Can you guess what the secret ingredient to these brownies are? How are they ‘flourless’ … what holds them together?
Why… it’s Sweet Potato!!
Don’t cringe if you aren’t a sweet potato fan – I promise you can’t even taste the sweet potato one bit, but they sure do lend these brownies a delicious moist texture and help to keep the fat content down!
I came across this recipe by the lovely Maria & Lisa from The Healthy Diaries. Since I had yet to work with sweet potato as the base of a brownie, I thought I’d give it a whirl, and add a couple tweaks of my own!
I made brownies using black beans ages ago on the blog and they turned out wonderfully, so I figured sweet potatoes could do the trick too!
Sweet potato is a fantastic little root vegetables full of nutrients! It has tons of Vitamin B, C, and D… is chock full of iron and magnesium, and has a great amount of filling fiber!
I was a little worried these brownies might turn out dry because of the lower amount of added fats, but they were perfectly moist – even with my own addition of Chocolate Whey Protein from North Coast Naturals!
I love to add natural protein powder to baking if it works because typically most baked goods are just a carby-overload and I find the protein helps to balance out the nutritional value a bit!
Protein powder definitely doesn’t always work in baking though and I’ve had many failures with whatever I’m baking turning out dry – so the sweet potato did an extra great job keeping these brownies moist!
Although the brownies tasted great on their own, I wanted to add just a little something extra to take them to the next level! I decided to bring in some extra healthy fats and add a smear of natural peanut butter to each, then give them a sprinkling of sea salt!
I don’t know about you but I love salty and sweet!
The brownies kept great in my refrigerator over the few days they lasted (staying nice and moist!), and they passed the Mother-In-Law Approval Test, as we had the in-laws in town this weekend and I had the brownies taste tested!
My mother in law is an amazing cook/baker and so the fact that she gobbled one of these up was a great sign!
They sure didn’t last long though – so I think it’s time to whip up another batch! This time I plan to bake these in a muffin mold for cupcakes, and try a lightened up cream cheese frosting on top! 🙂
- ⅔ cup mashed sweet potato (I cut and boiled my sweet potato prior to mashing)
- ¼ cup natural chocolate protein powder (optional, I used North Coast Naturals whey isolate)
- ⅓ cup raw cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- 4 packets of Sweet Leaf Stevia (can sub for 2 extra tablespoons raw honey)
- 2 large eggs
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 tablespoons of natural peanut butter (optional, for topping)
- sprinkle of sea salt (optional, for topping)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place all ingredients except the peanut butter/sea salt topping into a blender or food processor.
- Mix everything until smooth.
- Pour into a well greased 8x8 baking pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick pulls clean.
- Allow brownies to cool completely before cutting.
- Cut into 9 squares, and smear ½ tablespoon of natural peanut butter over each, then sprinkle with sea salt.
- Enjoy!
3.5.3208
*Recipe mildly adapted from The Healthy Diaries
Just a reminder, TOMORROW, I am launching the new blog design!!! So – if you stop by the blog and it’s under maintenance, don’t fret, it won’t be long until it’s back up and running with a beautiful new look!
Have a lovely Tuesday!
Christal
Nutrition in the Kitch
Can you substitute the protein powder with something else?
You could omit it and use extra cocoa powder! 🙂
Hi Christal,
I love your blog and have been trying to eat a lot cleaner and your recipes are really helping. I actually find all of them really amazing.
Can I just ask what peanut butter u use because I think the one I have is not ideal. With all the *controversies* regarding peanut butter I just to make sure I pick the right one. 😉 😉
Thank you again.
Hemi
Hey Hemi! Any peanut butter that has one ingredient… PEANUTS, is fine! Lol – no added oils, or sugars. the only thing that could be added is salt if you prefer a salted peanut butter. For brands I love “Nuts To You”, “Maranatha”, “Adams”.. 🙂
These brownies look amazing! I can’t wait to make them for me and my fiance to try! 🙂
Enjoy!
They look healthier than the sweet potato brownies I used to make which had about 8oz of dark choc in the recipe! I’ll have to give it a go
Can’t wait to check out your new design tomorrow! And I’m already thinking about veganizing these bad boys! 😉
Let me know how they work out with the veganizing! 🙂 Do you do flax eggs?? Or use an egg replacer?
NCN Daily Cleanse works amazingly as an egg replacer! Either that or just plain ground flax. I’m making them tonight actually so I’ll let ya know!
Hello! How did the brownies turn out with an egg replacer?
I cannot find the NCN egg replacer on their website, do you recall where you found it?
Thanks!
Love your blog by the way!!!!
Hey Jennifer! I didn’t use the egg replacer, I used actual egg- another blogger who tested the recipe did and they didn’t turn out 🙁
Mighty heavens those brownies look good! 😀
Might just have to have a go at making them, mmmmm 😀 I hope you’re having a terrific Tuesday 😀 x
You must you must! 🙂
Don’t boil your potatoes for mashing – steam them! They get much less watery/mushy. It took us precisely one time steaming instead of boiling our potatoes to know that we will never boil potatoes again.
Really! I’m willing to try for sure – how do you steam yours??
I always steam my potatoes too, just cover in a large pan with a bit of water. Quick and easy!
So my brownies were a terrible failure…they didn’t bake at all! Not even salvageable…garbage brownies 🙁 poor little guys.
Awww 🙁 I guess the eggs are a necessary component – I’m sorry, I hate unsalvageable kitchen failures – at least when they look bad but still taste good it’s kind of a win!
They look epic.
They are!! 🙂