Sweet Potato Bars with a gingersnap/graham cracker crust, a sweet potato filling flavored with your favorite fall spices, and fresh whipped cream on top tastes just like sweet potato pie only in the form of a bar.
Baked in a 9×13-inch pan, Sweet Potato Bars can be cut into 16-20 bars so they are great for feeding a crowd.
When most people think of fall cooking and baking, they think of apples and pumpkin. Sweet potatoes are often overlooked, except maybe in the South where we love our sweet potatoes year round.
Sweet potatoes work well in a variety of baked goods including cakes, cupcakes, quick breads, pies, biscuits, even brownies. You can barely distinguish the taste of them from pumpkin. But prepping fresh sweet potato is much easier than fresh pumpkin. Just bake a few sweet potatoes in the oven until very soft. Let them cool slightly and peel the skins away. The skin kind of separates from the sweet potato as it bakes and you can easily pull it off in strips. Then all you have to do is mash the sweet potato with a fork until fairly smooth, the same way you would a banana that you are going to use for banana bread. Sweet potatoes already have a very high moisture content, so there’s no need to add water or milk when you’re making sweet potato puree to bake with.
Used in these Sweet Potato Bars or any other dessert, sweet potatoes will add not only a wonderful fall flavor, but a gorgeous fall color too.
Sweet Potato Bars
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
- 1 1/2 cups gingersnap crumbs
- 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup butter,, melted
- 3 cups whole milk,, divided
- 1 1/2 cups mashed sweet potato
- 1 cup brown sugar,, divided
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
- 8 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
- whole pecans for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, combine Graham-cracker crumbs, gingersnap crumbs, chopped pecans, and butter. Press into the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking pan.
- Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.
- In a medium saucepan, combine 2 3/4 cups milk, mashed sweet potato, and 3/4 cup brown sugar. Cook over medium heat, whisking frequently, until mixture boils. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
- In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup milk and gelatin. Let sit 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks, flour, and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Mixture will be thick.
- Add gelatin mixture to milk mixture and whisk to combine. Use a large measuring cup to scoop about 1 1/2 cups of the hot milk mixture. Gradually, while whisking constantly, add this hot milk mixture to the egg mixture. Pour egg mixture back into milk mixture while whisking. Stir in spices.
- Cook over medium-high heat while stirring continuously, until mixture begins to thicken. Gently boil for 2 minutes.
- Spread mixture onto prepared crust. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate for at least several hours.
- In a chilled mixing bowl, beat heavy cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until it starts to thicken. Turn speed down to medium-low and gradually add confectioners' sugar. Turn speed back to medium-high until medium peaks form.
- Spread whipped cream on top of chilled custard. Store covered in refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Sharing with The Weekend Potluck
I am becoming a fan of sweet potatoes too. I imagine they would be good with cranberries too or instead.
I agree about the fact that for most people fall equates to pumpkin and apple recipes.
And although I love them both, it is refreshing to see something different!! I love these sweet potato bars. They look absolutely mouth watering!! 🙂
I have never tried sweet potato bars before! Definitely curious to know what they taste like.. sounds delicious!
Those bars are hollering out—Pick me up and eat me. Fabulous crust. What a fun way to use sweet potato. Almost could say healthy bars??? Well one could try that ploy. Ha!
Never thought about baking with sweet potatoes…and would love to try this fantastic pie!
Those bars look creamy and delicious. A great alternative to sweet potato pie I think. I make it every Thanksgiving, maybe this year I’ll try these bars.
I love sweet potatoes year round too! These bars look awesome – I love any sort of pie or the like in bar form! They just seem better that way! haha
Feeding a crowd….or feeding me on a particularly stressful day. 😉 Christin these bars look superb! I also love seeing sweet potatoes used more in the Fall; not that I don’t love pumpkin but it’s nice to have some variety!
It’s so true, sweet potatoes are often overlooked for pumpkin and apples. I once served a sweet potato pie for Thanksgiving and didn’t tell people it wasn’t pumpkin because I knew they’d be skeptical. Nobody noticed the difference! I love these bars and I’m craving them in the worst way. 🙂 Pinning!
Oh my goodness – I just wanna crawl into my monitor and grab that plated bar – these look and sound LUSCIOUS!