Easy, gooey and delicious sweet potato brownies that are great for everyday baking. Made with oat flour and ground walnuts, naturally sweetened with dates so they don't spike up your child's blood sugar. Perfect snack for a toddler and the whole family for any day of the week.

Brownies. Don't you just love them?! Chocolate, butter, white flour and sugar. What could be better, right?

And while it's no sin to enjoy the regular sugary brownies every once in a while, wouldn't it be great if we had a healthier option that we could enjoy more often that doesn't spike blood sugar?

It would if you ask me. And that's why I am so excited to share this recipe.

It's simple, easy, nutritious and more important – delicious. Sweet Potato Brownies!

Nutrition And Ingredients

Sweet Potato

You can use either store-bought sweet potato puree that is ready-to-be mixed into the pancake batter or you can bake your own sweet potato and make a puree quite easily – I baked my own sweet potato as I couldn't find a puree but it's really easy to do

Sweet potato is a great ingredient to choose in both sweet and savory meals not only because of its great taste but also because it is filled with great nutrients such as vitamin A, copper, manganese and potassium but also plenty of fiber

Date Syrup

A natural sweetener that contains some magnesium, calcium, phosphorus and B vitamins

As a natural sweetener it does not spike blood sugar like regular table sugar

Peanut Butter

Buy 100% peanut butter and not the varieties that have added palm oil (or any other for that matter) or salt

If you are making your own peanut butter, make it from unsalted peanuts and don't add any oil to the butter

Like other nuts and nut butters, peanut butter is high in calories and fats. However it is the "good" kind of fats that can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases

Coconut Oil

I love using coconut oil in baking recipes for the fact that it contains a good fatty acid profile. Of course it’s not as healthy as let’s say olive oil but still I find it a better choice than butter, margarine or sunflower oil

Raw Cocoa Powder

Use the raw unsweetened version to get the maximum health benefits

Contains great phytonutrients that have a strong antioxidants and therefore can support heart health

Not suitable for babies under 1

Dark chocolate

I tend to use at least 70% cocoa dark chocolate each time I am using dark chocolate in a recipe. But actually any "cooking" chocolate that has more than 55% cocoa should do just fine

It's a great source of antioxidants and phytonutrients due to the raw cocoa powder content

Oat flour

If you can't buy oat flour, you can simply blend rolled oats until you get them into a flour-like texture

Great source of complex carbs, fiber, manganese and magnesium

Walnuts

Make sure to finely grind walnuts before (if you don't already have ground ones)

A great source of healthy fats, calories and vitamin E

At What Age Can I Give This To My Child?

Even though a child under 1 could eat this we would not recommend it for children under 1 because firstly, we don't want a child to get too used to such sweet snacks. And secondly with the dark chocolate and cocoa powder this may have too much caffeine for such a young baby.

How To Make This

If you will not be using sweet potato puree for these brownies, you will first need to bake your sweet potato.

How to make sweet potato puree

Prepare the oven. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.

Prepare the sweet potato. Cut the sweet potato in halves lengthwise and pierce it through the skin with a fork several times (do not peel the skin). Place them on a baking tray and bake for about 45 minutes (until you can easily pierce it all the way to the other side with a knife). The mixture will be quite firm.

Cool and prepare for brownies. Allow to fully cool before scooping the flesh. Takes about 15-20 min. Blend into a puree.

How To Make The Brownies

Prepare for baking. Preheat the oven to 170°C / 340°F. Grease a baking tin with some coconut oil and sprinkle some flour on top.

Note on baking trays: We have made this using a 10 x 10 inch baking tray (25 x 25 cm) and also using a 12 x 7 inch (30 x 18 cm) and both times they turned out perfect.

Mix the wet ingredients. Put all the wet ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix.

Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients.

Finalize the mixture. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones with a spatula or by using your mixer for about 20 seconds.

Bake. Transfer the mixture to the baking tray. The mixture should be compact enough that you can easily level it with your hands.

Bake for about 20 minutes. When you insert a knife, it should come out clean.

Cool and serve. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes prior to cutting into pieces and serving.

Tips And Tricks For The Perfect Brownies

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet. The trick is to first blend/mix all the wet ingredients together until they form a smooth liquid. Then you need to add all the dry ones. You can either mix in the dry ingredients into the wet ones with a spatula, OR with a mixer/blender for 20 seconds.

Don't over bake the brownies. If you over bake the brownies, they won't be as fudgy and soft on the inside but rather firm and rubbery. So the trick is to watch over your brownies while they are baking for the first time because no oven is the same. For me, 20 minutes was enough so that I could insert a knife and it would come out clean. Another indicator that you have overbaked them is if they start developing brownish spots like they are burnt on the top.

Possible Variations

Use other natural sweeteners. You don’t need to use date syrup in this recipe. You can easily substitute with any other sweetener. I would recommend only using natural ones like honey (over 1 year olds) or agave syrup.

Use another flour. If you don’t have (or want to use) oat flour, you can always choose any other flour of choice. However to keep it on the healthy side, I would recommend using wholegrain ones like whole grain spelt, wheat or rye flour. I wouldn’t recommend using fat-based flour such as coconut or almond because you’d need a carb-based one to make these brownies rise a bit.

Use another nut/nut butter. Instead of walnuts you can use any other ground nuts of choice and instead of peanut butter also another nut butter of choice. But as far as nut butters go I still recommend you either make your own or buy 100% nut butters that have no added salt or palm oil.

Make them as muffins. If you have a bit of time on your hands or just like experimenting in the kitchen, you can always make these brownies as muffins. The process is the same right up to transferring the mixture for baking. Simply fill the muffin cups or silicone muffin tins about ¾ of the way and bake. The baking time should be similar but do keep an eye on them and check every once in a while.

Sweet Potato Brownies