Gosh, I love Fall!
Here are some highlights from our trip to Telluride. Time spent alone with my two-year-old son was priceless. The yellow leaves clinging to the Aspens were awesome. It was freeing to walk everywhere and not drive for a week. The snow-covered mountain peaks were breathtaking. Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies…….need I say more.
With fall here I love to cozy up and bake. We are talking real baking, with butter, sugar, flour and more butter. My favorite flavors abound with the cooler weather…..cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg. Pastries, breads, cookies and cakes with apple, pumpkin and sweet potato are the spotlight at every cafe and market. these are good times, and being away was the perfect opportunity for me to experiment with my fav flavors.
Once in a while, we all need a calorie splurge. It keeps us in check on the “good days” and gives us something to look forward to. No, I don’t eat cookies like this very often, but when I do they better be well worth my time. Each bite needs to be special and delicious. My son’s treat each day on our trip was one of these cookies, the little guy flipped for them!
THE BONUS: With the addition of Sweet Potatoes you get some vitamin A, fiber and loads of antioxidants in your cookie. As if we need more reason’s to eat cookies! Not too mention some refined sugars are cut out with the use of all natural Maple Syrup. To read more on the virtues of Sweet Potatoes click these links: Livestrong and Mayoclinic
Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 24 good sized cookies.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) Softened Unsalted Butter
- 1 large Egg
- 1/2 cup Pure Maple Syrup
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Tbs Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste
- 2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour -or- 2 cups Pastry Flour (or 1 cup of each) I used 100% pastry flour and ended up with a cookie with a very delicate, cakey crumb. All-purpose flour has more Gluten so cookies will have a slightly chewier texture. To read more: Pastry vs. All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice, or Cinnamon
- 1 Cup Mashed Sweet Potatoes: I baked 2 large sweet potatoes at 400˚F for one hour, until soft. Let them cool a bit and the skin peels right off. You can also buy canned Organic Sweet Potatoes, just make sure the only ingredient in the can is Sweet Potato.
- 12 oz. High-Quality Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- Optional: Powdered Sugar for dusting
METHOD
- Combine Butter, Egg, Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar, Vanilla, in a medium bowl. I mixed the ingredients with a spatula, you can also mix with electric mixer until well blended.
- In a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients: Flour, Salt, Baking Soda, Pumpkin Pie Spice.
- Stir 1/2 the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, stir in remaining flour mix until well combined.
- Stir in sweet potatoes and chocolate chips.
- Preheat oven to 350˚F, lightly grease baking sheets.
- Heap large tablespoons of batter onto cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, until cooked through and tops of cookies are golden. (At 10,000 feet in Telluride these cookies took quite a bit longer to cook through, about 19-20 minutes. Use your judgment and taste preference to determine baking time.)
- Let cool about 5 minutes and place on cooling racks.
- Dust with powdered sugar.
Fresh Variations
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- There has been no Pumpkin in the stores lately, but of course, you can use 1 Cup of Pumpkin instead of Sweet Potato.
- Add 1/2 cup of Toasted Nuts: Pecans would be delicious!
- Add 1/2 cup of Toasted Coconut.
Sweet potatoes & chocolate chips are two of my fave things!
These sound sooo delicious!! I can’t wait to try them!
Love,
Jo
these sound super unique and look like they came out great.
What a great idea, flavor, for cookies!! I loooooove sweet potatoes… and pair those up with cookies, oh man, heaven!!
Thanks!
I can’t wait to try these! I’m a pumpkin fanatic and have recently become “turned-on” to sweet potatoes! I don’t know why I fought it all these years. But now…watch out! I will definitely be trying out this recipe! BTW – your website is very informative, interesting and pleasing to the eye!
I’m looking at these and asking myself why I haven’t thought of this before? I love chocolate and sweet potatoes yet never thought to combine the two! These are amazing, and I think this weekend will be cookie baking time !
I have everything for these fabulous-sounding cookies in my kitchen, and a thirteen year old anxious to help make them tomorrow! (And a ten month old that will love a nibble or two!) Thanx for sharing!
Marla, these cookies are fabulous!!! My daughter and I made them this afternoon–we got 41 cookies out of the recipe–and I think we may have a dozen left. Everyone loves them. These are definitely a keeper!
Finally, we’re getting the faintest hint of fall in the air here in Florida, and it’s good enough for me to start loading up on all of my favorites (why are they all orange?) of sweet potatoes, butternuts, pumpkins, etc. These look like a perfect dessert bite to suit my mood and love the touch of maple here!
Great post, Marla! I feel exactly the same – as soon as the cold weather creeps in, it’s time to pull out the baking pans. The dose of maple syrup in this cookies must make them very moist, not to mention flavorful. Your little guy is so cute!
These look so good! I love sweet potatoes so much, even though they aren’t my husband’s fav veggie
How fun! Great idea 😉
Great cookie recipe for fall. I will have to try them, you know I love my cookies:)
Maria: I know you love your cookies – you will dig these for sure!
Heather: Sweet Potatoes have a HUGE place in my heart too, always and forever.
Sweet potatoes have an extra special place in my heart. I can’t wait to try these!
So many ingredients from this season that I love…AND chocolate chips? How could this not be fabulous!
Oh! Very cool! I’m a HUGE fan of sweet potatoes so naturally these look wonderful! I also saw you use vanilla bean paste- I’m a huge believer in that stuff. It makes baked goods that are amazing already, over-the-top-off-the-roof-flying-into-space- wonderful!
Jess: That vanilla bean paste is awesome. Love the little black specks inside. Come to think of it I gotta try making my own from scratch. Hmmmm……
These look & sound yummie, I must try some!
My best friend and I are about to make these to send my husband and her fiance in Afghanistan for their Thanksgiving care package! I hope they are as tasty as you say 🙂 I will post after to let everyone know how they turn out!
We just finished all of the cookies! We doubled the recipe and added pecans and came out with 21 cookies for both batches. We made our cookies a little larger because we had planned to use turkey and leaf cookie cutters to elevate the holiday aspect but after ruining one cookie we gave up on that! Regardless of being regular shaped, these cookies are DELICIOUS! We used all purpose unbleached flour instead of pastery flour but still found them to be rather cake like in texture. Cake like or chewy, they are super yummy! I know my husband and her fiance as well as the rest of the soldiers will love them! Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Lindsey ~ thanks for such an uplifting comment. Glad these cookies were such a great success. Have a wonderful weekend!
Hi Marla, I keep going back to your recipes because my husband loves it and my kids. I made some last night for my husband to take to school and his co-teachers loved it. Thank you once again for the recipe. We are a fan! 🙂
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I am baking these right now….17 minutes for the first batch…they are not cookies, but more like sweet potato on my plate at Thanksgiving! I have put them back into the oven for another 15 minutes and they still feel soft!!! Are they supposed to have a “cookie” consistency or very soft?
They will not firm up until cool.