by Texas Homesteader ~ 
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Sweet potatoes often go on sale and are cheap cheap, CHEAP. But these unassuming veggies are a real power house of nutrition too. 

Did you know you can use them to even add vitamins and fiber to a delicious healthier sweet treat?? 

Oh yeah, you have to see this…

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Refined-Sugar Free Treat

A few years ago we had a guest author share her experiences of going through a complete month without eating any refined sugar at all. But c’mon, they still love their sweets!

During her FINAL WEEK of the challenge, Ashley shared another ‘sweet surprise‘ – chocolate brownies made with sweet potatoes!

I’d never tried baking them before. But recently I found myself with a supply of fresh sweet potatoes. I love ’em served as a regular baked potato. A slight sprinkling of salt and a heavier sprinkling of black pepper, with a little pat of butter melted in. Umm, Umm, GOOD!

I think sweet potatoes are delicious that way. And I know that sweet potatoes pack a far heavier nutritional punch than traditional potatoes. So I feel good eating them when I can.

But RancherMan’s not really a fan of sweet potatoes. And a girl can only eat so many sweet potatoes by herself, ya know?

So I decided to give Ashley’s recipe below a try. I mean bibbidy-bobbedy BOO – changing plain sweet potatoes into a chocolate treat? Oh yeah!

Cooking Sweet Potatoes

When I made these for RancherMan & myself I incorporated some shortcuts. (Surprised? Of coursed not! LOL)

Instead of baking the potato in the oven (ain’t nobody got time for that!) I cooked them in the microwave. 

After they were cooked I allowed them to sit covered in the microwave until they cooled. Now you’d assume that the microwave cooking was the shortcut I was speaking of before, right? 

Well, yes – the microwave cooking did get me a cooked sweet potato much faster than firing up my oven. But by letting it sit in the microwave covered until it cooled was an even better shortcut. The PEELING.

You see, now that my cooked sweet potatoes are cooled, there’s a tiny air pocket between the skin and the actual sweet potato. To peel it I simply cut a slit in the skin and pulled it off. 

Lazy cooks UNITE!

Making Sweet-Potato Puree

Then I used my potato masher to mash the cooked sweet potato into a puree. The potato masher did a pretty good job, but I did see some tiny flecks of sweet potato that remained when I mixed it into the batter. 

This did not affect the brownies at all, but feel free to puree your sweet potatoes with a food processor or *Ninja Blender if you want a perfectly-smooth puree.

Making Sweet Potato Brownies

Then I measured out 1.5 cups of sweet potato puree. It took 3 small-ish sweet potatoes to net that much puree.

Now I chunked it along with the all the other ingredients into my KitchenAid. I didn’t have maple syrup so I used honey instead as I typically do.

The resulting batter was thickish. I wondered what that would mean to the texture of the brownies. But I plunked the batter into an 8×8 glass pan that I’d buttered and used my spatula to press the dough smooth.

(NOTE: Now I don’t bother greasing the pan in any way and they still come out of the pan beautifully when cooled. One less step in the kitchen? YES PLEASE!)

Easy 30-Minute Bake Time

Now into a 350-degree oven they went for about 30 minutes. Ashley had mentioned that you wanted to leave them in the oven until the corners were crisp, and 30 minutes baked them lightly-crisp but not too hard.

The house smelled amazing! Could it really be that these brownies might actually be guilt-free snacking?

I let them cool and then cut them into squares. I loved the texture and was surprised at how strongly the chocolate flavor came through. And here’s what they looked like. Decadent and chocolaty!

Option For Either ‘Fudgy’ or ‘Cakey’ Brownies

Here’s an interesting twist. I typically bake my brownies to 205 degrees Farenheight. This results in a cakey-textured brownie that I love. Especially if I’ll be adding any kind of frosting.

But I got to wondering if 205 degrees was the only option. I discovered that if you lower the internal temperature of your brownies, the result can be more of a fudgy texture – a little more moist. This was RancherMan’s favorite texture for the brownies

Either way is delicious. But the fudgy texture made the brownies more difficult to frost. And as I cut them with the knife, there was fudgy brownie left on the knife. That’s a delightful texture though, as long as you’re not trying to frost them. If you bake them to a fudgy texture just allow them to cool completely before attempting to cut them.

If you’ll be spreading some sort of frosting on top, stick with the 205 degrees Farenheight since cakey brownies are easier to frost.

RancherMan Wants A Sweeter Treat

But the brownies were lightly sweet. And RancherMan’s sweet tooth requires a pretty powerfully-sweet treat.

So I drizzled his brownie with a little Chocolate Drizzle Syrup to bump the sweetness up a notch for him. In subsequent batches I’ve added a tiny 1/4 tsp of powdered Stevia From The Garden to the batter to add some sugar-free sweetness for him too.

But for me – the lightly-sweet chocolate brownie fit the bill nicely.

This recipe is proof positive that it can be FUN to eat your veggies! LOL.

Whether you enjoy it as a guilt-free chocolaty snack or add some sweetness in the form of adding chocolate chips to the batter or drizzling the baked brownie with chocolate syrup to satisfy your sweet tooth, this brownie recipe is simple and delicious.

TAMMY’S NOTE: This No-Sugar challenge documents Ashley’s 30-day attempt to remove PROCESSED SUGAR from their diet. 

This challenge allows her to use natural sugars such as fruit, honey or true maple syrup, therefore it’s not meant for a diabetic alternative, simply a personal-health challenge. 

from Ashley: 

Sticking to the theme of chocolate and healthy, who would have ever thought that you could pair vegetables and cocoa powder to make delicious chocolate sweet potato brownies?!

But Sweet potatoes are full of amazing nutrients for your body and…well…you know, you can add chocolate. 🙂 

You just can’t go wrong with this recipe!

And you can even sneak this one in on others who love their sweet treats and they’ll never know they’re eating HEALTHY!

Whoever said healthy was synonymous with gross anyways? Check out this super-easy recipe for decadent chocolate sweet potato brownies!

– Ashley

NOTE:  You’re encouraged to read all four weeks of her Sugar-Free Challenge Journey where she shares tips & sugar-free recipes:

• Week ONE
• Week TWO
• Week THREE
• Week FOUR

~TxH~

Other Easy Desserts

• Depression-Era CRAZY CAKE – No Butter, Eggs or Milk
• Quick Homemade Whipped Cream
• Easy Instant Pot Cheesecake
• Apple Crumble QUICK With Pie Filling
• Fast Dessert: Spiced Rum Fried Apples
• Pumpkin Bread (with Cake-Mix Shortcut)
• Healthier Banana Bread Recipe
• Rich, Chocolaty Homemade Brownies
• Chocolate Pudding In A FLASH
• Banana Pudding – A Hug From The South
• Cherry-Pie Tortilla Rolls
• Cantaloupe Bread w/Pecan Praline Glaze
• Easy Blueberry Muffins
• Easy Homemade Shortcake
• Strawberry Shortcake Dessert
• Fresh Pear Cake
• Easy Homemade Peach Ice Cream
• Healthier ‘Ice Cream’ Using Bananas & Fruit
• Easy Cookies-n-Cream Ice Cream Cake
• Homemade Honey Graham Crackers
• Cake-Mix Cookies – Only 3 Ingredients!
• 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
• Double Chocolate Banana Chunk Cookies
• Sugar-Free Chocolate No-Bake Cookies
• Triple Chocolate Truffles
• Rich & Creamy Hot Cocoa
• Chocolate-Covered Rice Krispie Treats

• Dessert Toppings

• No-Cook Chocolate Frosting
• Stir-n-Pour Drizzle Chocolate
• Easy Honey Glaze
• Cherry Pie Filling From Frozen Cherries
• Peach Pie Filling From Canned Peaches

See All Recipe Posts

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