"I've made this pie 3 times. The first two I followed it exactly and it was ok, probably worthy of 3 stars as it's written. I made it yesterday and decided to omit the nut topping to make it a healthier dish because nuts and syrup are high in calories. This proved one thing to me: all the flavor of this dish comes from the topping. The actual sweet potato filling is very bland on its own. After it had set overnight in the icebox I had a slice today and all I could think of as I was chewing it was that it tasted "cold". No other flavors emerged for me, just a big mass of "cold". As it stands this filling is not worthy of carrying an entire pie on its own, hence the 2 stars since the filling should be the heart of the pie. Nuts, syrup, ice cream, whipped cream... all of those are extraneous condiments used to give the illusion that the pie is good. No, if they pie isn't good enough without them, then it isn't good enough period.