Though I have been making pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving alongside my favorite chocolate pecan pie, I had never tried a sweet potato pie, which several people have told me is their favorite holiday dessert.

I love sweet potatoes, both savory — like roasted or mashed — or in a sugary casserole, which admittedly is more like a dessert. (I’m still trying to perfect a recipe for that.) When I found a Southern Living recipe for sweet potato pie, I figured I’d give it a try.

It turned out so well that I think it’s going to be on every one of our Thanksgiving menus from here on out.

The recipe in the magazine called for roasting and mashing whole sweet potatoes, then putting them through a sieve to remove the stringy bits. I do not have time for that. I just used the classic, old-fashioned sweet potatoes in a can (they’re labeled as yams). If you want to roast and mash your own sweet potatoes, you will need 2 cups mashed.

Makes one 9-inch pie

1 refrigerated pie crust
2 oz. unsalted butter
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
29-oz. can sweet potatoes, mashed with a fork (if they are in syrup, briefly rinse them before mashing)
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Place pie crust into a 9-inch pie plate. Prick bottom several times with a fork. Line pie crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake in the oven until slightly golden, about 15 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment and let cool, about an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F degrees again. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the foam subsides and the butter begins to smell fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and remaining ingredients with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Pour into the pie crust and bake on the middle rack of the oven until the filling is slightly puffed and set, about 45 minutes. Let cool at least 1 hour before serving, but note that the pie gets firmer if kept in the refrigerator and served the next day.