Super Easy Ube Pie with Graham Cracker Crust

If you need an easy dessert that has that “wow” factor, this ube pie is for you. It is made with an addicting graham cracker crust filled with a smooth, ube filling. The best part is this dessert comes together in just 1 hour. Included in this post are substitutes for ube (which can be hard to find) and tips on how to prevent your crust from crumbling.

I know there are so many pies out there, but this easy ube pie is possibly my favorite. It is also the first pie I’ve ever made! This ube pie, also known as a purple sweet potato pie, is made of an addicting graham cracker crust and filled with a smooth ube cinnamon filling. The best part about this pie is it is so easy to make, making it look like you did more work than you actually did.

How I like to use Ube

Ube is another name for purple yam, and it’s an ingredient I’ve come to love using in desserts. Some of my favorites include ube crinkle cookies, ube macarons, and ube pound cake. When I make ube desserts, I typically use ube in the form of ube halaya which is when purple yam, butter, coconut milk, and other ingredients are combined to create a jam. For this recipe, I decided to use frozen grated ube instead to really bring out that pure ube flavor.

How I developed this ube pie recipe

I tested this recipe 5 times. My goals for this ube pie was a tender crust and a smooth ube filling, and also for it to be not too sweet. First for the crust, I mostly tested out different amounts of sugar to make sure the crust wasn’t too sweet. I tested 3 tbsp and 2 tbsp of sugar, and found that 3 tbsp was a tad too sweet for me. Graham crackers are inherently sweet already. However, I did find that reducing the sugar also made the crust more crumbly because the magic of the crust comes from the sugar and butter binding together. That’s why I ended up sticking with 3 tbsp of sugar in my recipe.

Secondly, I tested the filling. The tricky thing with the filling was getting the flavor just right. I first blended raw grated yam with all the ingredients, and while the consistency was fine, I couldn’t get over that raw potato flavor in the final pie. So I ended up microwaving the yam to cook it a bit before adding it to the filling. It tasted SO MUCH BETTER. The texture was also more tender and fluffier. In terms of the sweetness, I tested the filling with both light brown sugar and granulated sugar. I found that I liked the flavor of light brown sugar more, but the granulated sugar still yielded a yummy pie.

Grab your ingredients and let’s bake!

Graham Cracker Crust

If you don’t want to make the crust from scratch, you can buy a pre-made graham cracker crust from the store. Alternatively, you can also buy graham cracker crumbs from the store. Both will help reduce your baking time.

• Graham crackers – Use any kind of graham crackers you can find. To make this pie gluten free, substitute graham crackers with gluten free graham crackers.
• Granulated sugar – Adds sweetness to the crust. Feel free to reduce the sugar to make it less sweet, but in testing, I found that reducing the sugar will make the crust more crumbly.

Ube Filling

• Grated ube – I used frozen grated ube for my recipe. This ingredient can be hard to find. While developing this recipe, I had to order mine off an Asian grocery delivery service called Weee. A good, but not perfect, substitute is purple sweet potatoes like Okinawan sweet potatoes. If using whole potatoes, boil the potatoes and measure out 1 1/2 cups to use for the filling.
• Light brown sugar – Adds sweetness to the filling. This can be substituted with either dark brown sugar or granulated sugar. The brown sugar has a better flavor, but white sugar is also good. I tested with both.
• Coconut cream – I love the pairing of coconut and ube, so I added a bit of coconut cream to this filling. I would not substitute with coconut milk because In testing, I found that coconut milk adds too much liquid to the filling.

How to make this easy ube pie

Use a measuring cup to press the crust into the pie pan

My only tip for this recipe is using a measuring cup to press the crust into the pie pan. While testing this recipe, I found that it stuck better to the pan and held together better. I first press it down with my hands then follow it with the measuring cup for extra security.

How do you serve this ube pie?

You can serve this pie by itself but personally, I love serving it with some whipped cream and toasted coconut flakes. I make my own homemade whipped cream by combining 1 cup of heavy cream with 2 tbsp of powdered sugar, and then whipping it until the correct consistency.

Did you make this dish?

If you made this dish, I would love to see!

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