Sweet potato in cookies? Really! And it's GOOD!

You read the title right...sweet potato cookies!  These cookies get two big thumbs up from both of my kids.  Moist, delicious cookies that are LOADED with sweet potato.  It's a good match when you think of it.  Sweet potatoes do have a lot of natural sweetness, and the sweet potato's flavor is not so in-your-face.  It blends nicely with the rest of the ingredients, and you don't really realize that you're getting a hit of sweet potato.

Before you get too excited, these are still cookies in all of their sugary, refined flour goodness.  (Wait, is that an oxymoron?)  I'm with Cindy at Fix Me A Snack - sometimes a cookie just needs to be a cookie.  But that doesn't mean that you can't sneak some good stuff into it, right? 

If you remember seeing this recipe in the distant past, well, I've changed it ever so slightly.  I replaced just a little of the butter (ok, a whole 1/4 cup!) with applesauce.  I can't tell the difference.  I used a combo of cinnamon chips and white chocolate chips in my last batch, and only made half of the cookies with raisins (a nod to my raisin-hating little boy, who is actually slowly but surely making peace with dried grapes even if he will never be a fan of them).  I love the addition of the raisins.  While I think that a chocolate chip would overpower the subtle flavor of the cookie, feel free to use whatever chip or dried fruit makes you happy.  (And see my note at the very end about chips.)

These cookies are very moist, and they get their moisture from the sweet potato.  I go all out and use a full 3 cups of mashed sweet potato.  It's a forgiving recipe, so you can get away with as little as a cup of mashed sweet potato.  They get moister as they sit overnight, so put a layer of waxed or parchment paper in between the layers of cookies in your cookie jar.

Sweet Potato Cookies

1-3 cups sweet potato, cooked** and mashed
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup margarine or butter, cold
1/4 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup quick cooking oatmeal
1 cup raisins (optional)
cinnamon or white chocolate chips to taste (optional)
2 TBSP flaxseed meal (optional)

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and dry ingredients. Mix in mashed sweet potato and then any optional ingredients. Drop by teaspoonful onto a greased baking sheet (or use parchment paper without grease). Bake at 350 F for 10-12 min. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container.

**For those that aren't cooking inclined, there are lots of different ways you can cook your sweet potato. You can roast in the oven, unpeeled, at 425 F for about an hour or until tender when pierced with a fork. Or you can peel and boil or steam sweet potato chunks until tender. Or you can cut into small cubes and microwave the cubes with about a 1/3 cup of water in a microwave-safe container for about 12 min.

Note on chips:  Be careful when you buy your chips!  White chocolate and cinnamon chips so often contain trans fat (in the form of partially hydrogenated oils).  I used Ghirardelli's white chocolate chips and King Arther Flour's cinnamon chips.  Both are blessedly trans fat free!  So, flip that bag over and check the ingredients before buying your chips.  It would be a shame to ruin an otherwise wonderful cookie with a dose of trans fat!