Jennifer Garner’s Sweet Potato Pudding Deserves a Spot at Your Thanksgiving Table

No wonder Food Network featured it

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Published Nov 6, 2025

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jennifer garner's grandma's sweet potato pudding

Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images/candace davison

Jennifer Garner may host the Pretend Cooking Show on her Instagram account, but there’s nothing fake about her culinary skills. She grew up on a farm in West Virginia, and over the years, she’s shared all kinds of family recipes, from her mom’s Blueberry Buckle to her grandmother’s cornbread. I’ve been meaning to try them all, but like the 37,608 other recipes relinquished to the abyss of my Instagram Saved folder, I hadn’t gotten around to it. Until one recipe forced me to stop scrolling and head to the grocery store, stat.

I’m talking about Exie Mae Garner’s Sweet Potato Pudding. This is a dish so delightful it caught the Barefoot Contessa’s attention, getting featured on Ina Garten’s 2018 Thanksgiving episode. Since then, it’s maintained a five-star rating on Food Network’s website, but it only had 13 reviews. Why weren’t more people making it? What did it taste like? And could it dethrone my go-to sweet potato casserole to earn a spot at my Thanksgiving table this year?! I needed answers.

The Recipe Is as Low-Effort as It Gets

People who hate cooking—but enjoy compliments—will appreciate this recipe. Peeling and quartering the sweet potatoes is as labor intensive as it gets. From there, you’re boiling the potatoes until fork tender (about 10 to 12 minutes), draining the water, then tossing them into a mixing bowl and blending them before adding in sugar, milk, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ground cloves, salt and eggs.

Once that’s done, you bake the mixture in a 350-degree oven until set, which takes about an hour, and then broil a ton of marshmallows on top until lightly brown (or completely scorched, if that’s your thing).

jennifer garner's sweet potato pudding tested

candace davison

What’s the Secret to Exie Mae Garner’s Sweet Potato Pudding?

Sugar—lots of sugar. Two and a half cups of it, to sweeten four medium sweet potatoes. “That is so much sugar,” Jen admits on Instagram, adding that she’d taste the batter with 1 ½ cups first, just to see if it really needed it. “You can’t have your pudding be sweeter than your pie.”

After sampling, she winds up adding the full amount, so I took Exie Mae at her word and went all in, too.

Exie Mae also calls for topping it off with a 16-ounce bag of mini marshmallows, which is also…a lot. Even on a 9-inch by 13-inch pan, you wind up with about a 50/50 ratio of sweet potato pudding to marshmallows. It’s delicious—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—but almost too much?

jennifer garner's grandma's sweet potato pudding next to chicken and green beans

candace davison

How Does It Taste?

It’s incredible. It is dessert masquerading as a side, as any proper sweet potato casserole-esque concoction should be. The milk and eggs give the sweet potato base a lighter, jigglier consistency than your typical casserole, and all that sugar helps give it structure.

Surprisingly, the base is not as sweet as you’d think, but that may be due to two factors: (1) The combination of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves really shine through, so you’re more taken with that cozy, autumnal blend than the overall sweetness. And (2), the contrast principle is hard at work here—that marshmallow layer is so intensely sweet that anything seems downright savory by comparison.

jennifer garner's grandma's sweet potato pudding, plated with a bite up close

candace davison

The Bottom Line: Should You Try It?

The recipe itself is so satisfying and so simple that I’d recommend it to anyone. I’ll definitely be making it again, though with one adjustment—I’ll probably use half a bag of mini marshmallows, just to let the sweet potato pudding flavor shine through a bit more. The cinnamon-spiced puree is so well seasoned it deserves more of the spotlight.

TRY IT YOURSELF

Candace Davison

VP of editorial content

Oversees home, food and commerce articles
Author of two cookbooks and has contributed recipes to three others
Named one of 2023's Outstanding Young Alumni at the University of South Florida, where she studied mass communications and business

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