A healthy dessert hybrid loaded with gooey chocolate chips, walnut chunks, and so much fudgy flavor! Vegan, grain-free, paleo-friendly.
Hi friend. Friend who is also a fan of chocolate and cookies. A.k.a. the best kind of friend.
This is going to be a short one. Because real life. True story. Actual situation is I’ve got next week’s (hopefully!) recipe in the oven, a pot about to boil on the stove, family coming this weekend, and dog fur everywhere reminding me how much I need to vacuum between now and then.
It’s funny because I’m not a writer – never was, never wanted to be, will probably never call myself that – but yet I write here every single week. I know many people probably just zip right on past to the recipe (Hi. Bye.), and I am 100% fine with that. I will happily wave as you scroll by and wish you the best of luck with your baking or snack-making regardless of if you want to stick around for the rambles or not. But to those of you that do read: THANK YOU.
It means a lot to me. Because actually writing the post can be tough. Like I’ll-edit-the-video-twice-if-someone-else-will-just-handle-this-words-part tough. And sometimes I ask myself why I do it? Why I don’t just jot down a few sentences about chocolate chips vs chocolate chunks and flour substitutions?
I think the answer has to do with holding space to share. So that when I feel the urge to talk about slightly more serious stuff like I am today the door is open. When the words want to flow there is a place for them. Like a little portal between you and me that just happens to be lined with lots of sweet things. Because blogging really isn’t about food to me. It’s about creativity + connection. And as cliche as that may sound, it’s so true I can feel it.
I heard a quote on a podcast recently – “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” (Yes I had to listen to/read that one twice too.) I don’t think there could possibly be a better testimony to the power of writing your thoughts instead of just thinking them. I don’t journal, but I do sometimes write emails with no intention of sending them which I think counts. There is something important about getting thoughts out of the rarely-objective mind and into words that helps. Always.
So for all those reasons I write. Sometimes it’s about cookies. Sometimes it’s about life. Sometimes it’s about both.
As for the cookie side of things, these cookies are what would happen if you took a brownie, turned it into a cookie, and then turned the fudgy all the way up to eleven.
Based on my favorite sweet potato blondies, these cookies are made mostly of sweet potato too. Which has a couple of benefits: a) naturally sweet so just a touch of maple syrup is plenty b) naturally starchy so the only flour we need is a couple tablespoons of coconut flour c) tastes like a fudge brownie trapped in a cookie’s body.
The dough is a mix of baked sweet potato, almond butter, cacao powder, blah blah blah… Let’s get to the good stuff already: mix-ins! You could go chocolate chunks here, but personally I feel chips are more classic. Regular-size, not mini. And walnuts because I learned a thing or two about nuts in brownies from my boxed mix days. But you could swap for any nut you like, or skip them in favor of simple, straight, double-chocolate decadence instead.
These are the kind of cookies that just beg to be eaten warm and gooey with milk and friends. So please don’t deny their devouring wishes.
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Chewy Chocolate Brownie Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 12 cookies 1x
- Category: cookies
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: american
Description
A healthy dessert hybrid loaded with gooey chocolate chips, walnut chunks, and so much fudgy flavor! Vegan, grain-free, paleo-friendly.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup sweet potato ((baked and mashed))
- 1/2 cup nut/seed butter
- 1/4 cup cacao powder ((or cocoa powder))
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- Pinch of salt
- 3–4 tbsp non-dairy milk
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup walnuts ((or any kind of nut you like))
Instructions
- Preheat the oven for 350F.
- In a blender or food processor, combine the sweet potato, nut/seed butter, cacao powder, maple syrup, baking powder, vanilla, coconut flour, and salt.
- Mix, adding the non-dairy milk 1 tablespoon at a time until combined. Stop to scrape down the sides as needed.
- Add the chocolate chips and walnuts. Mix/stir into the batter.
- Roll into balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten lightly.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350F.
- Remove from the oven and cool for 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!
- Keep in an airtight container (preferably in the fridge) for up to a week.
Keywords: baking, dessert, snack, easy, healthy, vegan, paleo
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For someone who doesn’t like to write you wrote a gorgeous post today. I love your vulnerability. I am starting to Airbnb an apartment tomorrow; talk about cleaning. Ugh. I have been looking for a little sweet to welcome my guests. I think these cookies will fit the bill nicely.
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Thank you so much Hanne, that means a lot💜 Oh goodness, good luck with your cleaning marathon🙈 And yes to cookies = welcome, always a good plan!
Thank you! For these beautiful photos, amazing recipes, and thoughtful posts.
Would pumpkin work instead of sweet potatoe?
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You are so welcome Inga, thank you for the support 🙂 Pumpkin contains a lot more moisture than sweet potato so I worry that swap may throw off the moisture balance. I haven’t tested it, but if you give it a go consider adding extra flour to make up for it. Good luck!
I have tried to make these THREE different times and each time it is incredibly moist and doesnt work. I am not sure what I am doing wrong 🙁
Hmm that’s so odd, I’m sorry they aren’t working Faith😕 Are you steaming the sweet potato by chance? Or using a very runny nut/seed butter? You can try using less milk and more flour to fix it, not sure exactly why that’s happening since I can’t be there!
These look sooo good!
Any chance I can find the calories, fat, etc. stats anywhere?
Just calculated it real quick for you! One cookie is: 130cal / 13g carbs / 9g fat / 4g protein / 6g sugar. Hope that helps!
They look delicious! Is there any way I can bring the fat down? Besides skipping the walnuts..
The nut butter is pretty important for the texture since there is so little flour here, but if you wanted to try subbing some or all of it with more sweet potato you could. I can’t guarantee it will work, but that’s my best suggestion. Good luck!
I would probably eat like 90% of the dough. 10% would go into the oven.
That’s okay, though, right??? 🙂
Yes that sounds like a very reasonable ratio. In fact I admire your commitment to tradition with the 10%👌 Thanks girly!
Wow, this would certainly satisfy my chocolate craving! I cant wait to try it!
I fully believe these little guys could take on the deepest of chocolatey cravings–so decadent and fudgy! Well I hope you love them too 🙂
Is it possible to use oat flour instead of coconut flour?
Sure, just double the amount!
And I’m thinking they beg to be eaten warm and gooey with coffee ice cream!! Can’t wait to make them! BTW, as a writer myself, I LOVE your writing. I can almost hear you when I read your blog…and you’re spontaneous, funny, thoughtful and everything I like to read. Plus I like your recipes! 😃
OMGGGGG! Trena you are a genius with this coffee ice cream plan, count me in! And thank you, that means a lot <3
Awww you are such a cutie Natalie! I may not visit your blog every single time when you publish a new recipe but when I do (and I plan to do it more often in the future) I take the time to read your blog post. Being vulnerable is amazing and it makes your blog more personal. I often share personal stuff on my Instagram account and not so much on my blog because I believe most of my readers only want to check my recipe and then “bye”… But adding this personal note to a blog is so important in my opinion because only then our blog is unique and not one of a million other food blogs. So keep doing what you do, because you are amazing and so is your writing. Lots of love, Ela
PS: I am going to slightly edit my today’s blog post now and make it more personal. I didn’t publish it yet because I thought something was missing. Now I know what it was, thanks to you xoxo
Awww Ela your comment means so much to me, thank you <3 And thank you for taking the time to read as often as you do, it is really hard to keep up! Yes I do think most people just want the recipe, which is why I added that little jump button at the top--save them the scrolling 🙂 But it is nice to be able to share here or on IG and start conversations sometimes too. I look forward to reading your more personal post very soon 🙂
HOLY FUDGY DELICIOUSNESS!!!!! OMG OMG OMG. I can just tell by the dark color that these epically rich and delish!!! Plus who doesn’t love TWO desserts in one!! LOVE LOVE LOVE.
Oh you know it 😀 Hehe the more dessert forms and mix-ins crammed into one bite the better 🙂 Have a great weekend Kaila!
LOVE this recipe. Decreased the nut butter by 1/4 cup and added 1/4 cup of apple puree. Worked out great. Thank you Thank you Thank you for this healthy recipe that allows me to get my chocolate fix. Delish and nutrish!!
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Yay I am so happy to hear it!! Good to know the applesauce swap for some of it worked, thank YOU for the awesome feedback. Enjoy the rest 🙂
Oh hi, hi there! You were talking to me, right? That opening line….I’m that friend…the one who loves chocolate and cookies…specifically chocolate cookies! I mean, sweet potatoes, chocolate, chocolate chips, nuts and nut butter…that’s pretty much my whole pantry there, hahaha! These are amazing Natalie…the dark chocolate level is off the charts. I love the fact that these look so rich and chocolatey. I love dark chocolate and rich chocolate way more than I like just straight sugar….although sugar is nice too, lol. You basically described just how I feel as well in your post. When I write a post, 99% of the time I have NO clue what I’m going to type…I never plan it out, unless it’s a serious topic. Rather, once I’m done with a recipe, I sit down and start typing the post and what comes out is what is published. It is often why I end up with so many grammar errors too, haha.
Ok, anyways, back to these amazing cookies. I’m glad you just said the heck with it…blah, blah, blah and got to the gooooood stuff….the chocolate chips and nuts…heck yeah! That’s always the most exciting part about a cookie! These look amazing and even though it’s 11pm here right now…I am excited to go to sleep dreaming about these!
Damn…I wrote a novel, sorry about that, lol! See, no plans…I just ramble, haha.
Um DUH! Who else could I possibly have been referring to–you are the archetypal chocolate + sweet potato + cookie fan friend 😀 When I moved and set up my pantry I clearly underestimated my love for nuts and nut butters too because that shelf is currently overflowing lol…and i am not the least bit mad about it. Mmm yes, so dark and fudgy. I’m surprised how dark they turned out since there is only 1/4 cup cacao, but they taste really rich and not super sweet which I much prefer too. I love your posts, they are so candid and so you and always truly express your excitement for the recipe–the energy is really authentic and I think that is the most important part (typos?? pssssh!) Well I hope those were some delicious cookie dreams 🙂 Have a great weekend Brandi!
You are so sweet, thank you Natalie. Sometimes I think I probably sound like an overexcited cheer leader when talking about the recipe but I’m just always so excited about it, I just can’t help myself, haha! And besides, how else do I get readers excited about a recipe if I am not excited about it?!
LOL, that is totally my pantry…the amount of nut butters, nuts and FLOURS is appalling. My husband is always saying that I could open my own store straight from our pantry, hahaha!
xx
These look amazing! Can’t wait to try this recipe this weekend. One question… is the sweet potato peeled?
Thanks again!!
Lisa
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Yep! I bake them and then remove the peeling before mashing, but however you do it you definitely don’t want the peels in the cookies. Hope they turn out perfect 🙂 Have a great weekend!
LOVED reading this my dear! So real and beautiful. I can relate, sometimes I literally stare at my screen, at that damn little cursor blinking and just have nothing, and other times the words pour out. I want to let you know, though, that your writing is always wonderful! You have a wonderful space here and I love that I can be a small part of it. All that being said…THESE COOKIES. So rich and fudgy and decadent and chewy and amazing looking!! So many other adjectives, but I’ll leave it at that for now. 🙂
Yes it can go both ways for me too, tricky part is not knowing if it’s going to be one of those times when the post writes itself or takes 3 hours to get to 500 words. It is definitely a finicky creative process, but thank you for your kind words and for relating Sara <3 All the adjectives haha!
Love the quote! I had to read it twice too but it’s so true!
Although evening walks with my boyfriend and talking about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING really helps with reflecting.. this is my kind of journaling 😀
These cookies!! Chewy cookies are always my favorites! They look so good and perfectly chocolatey.
Oh yes, evening walks are the best! I try to go for one every day just to get away from the computer, it works really well to turn off my work brain and even better if you have good company 🙂 Chewy > crunchy ALWAYS. Thanks Bianca!
Loved these—but I didn’t have enough sweet potato. It was a big potato that I assumed would give me 1.5 cups, but it turned out to be only 1 cup, so I added a 1/2 cup of pumpkin, which made it a little runny (wasn’t sure how much extra coconut flour to add since I’m not very familiar with baking with coconut flour. Baked them for 12 minutes. Definitely fudgy, but very loose, even after hours of refrigeration. I wouldn’t say these are chewy—very soft almost to the point of not staying together. Will make again with 1.5 cups of sweet potato and will maybe live really dangerously and add some more coco flour.
Hi Ellen! Sweet potato is such an imperfect ingredient when it comes to measurement, but you want to have a very thick dough in order for the cookies to bake to be sturdy. Definitely try more/all sweet potato next time as it has less liquid and binds more than pumpkin. I wouldn’t suggest much more coconut flour as that will actually make them more crumbly and likely to fall apart. Even if the texture didn’t come out perfect, I hope they still taste delicious 🙂
Would this recipe work using something other than sweet potato, like pumpkin?
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You could try it, but pumpkin is much more watery and less thick/binding then sweet potato so I am afraid they wouldn’t hold together as well or you would have to add more flour and then they would be overly crumbly. So not recommended, but you are always welcome to experiment!
Hi! I’m so going to try this recipe! I just wanted to know if I could freeze these just for the satisfaction of knowing that if I need a heavenly and fudgy chocolate miracle I could pop one right out. Thanks for inspiring me everyday! ILYSM
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Hi Sofia! So you definitely can freeze them, although they will never be as good after thawing as they are fresh. Freezing just irrevocably changes the texture of most things. But you can freeze the dough and either thaw and bake at any time or just eat as a chilly chunk of delicious dough because it is SO good without baking! That would hit the instant “heavenly and fudgy chocolate miracle” spot perfectly in my opinion, but up to you! <33
I adore these cookies, but even more so YOU <3 I love coming here to read all your thoughts. Whether it's a silly post or a more vulnerable post – I love and get excited to read.
There are so many food bloggers I follow just because I like to read their posts and beautiful thoughts. It's usually a lot more about that than actual recipes. A delicious recipe is like a nice lil bonus.
Love you Natalie <3
I totally agree actually! I love reading other bloggers posts and admiring how they write and have so much respect for anyone who shows up and writes pretty/inspiring things regularly. Although I think as bloggers ourselves perhaps we have more appreciation for that than the average human. Idk, I could be wrong. The yummy stuff is just like icing (or streusel :)) on the cake. Thanks dear and hope you are doing well <3
You totally could have fooled me because you seem to write so effortlessly – words flow and it often times feels like we’re just having a casual face-to-face chat over a cup of tea and cookies. And that, to me, points to be a beautiful writer. YOU are a writer. I don’t journal as much as I’d like to these days, but I have definitely typed out emails with no intention of ever sending them – it’s actually rather therapeutic. I love your blog for so many reasons and I’ve never just scrolled right to the recipe because I wouldn’t want to miss the humor or sarcasm or the chance to learn a bit more about my friend! Or the story behind a recipe (trials, what you’ve learned, etc.) – like you, blogging is about connectivity AND creativity. Before I turn this into the longest comment ever 😬😆 I wanted to tell you that Willow and I made these cookies today!! Eeep! Ours didn’t turn out nearly as pretty or as dark as yours (maybe the cacao powder we used??), but they’re already almost gone! Ha! Willow is obsessed with sweet potato (orange flesh only) and it’s the only potato she will eat so this recipe made her super happy! Definitely very brownie like and that fudginess factor is amazing. What I really loved was that these aren’t overly sweet! So you don’t feel too guilty for eating more than you should 😂 I will have to make these again to share with my parents – I know they’ll love these too!! ❤️ Hope you’re having a great weekend, Natalie! XO
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You are so sweet (I feel like I say that too you way too much because it’s true, but I need to get more creative lol) Thank you for reading my non-writer writings, it’s not so much that I don’t/can’t write but it’s certainly not the form of creativity that calls to me most. But yes, definitely can be very therapeutic at times for me too😊 Omg YAYYY!!!!!! I always love hearing which ones you try. Although I am noticing and easy and chocolate trend haha! Fave potato of the moment + chocolate–what more could a girl ask for🤗 Yes totally kept them not too sweet on purpose, I’ve been into more subtly sweet desserts lately. Sweet potato with dinner…sweet potato (cookie) with dinner…same difference😉 Thank you my dear for trying them and the always kind and much-appreciated feedback❤️❤️
In place of coconut flour, would unbleached all purpose flour work or combination with wheat? Looks delicious!! Thanks!
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Should be fine, but you will likely need double the amount. So 1/4 cup AP or wheat or a mix. Hope that helps and I hope they turn out deliciously 🙂
Looks yummy. Wonder if I can substitute almond flour since I can’t do coconut. Thank you!
You can indeed, but will need to probably double the amount since coconut flour is much more dry/absorptive than almond. Good luck and hope you enjoy!
Look fab.
Thanks for sharing.
I was wondering if you know of a way to replace the nut butter?
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I haven’t tested any subs and it’s pretty important for texture and moisture, but you could try leaving it out and just adding more sweet potato. I cannot guarantee the results though. Good luck!
My first try was a success! A yummy one too! I substituted Date Sugar and it seemed to work fine. I was wondering why my batch made twice as many cookies, then I thought as I ate too many, who cares? Yum 🙂 Thank you for a tasty and healthy treat!
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Hahaha, no such thing as too many cookies! Also I may or may not have saved some of my batter for eating because it is just as delicious NOT baked 🙂 I’m happy to hear the date sugar worked, thanks for the feedback and enjoy Lisa!