Desserts

Purple Sweet Potato Pie with Coconut and Five-Spice

A dramatic violet sweet potato pie with creamy coconut, fragrant five-spice and a crisp buttery crust.

Purple sweet potato pie with vivid violet filling, toasted coconut and piped cream on a neutral cream background

Prep: 35 minutes
Cook: 1 hour 25 minutes
Serves: 8
Difficulty: Intermediate

Make AheadBake 2 days ahead; top before serving.

Cooking for

guests

This is the pie people photograph. Purple sweet potatoes bring a color no dye can imitate, coconut milk makes the custard silky, and a restrained hand with five-spice keeps it fragrant rather than perfumed.

Ingredients

Crust

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
½ tsp kosher salt
10 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed
4 tbsp ice water

Filling

2 lb purple sweet potatoes (Okinawan or Stokes) or peeled ube
¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup full-fat coconut milk
3 large eggs
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp five-spice powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ tsp kosher salt

Topping

1 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks
2 tbsp powdered sugar
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted

Method

Crust and blind bake

1
Make and chill the dough as for the cherry pie: cut cold butter into the dry ingredients, add ice water, shape and rest at least 1 hour.
2
Roll, fit into a 9-inch pie plate, crimp and freeze 20 minutes.
3
Line with parchment and pie weights and bake at 400°F for 20 minutes. Remove the weights and bake 8 minutes more, until the base looks dry and pale gold. A blind-baked shell is what keeps a custard pie from going soggy.

Color and filling

1
Roast the purple sweet potatoes whole at 400°F for 55 to 65 minutes, until collapsing. Roasting concentrates both flavor and color; boiling leaches both away.
2
Scoop out the flesh and purée until completely smooth — you need 2 cups. Ube purée or frozen grated ube works beautifully in place of some or all of it.
3
Natural color reads as a deep muted violet, sometimes leaning grey-purple depending on the variety. That is normal and handsome. If you want the electric violet of a bakery pie, 1/2 teaspoon ube extract delivers it; use it as an optional finishing touch rather than a base.
4
Whisk the purée with the brown sugar, coconut milk, eggs, melted butter, five-spice, vanilla and salt until smooth. One teaspoon of five-spice is the balance point: present and warming, never medicinal.

Bake and cool

1
Pour into the warm blind-baked shell and bake at 350°F for 45 to 55 minutes, until the edges are set and the center has a slight, even wobble.
2
Cool completely on a rack, at least 3 hours — the custard finishes setting as it cools.
3
Sweeten the whipped cream with powdered sugar, pipe rosettes around the edge and shower the center with toasted coconut just before serving.

Chef Dawn's Tips

Toast the coconut in a dry skillet over medium-low heat, stirring constantly — it goes from pale to burnt in about twenty seconds.
A pinch of salt in the whipped cream keeps the topping from tasting flat against the spiced filling.
Bake the pie two days ahead and top it the hour you serve it.

Make Ahead & Storage

Refrigerate up to 3 days, loosely covered, and add the cream and coconut just before serving. Not recommended for freezing.

Original recipe, testing notes and photography by Chef Dawn Creates.