Sweet Potato Hand Pies

Ingredients

• 1 package (2 crusts) refrigerated pie dough, or a double batch of homemade dough
• 2 cups mashed sweet potato mixed with 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
• 2 tbsp coarse sugar, for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Roll out the dough and cut into 5-inch rounds (or squares).
3. Spoon a small amount of the 2 cups mashed sweet potato mixed with 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon filling onto one half of each round, leaving a border, then fold over and crimp the edges shut with a fork.
4. Arrange the hand pies on the prepared sheet, brush with the egg wash, sprinkle with coarse sugar, and cut a small slit in the top of each.
5. Bake for 18–22 minutes, until golden brown.
6. Cool slightly before serving.

The Tale of Sweet Potato Hand Pies

Story updated September 19, 2026

Sweet potato pie is one of the defining desserts of African American Southern cooking, and its story runs through Southern kitchens of the 18th and 19th centuries. Enslaved cooks often treated the sweet potato, a New World crop, as a stand-in for the African yams of their homelands, and worked it into pastry techniques from European baking. The hand pie, or fried pie, grew from the same resourceful tradition: individually portioned, portable, and easy to sell from a basket or fry in a skillet, a fixture of church suppers and roadside stands. In the early 1900s, Tuskegee scientist George Washington Carver promoted the sweet potato, publishing many recipes for it.