brown butter. Beat on medium speed until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the brown sugar, granulated sugar, evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla extract, caramel extract, butter extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and flour. Beat until the eggs are worked into the filling.

Cover the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil. You can remove it half way through the baking to let the edges of the crust brown up if you would like.

Two unbaked pies—pumpkin and sweet potato—nestle in foil-wrapped tins on a white surface, viewed from above. Imagine them enhanced with the nutty aroma of browned butter for an extra layer of flavor.

Pour half of the filling into the first pie crust and the remaining filling into the second pie crust. Place in the center rack of the oven and bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until the center of both pies are set.

Let cool completely before serving.

A whole sweet potato pie with a golden-brown filling and crust, featuring hints of browned butter, photographed from above on a white marble surface.

Tips for Success

Mash the sweet potatoes thoroughly! If you have lumps in your potatoes, you’ll have lumps in your pie and no one wants that.
Let the sweet potatoes and browned butter cool before adding the eggs into the mixture. If you rush trying to make the filling, you may end up with cooked eggs.
Protect your crust from getting burnt by making sure to use aluminum foil or a pie shield.
Bake your pie on the middle rack of your oven! This helps with evenlyl baking and preventing over-browning.

How to Store and Freeze

To store your brown butter sweet potato pie, cover it with plastic wrap or in an pie container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

It tastes great served cold, but if you prefer it warm, pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.

This pie freezes great too! Let it cool completely before wrapping it tightly in two layers of plastic wrap and a layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil. You can use place it in a freezer-bag if you can find one that it fits in or a freezer-safe container. Place in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

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