Petite sweet potato pie bites lightly sweetened with a ripe banana, a touch of brown sugar and spices, then topped with a light meringue topping. A perfect sweet potato recipe for the Holidays!
Mini Sweet Potato Meringue Pies
I love Sweet Potato Pie! Adding a ripe banana to the sweet potato filling is the secret to keeping these mini sweet potato pies light. More Thanksgiving desserts I love are Pumpkin Pie and No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake.
My Mom hosts Thanksgiving every year, she wouldn’t have it any other way! I usually bring a side dish and appetizer and my cousin Nina usually brings dessert. Nina is not only a great baker, she’s also very talented in photography, writing, and she just graduated from Columbia University. So I put her up to the challenge of creating her first guest post for me and she really came through! Please welcome her and visit her blog if you love to bake.
Hi, everyone! My name is Nina, I’m very excited to be sharing this recipe for mini sweet potato meringue pies. I’m no stranger to coming up with creative pie, cookie, and cupcake recipes, but this recipe was a bit different. My baking style is typically full of butter, cream, and sugar, so the recipes I make tend to be on the indulgent side. However, this doesn’t mean that I’m always thinking about rich foods; on the contrary, I actually care a lot about eating healthy whole foods.
I love being active and eating a lot of healthy foods, it’s definitely one of my priorities to help keep my dessert obsession in check. Fortunately for me, my cousin Gina has been a great resource for coming up with healthy meals! I actually prepared a lot of her recipes while I was living away from home during college. Who knew that eating healthy could be so easy, and delicious?!
I was pretty excited when Gina asked me to help her come with a perfect dessert for Thanksgiving. There was a catch though: I had to stick to a specific number of points per serving! Yikes! I was up for the challenge though, and immediately knew that I wanted to make pie. Pie is one of my absolute favorite things and sweet potato pie seemed like a great way to go.
How to make sweet potato pie lighter
To make the pie filling light, I used a trick I saw on many sweet potato casserole recipes. Adding a ripe banana to the sweet potato puree is the secret to keeping this sweet potato pie filling light. Since the banana adds natural sweetness you hardly need any additional sugar at all! Rolling out a store-bought pie crust a little bit thinner helps keep the points low too. It also makes life a little bit easier. Meringue is naturally fat free, so it’s perfect for adding a little extra sweetness and marshmallow texture, without increasing the points. Because who doesn’t love that flavor combination?
I thought making mini pies would be great for Thanksgiving. They not only help with portion control, but also looks cute and festive. You can make the pies the day before, top them with the meringue just before serving, and all that’s left is arranging them on a pretty platter and digging in. It only 4 points plus per serving, these will go fast! Hope you enjoy!
More Thanksgiving Desserts:
- Pumpkin Pie
- Sweet Potato Pie
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Shooters
- Pumpkin Roll Sponge Cake
- Mini Pecan Phyllo Tarts
Mini Sweet Potato Meringue Pies
Ingredients
For the Pie:
- 1 9- inch Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust*
- 1 1/2 cups sweet potato puree, from 4 [1.8lbs] sweet potatoes or canned
- 1 medium banana, ripe, mashed
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup 2% milk
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Meringue:
- 2 egg whites
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Begin by preparing the sweet potato puree.
- Pierce the sweet potatoes all over with a knife, and place in the microwave. Bake the sweet potatoes until they are cooked through and soft, about 8 -10 minutes.
- Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, split them down the middle and scoop out the flesh, and add it to a food processor. Process until a smooth puree forms.
- Set aside 1 1/2 cups of the puree for the pie filling, and reserve any remaining puree for another use.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pie crust into a 12-inch circle.
- Using a 3 1/2-inch round cutter, cut out rounds of dough (you will need to gather the scraps and re-roll the dough to the same thickness to get all 12 circles).
- Gently place each circle into the well of a lightly greased cupcake tin. (It's ok if you need to overlap the dough onto itself.)
- In a bowl, combine the 1 1/2 cups of sweet potato puree, mashed banana, egg, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract. Use a hand mixer to mix the ingredients together until they are smooth and well combined.
- Divide the pie filling equally among the prepared mini pie shells, and smooth the tops with an offset spatula.
- Bake the mini pies for about 32 minutes, until the pie crust is a light golden brown and the filling is set and puffed slightly. Allow the pies to cool to room temperature.
- Just before serving the pies, prepare the meringue.
- In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water, and heat, without stirring, until it becomes syrupy and reaches 234° degrees on a candy thermometer.
- While the syrup is heating, whip the two egg whites until soft peaks form. Once the sugar has reached the correct temperature, drizzle the syrup into the egg whites, all while mixing and turning the speed up to medium high. Beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in the salt.
- Transfer the meringue to a piping bag fitted with a decorative tip. Remove the mini pies from the cupcake tin, and place on a baking tray.
- Pipe a swirl of meringue onto each cupcake (you may not use all of the meringue).
- Place the tray with the mini pies underneath the broiler set to high for a few minutes. Keep an eye on them as you don't want them to burn! Remove the mini pies from the oven once the meringue is a light golden brown color.
Last Step:
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Nutrition
Categories:
*I used 6.25 oz of the pie crust, and discarded the rest. Nutritional information is based on this.
Wondering if you can use mini graham cracker pies instead of pie crust for the pie part?
I did not like these as much as I hoped. They tasted like banana to me. I was hoping my two year old would like them but he doesn’t. I won’t be making these again.
What adjustments are needed if you don’t want to use a crust?
Sorry I would have to test it to be sure. If you try it let me know how it goes!
Hi Gina
These are adorable and elegant. In your copy it says 4 plus points but the count at the top is 6?? Was that an iPod WW plan??
Also I was wondering if pumpkin can be swapped for the sweet potato since it is zero points??
Also, someone asked about making and freezing. There are frozen meringue topped pies at the store and they are delicious. Claim Jumper Lemon Meringue comes to mind.
Thanks for all you do. Your delicious recipes have changed my life for the better.
Can these be made ahead of time and frozen? Trying to save some time on turkey day!
I have not tried, I dont think the meringue would hold up.
Hi Gina,
I am allergic to bananas, what do you suggest as a substitute?
Thank you for your response!
LQT
What can you use to substitute the milk?
any milk you normally drink.
Can I sub Sucralose for the sugar?
If I want to leave out bananna, how much Truvia sugar blend should I use?
I would be guessing, perhaps taste the batter?
Tasty!! I doubled the vanilla & cinnamon. I don't think my banana was ripe enough so I added a big teaspoon of manuka honey, & a squirt of lemon juice. I also added vanilla, & maple syrup instead of sugar to the meringue! Seriously to die for, you knocked this one out of the park! 🙂
awesome
these were delicious! great recipe. i didnt use meringue as the topping instead light whipped cream and it was delicious!
delicious! i also added pumpkin into the filling, oh, so delicious!!!
What is the best oil to use to grease the cupcake pan?
I usually use cooking spray
How do you store them if you make the night before? Fridge?
Can these be made the night before and just put in oven the next day?
You mentioned making the pies the night before. Would I just put the crust and puree in the muffin pan and refrigerate until ready? Then on Thanksgiving I'd just have to bake & add meringue?
What a great idea, using banana as a sweetener! I'll have to check this out. Thanks for sharing!
wow, looks really delicious, love potatoes!
Has anyone used almond milk or coconut milk?
G'day! Makes me want to have one right now, true!
Made me smile as when I was little, have fond memories of enjoying these too!
Cheers! Joanne
Gina,
It sounds like you might already have a cookbook in the works, but if not, Rachel Ray is searching a for cookbook author on her The Great American Cookbook competition.
Yes I have one in the works, thank you though!
I love these mini pies!! Yummy! Thanks for the delicious recipe!!
Can I use applesauce instead of banana?
I love the use of bananas to sweeten these mini pies! Yum
How long would you cook them for with a mini muffin (24) tin?
You want your dough golden, so you may want to check a few minutes before the time stated here.
Love this recipe! cant wait to try it!
Can you please post the oven temp? I think these look good & would love to try them! (And I am not a great guesser when it comes to baking & cooking!!!:D )
350°F
I'm allergic to bananas, is there a good substitute?
Same question! I'm allergic too. :-/
I would then leave it out and add more sugar and a little more sweet potato
I put some baked pumkin in instead of banana, turned out delicious!
Would serving with FF Col whip lessen the points?
Don't think so, but would be easier of coarse
Temp please for the oven???
Thanks.
350°F
easy to do and looks very elegant
Yum!! These look amazing! Perfect for Thanksgiving!
I'm sorry but I have to ask…can you taste the banana? I love using fruit as a natural sweetener, but I don't like the taste of banana. I only use it to sweeten when it's flavor is mostly masked by other ingredients.
I couldn't really taste it, but if you prefer without you can replace it with sugar.
How much sugar?
@Alyssa B, i could taste the banana in the batch I made.
Me too and I'm disappointed. Skip the banana next time. I don't even know why it's there in the first place :((
bake 32 minutes at what oven temp please?????
I'm going to guess at 425. That's what the directions on my pie crust says.
Sorry it's 350°F
These look really yummy. Will have to have a go at making them.
http://vodkaandarose.blogspot.co.uk Jess. x
My daughter in law said she wanted pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving….thinking this will suffice! Thanks!
I think these mini pies are perfect. Sometimes I just want a little bite of sweet potato pie and this would do just the thing.
These look delicious! One question… is there another way to "grease" the cupcake tins? I prefer to avoid greasing anything when baking. Thanks!
Lightly spray it with cooking spray so it doesn't stick.
I love Baker's Secret. It's like greasing and flouring a pan, but in the form of cooking spray. A little goes a long way!
i'll just put a marshmallow on top…way easier….and use pumpkin or yams from a can….saves time and less mess
Yup, marshmallows would work too! She actually tested it the first round with mini marshmallows but this looked prettier.
These look delicious and SO beautiful too!
This is JUST was I was looking for! Thank you.