Sweet Potato Cheesecake
This Sweet Potato Cheesecake combines classic, sweet and tangy cheesecake with one of the most iconic dessert flavors around – sweet potato. It’s a unique cheesecake that’s perfect for any occasion.
Sweet potatoes are readily available year-round, so you can make this delicious cheesecake whenever you like. However, we think it really shines around the holidays. Try bringing it to your next gathering for something a little different but absolutely delicious.
This sweet potato cheesecake is so good, and it’s really easy to make. It’s a little sticky and gooey, and the flavors are just wonderful. You can make this ahead of time, and keep it in the refrigerator until time to serve.
It makes a stunning presentation, and everyone is going to love this. The pie crust cutout leaves really set this off, and are such a great addition to each piece.
Table of contents
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s a fusion of two classic dessert flavors – cheesecake and sweet potato.
- It’s rich and sweet, and it makes the perfect holiday dessert.
- It’s a fun new twist on both cheesecake and sweet potato desserts!
🛒Ingredients
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This recipe uses simple ingredients that you can easily find at your local grocery store. You probably have the majority of them in your kitchen, right now. We’re going to take a look at the ingredients that make this cheesecake so delicious, but you’ll find the full list of ingredients and their amounts in the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Graham crackers
- Sweet potato
- Maple syrup
- Cream cheese
- Heavy cream
- Prepared pie crust
- Prepared cheesecake frosting
🔪 How to Make Sweet Potato Cheesecake
This is actually quite an easy recipe to make, even though it has several steps. Like all baked cheesecakes, you have to be a bit careful with your temperatures to prevent cracking, however, if you follow the directions, you’ll be golden!
Step 1: Prep
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line the bottom of a 7-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
Step 2: Make the Crust
Add graham crackers to a food processor and pulse until they’re fine crumbs. Then, add the sugar and pulse until mixed. Finally, pour the crumb mixture into a bowl of melted butter and mix until combined.
Step 3: Bake
Press the crust mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan, and bake it for 10 minutes. Remove and let it cool.
Step 4: Cook the Sweet Potato
Scrub and dry a large sweet potato. Then, cook it in the microwave on the potato setting. Remove it from the microwave and let it cool for a few minutes. Then, slice it in half and scoop the inside out of the skin, placing it into a bowl.
Step 5: Mash the Sweet Potato
Add the sweet potato to a food processor along with brown sugar and salt and pulse until completely mashed.
Step 6: Make the Cheesecake Batter
Add softened cream cheese, sugar, and heavy cream to a stand mixer and mix on low with the whisk attachment until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides and mix again. Then, add the eggs, maple syrup, brown sugar, and cinnamon until completely blended. Finally, add the sweet potato and mix until well blended.
Step 7: Bake
Place a small dish of water on the bottom rack of the oven. Then, pour the cheesecake batter into the pan and place it on the middle rack. Bake for 50 minutes. Then, reduce the temperature to 300 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes.
Step 8: Cool
Remove the cheesecake from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. When cool, cover with parchment paper and then foil and chill overnight – 24 hours is better.
Step 9: Make the Pie Crust Leaves
Place the prepared pie crust on parchment paper on a flat work surface. Then, cut out the leaf shapes. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush them with melted butter and sprinkle with a cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown.
Step 10: Decorate and Serve
When ready to serve, remove the cheesecake from the refrigerator, remove the springform pan, and place the cheesecake on a cake stand or cake plate. Then, using a pastry bag with a large fluted tip, pipe the cream cheese frosting in large dollops around the edge of the top of the cheesecake. Then, pipe smaller dollops around the bottom edge of the cheesecake. Place a baked leaf in between each dollop on top of the cake and the remaining leaves around the bottom edge of the cake. Slice and serve.
📝Variations
Do you want to change up this recipe and make it your own? Here are some ways that you can do that!
- Pumpkin – Use pumpkin in equal amounts in place of sweet potato to make pumpkin cheesecake.
- Pumpkin Spice – Add pumpkin spice to the graham cracker mixture for a super-flavorful crust.
- Buttercream – For more sweetness and less tang, use buttercream frosting.
If you think this sweet potato cheesecake looks good, then you’ll enjoy this sweet potato pie with marshmallow meringue.
🥄 Equipment
You’ll only need some basic baking equipment to make this recipe.
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Stand mixer (preferred) or hand mixer
- Mixing bowls
- Springform pan
- Parchment paper
- Knife
- Cutting board
- Spoon
- Piping bag with fluted tip
🥫 Storage
You can store this cheesecake for up to 4 days in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. For longer storage, place it in an air-tight, freezer-safe container and freeze for up to a month.
💭 Tips
While this is a fairly simple recipe, it is a baked cheesecake recipe. There are a few things to remember.
- Always place a small dish of water in the oven when baking the cheesecake to prevent cracking.
- Do not open the oven door for any reason until the cheesecake is finished baking.
- While you can chill this cheesecake overnight, we recommend a full 24 hours.
⁉️ FAQ
Do you have questions about this recipe? Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
The water bath adds humidity to the air inside the oven. This keeps the cheesecake from shrinking too much which is what causes cracking.
Opening the door of the oven immediately changes the temperature of the oven and releases some of the humidity from the water bath, which leads to cracking.
Although it’s really a pie, cheesecake gets its name because it tends to be taller – more like a cake than a pie.
🍽 More Recipes
Do you enjoy sweet potatoes? Then try these delicious recipes:
📌 PIN IT!!
🧾Recipe Card
Want to make this recipe? Print the recipe card below, or pin this recipe, so you can find it later.
Sweet Potato Cheesecake
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- 7 inch Spring-form pan
- parchment paper
- Pastry bag
- large fluted piping tip
- Food Processor or Blender
- Spatulas
- Leaf Shaped Cookie Cutters
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 5 ounces graham crackers crushed into crumbs
- 3 Tablespoons butter melted
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
For the Cheesecake
- 24 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
- 3 eggs
- ¼ cup Maple Syrup Pancake syrup
- ½ cup Brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
- 1 large sweet potato cooked in the microwave and mashed
- 1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
- Pinch salt
For the Pie Crust Leaves
- 1 package of prepared Pie Crust I used Pillsbury – found in the dairy section
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons Butter melted
For the Frosting
- 16 ounces Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Place the sleeve of graham crackers in a food processor, and pulse until they’re crumbs.
- Add the sugar, and pulse again until mixed.
- Melt the butter in the microwave, and pour the graham cracker crumbs into the butter, and mix well to blend.
- Line the bottom of a 7 inch Spring-form pan with Parchment paper, and place the graham cracker crumbs in the Spring-form pan, and press firmly and evenly to form the crust.
- Place the pan in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 min.
- Remove and cool.
- Scrub and dry the large Sweet Potato, and place in the microwave on the potato setting, and cook.
- Remove from the microwave, and let cool for a fe minutes.
- With a sharp knife, slice the sweet potato in half, and with a large spoon, scoop the sweet potato out of the skin, and place in a bowl.
- Add the 1 Tablespoon of Brown sugar, and a pinch of salt, and place the sweet potato in the food processor.
- Pulse the sweet potato until completely mashed.
- In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, place the softened cream cheese, and add the cup of sugar, and heavy cream.
- Mix on low, with the whisk attachment, until smooth and creamy.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and mix until well blended.
- Add the eggs, Maple Syrup, and 1/2 cup of brown sugar, Cinnamon, and mix until completely blended.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl, and blend again.
- Add the mashed sweet potato, and mix until well blended.
- Pour the Cheesecake into the Spring-form pan, and place in the oven at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.
- After 50 minutes, turn the temperature down to 300, and bake for another 30 minutes.
- Middle may be a little jiggly, but will firm up, and set in the refrigerator.
- Place a small dish of water on the rank under the cheesecake in the oven while it is baking to prevent the cheesecake from cracking.
- When finished baking, remove from the Oven, and place on a wire rack to cool.
- When completely cooled, cover with Parchment paper, and then with Foil, and place in the refrigerator overnight. (I like to leave mine for 24 hours before removing it to make sure it has time to completely chill, and set).
- When the Cheesecake is baking: place the prepared pie crust on Parchment paper on the counter, and cut out the leaves to top the cheesecake.
- Place cut out leaves on a Parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Brush with melted butter.
- Mix the Cinnamon and sugar together, and sprinkle the leaves with the Cinnamon and sugar.
- When the Cheesecake is finished baking, place the cut out leaves in the oven, and bake until golden brown, about 10 to 15 minutes – at 400 degrees.
- Before serving cheesecake, remove from the refrigerator, and remove the Spring-form from the pan.
- Place the cheesecake on a cake stand, or cake plate.
- Place a large fluted tip in a pastry bag, and fill the pastry bag with the cream cheese frosting.
- Pipe large dollops of frosting around the top of the cheesecake, and small dollops all around the edge of the cake stand or cake plate (see photos).
- Place a baked cut out leaf in between the dollops of Frosting, on top of the cheesecake, and lay the remainder of the leaves all around the cake plate or cake stand to decorate the cheesecake.
- Lay extra leave on plates when serving.
- If not served immediately, place decorated cheesecake in the refrigerator until time to serve.
- Serve, and Enjoy!
