A healthy dessert that is easily made vegan, these sweet potato chocolate chip cookies are also gluten-free and contain no refined sugar (perfect for you fitness fanatics!)
I said yesterday that today's chocolate chip cookies would be even stranger than the avocado chocolate chip cookies! But I cannot believe how well they turned out! Probably one of my favorite cookies and even though I am not very health-crazy, I would make them just for the flavors. I am talking about sweet potato chocolate chip cookies!
Once again, the crunch factor isn't there, but I think I am a huge fan of soft cookies. These cookies were shockingly delicious and I was so happy with how they turned out.
I won't lie, I was a little hesitant making them because even though sweet potatoes are common in dessert dishes, I just wasn't sure about how these cookies would turn out. And the fact that I thought my purple sweet potato would actually be purple on the inside... That was a disappointing discovery!
Turns out I bought a Japanese sweet potato which has purple skin and a white flesh. It worked to my benefit though because from my research online, these Japanese sweet potatoes tend to be sweeter than your ordinary sweet potato, which made it perfect for these cookies. Since there is no sugar in this recipe, you want a perfect sweet potato.
Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies
A healthy dessert that won't leave you feeling guilty if you eat them all!
Ingredients
- 1 sweet potato (approximately 1 cup mashed)
- ½ cup old-fashioned oats
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 1 flaxseed egg (1 tbsp. ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tbsp. water.) or 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp. pure maple syrup
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp. ground ginger
- ¼ tsp. all-spice
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ⅛ tsp. salt (just a pinch, seriously.)
- ½ cup chocolate chips (or carob chips for vegan version)
Instructions
- Remove the skin from your sweet potato and cut into small cubes. Place into a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 8-12 minutes, or until fork can easily pierce potato. Drain and place into a mixing bowl. Mash until smooth.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone liner.
- Mix together the oats, cinnamon, ginger, all-spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Using a fork or a pastry cutter, add the peanut butter to the dry ingredients and cut-in until all combined. Add in the flax-egg, vanilla, and maple syrup. Stir in the cooled sweet potatoes and chocolate chips, mixing until combined.
- Measure out one tablespoon-sized portions of "dough" and place onto baking sheet. Bake for about 15-17 minutes. Remove from oven, and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Move to cooling rack.
Notes
Your sweet potato may take more or less time depending on how you cube them.
They are better within the first day or two.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 20 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 65Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 9mgSodium: 80mgCarbohydrates: 8gFiber: 1gSugar: 4gProtein: 2g
I know these sweet potato chocolate chip cookies aren't your typical cookies, but they are a great snack if you are trying to watch your sweets intake. I think they make a great toddler snack as well (be careful with the peanut butter; you can always sub in something else if allergies are an issue.) I am trying to think of how to make them crunchier because some do like a bit of a crisp to their chocolate chip cookies. Maybe try flattening them out so they are almost like sweet potato chocolate chip cookie crisps. I will fool around with the recipe some more to see what I can come up with.
Over the past week we have seen a number of different chocolate chip cookie recipes. Many have turned out to be healthy, some are vegan, but most of all, they are all delicious chocolate chip cookies. Tomorrow marks the last day of chocolate chip cookie week and I saved the best for last! Be sure to tune in tomorrow.
Alison's Wonderland Recipes
I should make these for the little boy I nanny. He's a sweet potato fiend! 🙂
Kacey
Haha, I bet even he will be surprised to know that there are sweet potatoes in his cookies 🙂
Jacquee @ I Sugar Coat It!
Found you over on Foodgawker. I must give these a try!
Kacey
Let me know when you do!
Amy
I followed the recipe and my cookies are very mushy and did not stay together when moved them to a cooling rack. Any suggestions?!
Kacey
Hi Amy, sorry to hear about that. I am wondering if the use of regular sweet potatoes may have caused the problem (assuming that is what you used.)I did use a Japanese sweet potato but I don't think that would make too much of a difference. My other suggestions would be allowing the cookies to cool longer on the pan before moving or adding more oats to the cookie batter. The end texture is not really a "crunchy" chocolate chip cookie, more of a soft one.
D
This is a great recipe! Crunchy peanut butter mixed in carefully lends a bit of crunch to the cookies.
Kacey
The crunchy peanut butter is a fantastic idea! I will use your idea next time I make these cookies.
Gina Godewyn
Made these! I subbed in a little stevia for the maple syrup. Didnt measure my sweet potato either....just used up what was in the fridge. Did raisins instead of chocolate chips. They were awesome. I ate them all in two days 🙂 Half of them sitting on an airplane to go visit my husband! Also, I did almond butter instead of the pb.
Now i'm sad they are gone and I want more......:) Great idea!
Kacey
So glad you loved them! Seems like there are two sides: people who think they are a neat idea, and others who think they look absolutely horrifying! I try to explain you cannot taste the sweet potato!
Gina Godewyn
You totally cant taste the sweet potato-but I adore sweet potatoes, so even if you could I'd be on board. They taste like pumpkin cookies or something.
Did you do yours with Kabucha squash? I guess regular cooked pumpkin would work too right? Probably just up the sugar/sweetener content? I bet doing them with pureed carrot and then adding shredded carrots would be tasty too.....a couple nuts and some raisins.....maybe coconut. yum 🙂 Also, I did a whole egg instead of the flax egg and it worked perfectly.
Kacey
I used Japanese sweet potatoes (I originally thought they were purple sweet potatoes until I cut into them and found a white flesh instead of purple!) Did some research and found they are often sweeter than regular sweet potatoes. I never thought of using pumpkin and I just held pumpkin week on the blog!! Might give it a try anyway to see how it goes 🙂
Sara Man
I just made these with a few adjustments and they are delicious!!! I used 1 cup orange sweet potato, millet flakes instead of oat, sunbutter instead of peanut butter and a real egg instead of the flax egg. Yummmers!!! I did them once before with 1.5 cup sweet potato and it was too much, 1 cup was perfect! Thank you!!
Kacey
Perfect! I feel the sweet potatoes I use are quite different than orange sweet potato, so I am glad you could adjust the recipe to your liking.
Rachel
Hi! I really liked these cookies. I used yams (I think a lot of people call these sweet potatoes but they are orange inside). The first batch I made were very sweet and mushy. I didn't mind but I thought other people would, so I doubled the eggs and added 1/3 c. Flour for double the recipe (so equivalent to 1/ 6 c. Flour..). I was just playing around with it but it worked! Cuts down on the natural sweetness but the cookies are more like soft cake or bread cookies and we're moist but cooked through. 🙂 will def try with japanese sweet potatoes next time!
Kacey
I am so glad you adjusted the recipe to make your cookies turn out just right for you 🙂 I do find the Japanese sweet potatoes quite different from ordinary sweet potatoes and yams, so that may be where all the issues come from. Personally, I think this recipe does not need much measuring, just add ingredients as you go until you get the right consistency for you!
Phyllis
These are absolutely amazing! I subbed a reg egg, gourd pumpkin that I had put in freezer last fall, added a little flour since the pumpkin was thinner less spice and a small amount of crunchy peanut butter, coconut palm sugar and Splenda. The reviews were so helpful. I did use semi-sweet chocolate chips and dried cranberries whole and raisins. Totally scrumptious!!! Just perfect for my husband who is diabetic! Next time I'm going to try the coconut flour. I should only use gluten free but so hard!
Thank-You!!!
Kacey
I am so happy you enjoyed them! I love how the recipe is easily adaptable (I don't even measure my ingredients, just mix things together until I get the right consistency.) Coconut flour is great and I make it "homemade." Basically add shredded coconut to your food processor and pulse until it resembles flour. I say "homemade" because while it is homemade, the flour does not get as fine as other flours.
Beth
Love this!!! I made this recipe but poured it into an 8x8 pan out of laziness. (I have a new born) I baked them like a brownie for 25 minutes. Delicious!!! I also used crunchy peanut butter (it's all I have) my homemade pumpkin purée instead of sweet potato (it needed to be cooked) and sprinkled the top with almond slices and chocolate chips on the top. I cut the squares pretty small. I LOVE the gooey-ness. The more they cool the more they hold together. I made another batch today for the rest of the family and added an extra 1/2 cup of oats. Very yummy! They are like pumpkin brownies (blondes?)... Idk... They're just delicious and awesome.
Kacey
This is awesome news! I have been wanting to try this recipe with pumpkin puree, so I am glad to hear that works. Don't worry, I have had those lazy days and just transformed another healthy recipe into granola bars rather than cookies to save time 🙂
Regina
Hello!
I noticed with your recipe you advise to boil your sweet potato. From a nutritional stand point, boiling any vegetable results in all it's wonderful nutrients to leach into the water. Since draining the water away would be quite wasteful of all the vitamins and minerals, baking/roasting the sweet potato would preserve all of those nutrients. Roasting would also bring out much of its natural sugars resulting in a sweeter cookie!
Keep up the great work!
Kacey
Thank you so much for this, Regina. I actually have been pretty good roasting my veggies in place of boiling (even when I make homemade dog biscuits, I roast the sweet potato.) Plus, better flavour in my opinion!
Christina
I made these today (using 2 medium eggs instead of flax) and added some chopped peanuts for crunch. They were fabulous! Everyone from my 2 year old to my husband loved them 🙂
Kacey
Woohoo! I have been wanting to make these again for some time so you have motivated me 🙂
Kim
These are awesome! I used your recipe to the T and it was perfect. The Japanese sweet potato is nice, thick and creamy, so the texture is very similar to a normal cookie. I like my cookies on the chewy side, so these were right up my alley. My kids and husband ate and loved them (and they all HATE sweet potatoes).
For those who are leaning towards pumpkin, I believe they will be a bit thin because there's so much water content in squashes.
Kacey
Awesome!! Glad you found Japanese sweet potato (I only find it during specific seasons.)
That has always been my concern with the pumpkin (especially using the homemade variety) but I would still like to give it a shot 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle Taggart
I was trying to figure out what to do with my left over sweet potato when I stumbled across this recipe. I thought they were going to be weird but decided to try them anyway. I warned my husband as they came out of the oven, and even made him sample it first. They were DELICIOUS. We ate the entire batch in one sitting. Even my two year old loved them. I tried the avocado cookies yesterday and they were awesome too. Today I think I'm going to try to vegan choc chip recipe. Thanks for all the great ideas!
Kacey
Yay! I know, I warned my husband, too, lol. They aren't your standard cookie but I feel people would not be able to guess I used sweet potato! Definitely need to revisit this recipe 🙂
Deb Gordon
do you have nutritional info on these??
Kacey
Sorry, Deb, I do not but I believe there are sites out there where you can input the recipe and they give you the nutritional value.
Christina Dolley
I just made these and wow are they good! I used the real egg, I replaced maple syrup with honey and I mixed up PB2. I was going to use regular peanut butter but realized I hardly had any left. I mixed up the PB2 and thought ok let's give this a try 🙂 Oh and I added just a pinch of powdered stevia for a bit more sweetness. I did bake them for about 35 minutes and let them cool longer. They are a little softer than normal cookies but that just make them even more delicious!
Kacey
Awesome!! I hear a lot of good things about PB2. Glad you made it work 🙂
Marie
I absolutely adore these cookies! I only had one sweet potato on hand, so I added a mashed banana and applesauce to fill the 1 cup of potatoes originally called for. With these new additions, I only had to use 1 TBS of sugar. Some extra cinnamon & chopped pecans were added on top, and in 15 minutes, these cake-y cookies came out moist, fall-y, and super delicious. They're so easy to make (and healthy might I add), I'll definitely be coming back to this one again and again 🙂 Many thanks!
Kacey
Wow, your additions sound amazing!! I seriously cannot wait to revisit these cookies (been waiting for the Japanese sweet potatoes to start appearing in stores.) I am going to give your suggestions a try!
Ana
Hello,
Made these cookies last night - they turned out delicious! I didn't like them fresh out of the oven but did LOVE them after they sat for bit at room temperature. I shared with my office mates and they loved them. I substituted all the spices for pumpkin spice that I had on hand and added more cinnamon (I love cinnamon). Thank you for the recipe! 🙂
Kacey
Awesome to hear!! I have a few recipe like that as well. Allowing certain foods to sit really brings out their flavours (I especially see this in carrot side dish recipes.)