Simple Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

What do you do in the middle of a pandemic? Bake, of course.

There’s something comforting about food right now. Food is a sacred ritual and we need that comfort at this time of insanity.

Since we’re all turning to food for comfort, we’re also baking bread and a lot of goodies at home. That leaves grocery store shelves empty of flour.

Yes, I couldn’t get flour or yeast at the store. I wanted cookies. Desperately.

So, what did I do? Improvised.

This recipe is the result of that. I remember that I made sweet potato cookies about 5 or 6 years ago. I couldn’t find the recipe that I used so I decided that I’d just wing it. I have to say that I was really happy with the result. Happy enough to share it with you all to try at home.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe.

The Ingredients

This is a very simple recipe and you can probably make it happen with what you have around the house. You don’t need to pick up a bag of oat flour or try to find regular flour. Just take a cup of oatmeal and grind it up in a small food processor, blender, or coffee grinder.

Remember to wipe down the coffee grinder before and after use.

You’ll need a couple of sweet potatoes, an egg, oatmeal, and chocolate chips. I personally like small semi-sweet chocolate chips. You can use what you like.

Tips and Substitutions

This recipe does take some patience. The hardest part is waiting for the sweet potatoes to cool down all the way.

I wasn’t patient enough and when I put the chocolate chips in the mixture, they melted. It didn’t impact the flavor of the cookies, but it does explain why the chocolate chips aren’t really defined in these photos.

Put the potatoes in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to make sure they are completely cool. Then add in the ingredients.

Can you add sugar or a sweetener? Sure!

It’s not necessary because there will be enough sweetness between the potatoes and chocolate chips.

If you want to add sweetness, agave or sugar would work well in this recipe. I don’t because I like to taste all of the ingredients in what I make. A sweetener can overpower the sweet potatoes and I think it’s sweet enough with the chocolate chips and roasted sweet potatoes.

If you do add something, keep it to a quarter of a cup or less.  

You can also get creative with spices. In the fall, get your pumpkin on and add a little bit of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.

This is a recipe to have fun with.

What Happens to Sweet Potatoes When You Roast Them?

When you roast up sweet potatoes, they get caramelized. The starch in the sweet potatoes turns to sugar. Letting the potatoes roast for a while will turn that sugar into caramel, sort of. It brings out

The key is to wrap them in foil and sprinkle a little bit of water in the foil. Some people like to add sugar to sweet potatoes while roasting them to get that candied sweet potato flavor. You need to roast the potatoes for a while – about 50 minutes at 400 degrees.

When you leave the sweet potatoes bare, they dry out pretty quickly. To make this recipe a success, we need to have the sweet potatoes sweet and moist.

Sweet Potato Cookies

These sweet potato cookies are fun and easy to make. You just need a few things, and there’s plenty of room for creativity.

I’d love to hear if you tried this recipe and how it turned out for you. Let me know in the comments below!