Sweet potato blondies

The beginning of the new year is always the time to focus on living in a healthier way. That’s why I decided to make a slightly healthier version of the lesser known cousin of brownies, blondies. These blondies are sugar free and their key ingredient is sweet potato. The juicy and sweet vegetable is perfect for baking and thanks to it you don’t need to use as much fat and flour. The best part about these treats is that they are perfect for a healthier snack because they are filling without being too heavy.

Sweet potato blondies are dairy-free and if you replace honey with for example agave syrup or leave the sweetening out altogether, you will have completely vegan blondies. Sweet potato is quite sweet itself so it doesn’t necessarily need any additional sweetening. The blondies are also gluten-free. I used rice flour in these but coconut flour would also do the trick. Peanut butter brings additional texture and flavor.

As the final touch, the blondie batter is finished with chopped pecan nuts. If you are anything like me and you think that a pastry is always better if there is a bit of chocolate in it, you can also sprinkle a bit of chopped chocolate in the batter.

Ingredients

• 3 dl mashed sweet potato
• 1 dl peanut butter
• 2 tbsp honey (or agave syrup)
• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• 5 tbsp rice flour or coconut flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 50 g pecan nuts
• 50 g (vegan) baking chocolate

How to prepare

1. Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
2. Grease a baking tray (e.g. 20x25 cm) with margarine or line it with baking parchment.
3. Mix the mashed sweet potato, peanut butter, honey and coconut milk in a bowl.
4. Mix the rice flour, baking soda and cinnamon well in a separate bowl and add it to the sweet potato mixture. Mix until even.
5. Chop the pecan nuts and the chocolate into small pieces. Leave 12 whole pecan nuts unchopped and put them aside. Add the chopped nuts and chocolate to the mixture and mix well.
6. Pour the dough into the baking tray and even the surface. Press the whole pecan nuts on the dough so that when you cut it to 12 pieces there will be one whole pecan nut for each piece.
7. Bake the blondies for 35 minutes. Let it cool, cut into 12 pieces and enjoy!