Sweet Potato Blondies
Are you looking for a sweet treat you can feel good about serving your peeps? Then check out these Sweet Potato Blondies. Not only are they chock full of yummy chocolate chips and toasted walnuts, but they are also veggie-packed, whole-wheat, sweetened with unrefined maple sugar and have 100 less calories than the traditional version.
I originally shared this recipe on 2/26/13. I have updated the images and some of the text today.
Table of contents
Why We Love These Sweet Potato Blondies
Fall is the perfect time for baking. The air is crisp and clean, so you can actually look forward to turning your oven on and warming up just a bit. And with fall also comes Back-to-School, which means bake sales, lunch boxes, football games, potlucks, birthday parties and on and on and on….
It seems like you always need to take some sort of goodie somewhere. It can be daunting. And not everyone is a master baker, right?! Of course you can always fall back on the usual suspects like Rice Krispies Treats or Brownies.
But these Sweet Potato Blondies are really easy to make and they are easy to whip up with just 20 minutes of prep. Plus they are a sneaky way to get an extra dose of vegetables into your crew.
Not to mention they are absolutely delicious! The sweet potatoes add such awesome flavor, texture and moisture to the blondies. Throw in a few chocolate chips and walnuts and you are off to the ever-loving-blondie races.
Don’t miss these Gluten-Free Blondies too! They are sweetened with maple instead of refined sugar.
Key Ingredients For These Whole Wheat Blondies with Sweet Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potato puree can replace some of the eggs and fat in a baking recipe, which means less fat and calories. Sweet potatoes also contain many vitamins and minerals including Vitamins A, C and D.
Whole Wheat Flour
Whole wheat flour is made by grinding the entire wheat kernel, while the nutrient rich bran and germ are removed before grinding to make white flour. So whole wheat flour contains more vitamins and nutrients than all-purpose flour.
Maple Sugar
Maple sugar is made by boiling the tree’s sap reducing it’s water content until it becomes a solid sugar. It can be used just like regular granulated or brown sugar in recipes. It lends a slight maple flavor to baked goods. Dark brown sugar can be substituted if you don’t have maple sugar.
Other Ingredients For These Sweet Potato Blondies
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup chopped toasted walnuts
Step By Step Instructions For This Healthy Blondie Recipe
Step 1: Make sweet potato puree.
Bring several inches of water to a boil in a large saucepan fitted with a steamer basket. Add sweet potato to steamer basket, cover and cook until tender when pierced with a knife 14 to 18 minutes. Cool completely. Transfer to a food processor and puree until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. You will only need 1 ½ cups puree for this recipe. Reserve any remaining puree for another use.
Step 2: Preheat oven and prepare the pan.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Step 3: Combine dry ingredients.
Whisk whole-wheat pastry flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Step 4: Combine sugar, butter and sweet potato puree and add dry mixture and remaining ingredients.
Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl on medium-high speed until smooth. Add sweet potato and beat until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture and beat on low until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts by hand.
Step 5: Add dough to pan and bake.
Spread dough into the prepared baking dish and bake until golden and set up, 22 to 26 minutes.
FAQs and Expert Tips
Blondies do not contain any chocolate or chocolate flavoring other than chocolate chips if they are added. Brownie batter always includes some kind of chocolate.
Sweet potatoes can replace eggs and fat like butter and oil in baked goods making them healthier with less fat and calories.
Yes, cut into portions, wrap individually and freeze on a baking sheet. Transfer to a resealable freezer bag once frozen. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
More Healthy Baking Recipes
If you’re still in the mood from more chocolate chips, make sure you try these to good to be true Chocolate Chip Coconut Flour Cookies. There is even a low-carb version! Check out a few of my other sneakily healthy dessert and baking recipes…
Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!
Happy Cooking! ~Katie
PrintSweet Potato Blondies
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 24 bars 1x
Description
These Sweet Potato Blondies are chocked full of chocolate, toasted walnuts and are veggie packed, whole wheat and 100 calories less than the traditional version. Perfect for all of your Fall activities!
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes, about 1 1/2 pounds, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups granulated maple sugar or dark brown sugar
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
Instructions
- Bring several inches of water to a boil in a large saucepan fitted with a steamer basket. Add sweet potato to steamer basket, cover and cook until tender when pierced with a knife 14 to 18 minutes. Cool completely. Transfer to a food processor and puree until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. You will only need 1 ½ cups puree for this recipe. Reserve any remaining puree for another use.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- Whisk whole-wheat pastry flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl on medium high speed until smooth. Add sweet potato and beat until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture and beat on low until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts by hand.
- Spread dough into the prepared baking dish and bake until golden and set up, 22 to 26 minutes.
Notes
How To Freeze:
Cut into portions, wrap individually and freeze on a baking sheet. Transfer to a resealable freezer bag once frozen. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/24 batch
- Calories: 199
- Sugar: 15 g
- Sodium: 86 mg
- Fat: 9 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 28 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 18 mg
Yum! My family absolutely loved these sweet potato blondies. The chocolate chips were my favorite touch.
Oh my goodness I love that these have sweet potato in them! I have trouble getting a variety of vegetables into my kids with food aversions, so saving this to try. I’m so excited!
Healthy, low calorie and tastes fantastic, I’m definitely making these sweet potato blondies for my family.
These turned out fantastic! I’m a big fan of the sneaky vegetable and using the sweet potatoes was brilliant. Thanks!
We’re both refreshing old posts today 🙂 Love this idea for putting sweet potatoes in blondies. And why don’t I make blondies more often… I sure do love them!!
I LOVE sweet potato in baked goods – such a delicious way to sneak in some extra nutrition 😉
looks yummy! Do I need to use pastry flour or will regular whole wheat flour do for muffins?
Whole-wheat would work great too. Hope you enjoy these.
These are really good! I love sweet potatoes and I just made them! Only needed one sweet potato to make enough mash. Also, i stirred in the chocolate chips too early..the batter was a little hot from the potatoes still…so they didnt come out QUITE as pretty as yours!
I’m glad you liked them Barb. Thanks for the feedback about the potatoes. I’m glad they tasted good anyway
Never tried sweet potatoes in blondies, but it surely looks good on your photos!
Thanks Julia!
I’ve baked sweet potatos into cookies and bread before, but never blondies. This sounds so awesome and yummy!
Elizabeth,
Yum! Cookies and bread sound great too. Now that I see how seamlessly the pureed sweet potato folds into the batter, I will be trying it in other recipes as well. Thanks for stopping by.
-Katie
Hi Katie! My roommate and I made these last night and they were fabulous! We sort of accidentally left out 2 tablespoons of butter but they were still great. We missed your warning that these are more cakey than fudgey and we’re thinking next time we’ll make muffins…but still, awesome recipes! Thanks! 🙂
Erika,
I am glad you liked them. My kids loved the muffin variation. The added 2T butter should make them more tender, but it is great they turned out without. Thanks for letting me know you made them.
-Katie
This looks amazing! I love the added Sweet Potato! The lovies will love this.
Nicole,
Thanks! My daughters were so happy it took so many tests to get this recipe right. I sent them in my 6 year old’s lunch box quite a few times, and her friends were really jealous. They didn’t know they were healthy;)
-Katie
I would never have thought to put sweet potato in these. They sound really delicious. I am going to have to try them out.
Julia,
I don’t know where the idea came from either, ha, ha! But once I thought of it I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I am glad you like the idea because I think the flavor works really well.
-Katie
These look AWESOME! I’m always looking for ways to sneak a little veggie into things and this looks like a perfect place to start. I normally stick pumpkin in things like waffles and pancakes, so why not some sweet taters in cookie bars! SMART
Melissa, Thanks so much. I put veggies into everything I possibly can too. Pumpkin pancakes sound so good right now.Thanks for the comment.
-Katie
I love blondies SO much I usually end up eating the whole tray… which might not be such a bad thing with a healthier version like these sweet potato beauties!
Ashley,
Too funny. These are healthier for sure but not calorie free;) Though I did have them for breakfast a few times. I checked out your orange ginger chocolate blondies and wow! Those sound (and look)amazing. Thanks for stopping by.