These Sweet Potato Blondies are rich and fudgy, perfectly sweet and secretly healthy! They're satisfying, nutritious and are a good source of protein and fibre too. They're also vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar free, date-sweetened, grain-free and oil-free too.
2teaspoons(2teaspoons)baking powder(ensure gluten-free if necessary)
For topping (optional):
100g(⅔cup)pecan nuts, roughly chopped (or replace with chocolate chips or coconut flakes)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
Place the sweet potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water.
Bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes, until soft enough to gently pierce with a fork.
Drain the sweet potatoes and drain away the water from the soaked dates.
Place the cooked sweet potatoes, drained dates, almond butter, almond milk and salt in a food processor or blender.
Blend until completely smooth, mixing it around a couple of times if necessary.
Transfer into a mixing bowl, add the ground almonds and baking powder and mix well.
Transfer the mixture into a square or rectangular baking tin lined with greased baking paper - I used a 23cm/9inch square baking tin.
Scatter over the chopped pecan nuts and press them down into the batter.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. They should be slightly cracked on the top and slightly firm inside but still quite gooey - be careful not to overcook!
For this recipe, you must use Japanese sweet potatoes, which are the ones with purple skin and white flesh.
You can also use other varieties of white sweet potatoes, which tend to have a brown skin and white flesh.
But I recommend the Japanese variety if you can find them, as they have the best texture and flavour.
Orange sweet potatoes can be used, but are not recommended as the texture and flavour will not be as good.
For a nut-free version, replace the ground almonds with ground sunflower seeds, replace the almond butter with sunflower seed butter, and use a nut-free plant-based milk.
You can omit the pecan nuts, or replace them with chocolate chips or coconut flakes.