Amazing Sweet Potato & Date Cookies {Vegan, Gluten Free, Dairy Free}
Suitable for vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free diets, these sweet potato & date cookies are literally out of this world delicious. I have a friend who has to follow a very strict diet for medical reasons so I make her sweet treats from sweet potatoes and dates as she can't eat cake. However, these are so good I actually prefer them regular cookies
These sweet potato and date cookies are so easy to make in a food processor. There's no refined sugar in the recipe, which is great for little ones, and I use blitzed up oats instead of flour which give a wonderful texture. The addition of coconut oil and cinnamon give these cookies a wonderful flavour. Your kitchen will smell amazing when they're in the oven.
This recipe is very quick but the sweet potato does need to be cooked in advance. Baked sweet potato is the best - boiled or steamed sweet potato will make the cookie dough too soggy. Stab the the sweet potatoes all over with a knife and microwave until tender. Leave to cool before peeling off the skin with the help of a sharp knife.
If you find you have too much baked sweet potato on your hands you could use it to make sweet potato soup, sweet potato pancakes or sweet potato & corned beef cakes. However, you can scale the recipe for the quantity of sweet potato you have - the recipe is very easy to scale up or down.
Pecan nuts give crunch, flavour and decoration to these sweet potato cookies, but they can be made without them. When you get to step 5, instead of using pecan nuts, press on each cookie dough ball with a fork to make it flat. Dip the fork into a mug of warm water between each cookie to prevent it sticking to the cookie dough. Then bake the cookies as normal.
Amazing Sweet Potato & Date Cookies {Vegan, Gluten Free, Dairy Free}
- Prep time: 10-15 minutes
- Cooking time: 15-20 minutes
- Makes: 20 cookies
Ingredients:
- 150g oats
- 75g pitted dried dates
- 250g baked sweet potato (see notes)
- 50g coconut oil (plus extra for greasing)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 20 pecan halves (can be made without - see notes)
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to 220 C / 200 fan / gas mark 7. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper and grease lightly with coconut oil.
- Put the oats in a food processor and blitz to make a sort of oat flour. Tip into a bowl and put to one side.
- Put the dates into the food processor and blitz into smaller pieces. Add the sweet potato, coconut oil and cinnamon to the dates and blitz to make a smooth paste. You might need to stop the food processor and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula a couple of times.
- Tip the blitzed oats back into the sweet potato mixture and pulse until combined. Use damp or greased hands to form the cookie dough mixture into 20 balls. Pop the balls onto the lined baking tray.
- Press a pecan nut into each cookie dough ball to make a round / flattish cookie shape (see photos below). Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and firm.
- Leave to cool on the baking tray for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Will keep for three days in an airtight container.
I'm linking this recipe up with #CookBlogShare, #RecipeOfTheWeek & #FreeFromFridays.