This easy sweet potato cookie recipe is made with mashed sweet potato, oats and almond flour. They’re soft, chewy, filled with fall spices, just slightly sweet and naturally gluten-free and vegan!
While pumpkin likes to steal the show in the fall, I’m all for this being an equal opportunity site when it comes to fall vegetables.
And with that said, sweet potato really should be right up there with pumpkin for the number 1 position.
Being no stranger to including mashed sweet potato in baked goods like sweet potato bran muffins, sweet potato oat bars and tender sweet potato biscuits, an inability to find canned pumpkin at the store and a couple of sweet potatoes sitting on my counter resulted in this sweet potato cookie recipe.
These hearty sweet potato oatmeal cookies are nice and chewy, filled with fall spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom, made with wholesome, real-food ingredients and they’re gluten-free and vegan to boot!
INGREDIENTS FOR THE BEST SWEET POTATO COOKIES
Here’s what you’ll need to make this easy cookie recipe:
- rolled oats
- almond flour
- salt
- baking soda
- pumpkin spice (or each individual spice: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves)
- cardamom (optional but I love this spice in all my fall baked goods)
- chia seeds + water (this is to make a vegan chia egg)
- coconut oil
- coconut sugar
- vanilla extract
- cooked mashed sweet potato
HOW TO MAKE THE COOKIES
Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat (silicone baking mat).
Make the chia egg first by combining the chia seeds and water in a small bowl. Stir it gently and set aside until it has gelled up and thickened substantially. This will take about 5 minutes, 10 maximum.
In a large bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil and coconut sugar. Then add the vanilla and mashed sweet potato. Whisk until the mixture is smooth.
Add all the dry ingredients to the bowl along with the gelled chia egg. Stir until everything is thoroughly combined.
Scoop the sweet potato cookie dough out into your hands and roll into a ball. Place on the baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies won’t change shape much at all while baking so when you remove them from the oven, use your hand to gently flatten them a little. Leave them to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring each cookie to a cooling rack.
HOW TO STORE SWEET POTATO COOKIES
I keep the cookies in an air-tight container. At room temperature, they’ll be fine for about 1-2 days. After that, place in the refrigerator.
If you prefer to freeze the cookies, they’ll keep for 1-2 months.
HOW TO MAKE MASHED SWEET POTATO FOR BAKING
As the star ingredient in these cookies, the mashed sweet potato is important!
While you can sometimes find mashed sweet potato in a can near the pumpkin at the store, it’s pretty hit or miss and very easy to make your own at home (much easier than pumpkin!).
*Note – you’ll sometimes see canned or jarred yams in the store. These are usually in syrup and not what you want for this recipe.
Peel a sweet potato and cut into chunks – about 1″ pieces are fine. Place in a medium sauce pot filled with water. Cover and bring to a boil.
Simmer on a low boil until the sweet potatoes are fork tender. Drain the water and place in a bowl.
Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork until smooth.
That’s it!
Now you have mashed cooked sweet potato to use in recipes like these cookies, this sweet potato raisin bread or even these brown butter sweet potato chocolate chip cookies!
You can keep any extra mashed sweet potato stored in a container in the refrigerator.
Or, freeze it in cubes (an ice cube tray works great for this) for a later use like adding to smoothies or for sweet potato steel cut oats!
WHAT DO THESE SWEET POTATO COOKIES TASTE LIKE?
First of all, I’m legit obsessed with the texture of these cookies. They’re chewy to the max, hearty from the rolled oats and yet soft with a little bit of that “raw cookie-dough” vibe in the middle.
That right there is what I’d call my definition of the perfect cookie.
Flavor-wise, they’ve definitely got that fall thing going strong. In fact, they’re a bit like sweet potato pie in cookie form!
The pumpkin pie spice and extra cardamom scream fall baking and while they have enough coconut sugar to land them in cookie territory, they’re not overly sweet at all.
I actually prefer these as an afternoon snack or crumbled on top of a yogurt or smoothie bowl for breakfast more than an actual dessert.
And with their nutritional profile, that’s not a stretch at all.
NUTRITIONAL BREAKDOWN
Each cookie has 2g of fiber (thank you, oats), 3g of protein and just 11g of carbohydrates.
The almond flour keeps them lower-carb and along with the chia seeds, you get a good dose of healthy fats with each one.
SUBSTITUTIONS AND TIPS
CHIA EGG – you can try a flax egg instead of a chia egg but I find that chia eggs bind better than flax eggs, something that’s a bit more important in a cookie recipe than say a bread or muffin recipe.
COCONUT SUGAR – brown sugar can be substituted here. I haven’t tried any liquid sweeteners like maple syrup or honey in this recipe. If you do, my preference would be maple syrup but you may have to lower the amounts of other liquid ingredients.
SWEET POTATO – you can swap out pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix) or another mashed squash instead of using sweet potato without any issues.
ALMOND FLOUR – make sure to use blanched almond flour not almond meal. Almond flour is whiter from the removal of the outer skin of the almond and blanching while almond meal leaves the skin on and is therefore darker in color.
OATS – if it’s necessary to keep the recipe gluten-free, make sure to use gluten-free certified oats. I recommend using organic oats too if possible as oats are a high-spray crop and glyphosate (Round-up) is often used as a drying agent.
VANILLA EXTRACT – vanilla bean paste can be swapped out 1:1 for vanilla extract.
If you’re looking for some add-ins recommendations, try adding a handful of pepitas, dried cranberries or chopped pecans to go along with the fall/sweet potato theme in the cookies.
MAKE THEM EXTRA DECADENT!
To really up the decadence of these sweet potato cookies, try adding an icing on top!
I would suggest the cream cheese icing from these healthy carrot cake cookies or, the icing on these paleo carrot cake cookies.
OTHER OPTIONS:
-maple powdered sugar glaze (mix powdered sugar and maple syrup until desired consistency)
-maple nut butter glaze (mix maple syrup and creamy nut butter)
-chocolate dip or drizzle
-add some chocolate chips to the cookie dough batter
While the sweet potato pie we eat in my family is always a savory one we enjoy on New Years day, these cookies remind me of a healthier spin on the sweet potato pie/casseroles some enjoy for Thanksgiving.
In fact, these sweet potato pie cookies would be great for Thanksgiving.
Maybe alongside this chocolate pecan tart and some pumpkin pie fudge?
MORE HEALTHY COOKIE RECIPES LIKE THESE:
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies {Gluten-Free/Vegan}
Peanut Butter Stuffed Black Bean Cookies
Orange Pomegranate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Orange Infused Cranberry Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sweet Potato Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds + 2 tablespoons water
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup mashed cooked sweet potato
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
- Combine chia seeds and water in a small bowl. Stir and set aside until thickened, about 5-10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the melted coconut oil and coconut sugar to a large bowl and whisk until well combined.
- Add the vanilla and mashed sweet potato and whisk again until smooth.
- Add all the remaining ingredients including the chia "egg" to the bowl and stir until thoroughly combined.
- Use a medium cookie scoop or heaping tablespoon to scoop out the dough and roll it into balls in your hand.
- Place on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and gently press down on each cookie with your hand to flatten a little (they will not have changed shape/spread much at all while baking). Let cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes until transferring to a cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
Just made these—they turned out fantastic! Absolutely delicious. Thank you so much! I even dropped in a few chopped walnuts.
Great to hear, enjoy!
These sweet potato cookies were a hit with the family, I actually added in cinnamon spice you suggested! Great one to have with some hot choc!
Kara
Yummy! These look so delicious and tasty! I’m so excited to make these!
I love making sweet treats with hidden vegetables. These cookies look so good!
I love when I can “hide” some veggies in foods for my kids. They had no idea until I told them what was in the cookies!
The way you described the texture of this cookie has me so excited! I’m going to make a batch this afternoon. It does sound like the perfect cookie.
Love these! Perfect Fall treat!
Sweet potatoes get overlooked way too often in my opinion. This is the perfect recipe to enjoy them with!