Sweet Potato Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin isn’t the only vegetable that becomes a popular inclusion in desserts and baked goods during the fall. Sweet potato is also very popular. And for good reason, since sweet potatoes have a naturally sweet flavor and a beautiful color to them. They also take to other flavors very well because the sweet potato itself is quite mild. Sweet potato pie is a classic, but sweet potato can be used in other desserts, as well. These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies have some mashed (cooked) swet potato incorporated into them, giving them a bit of extra sweetness and a hint of orangey, fall warmth.

The cookies are fairly standard, as far as oatmeal chocolate chip cookies go. Adding some sweet potato to them makes the cookies very moist and tender. They start out fairly chewy, but will become slightly more cake-like (although still moist) after a couple of days. The biggest change in these from a plainer cookie is the spicing. Some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies rely only on cinnamon, while these use cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg. The cardamom in particularly seems to go very well with the sweet potato.

I used regular semisweet chocolate chips and toasted pecans in these. I think they’d be very good with milk chocolate and with walnuts, as well. I think that dark chocolate might take away a bit from the natural flavor of the sweet potato, but will still work if that’s what you prefer to use.

 Sweet Potato Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup sweet potato puree
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped, toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars until light. Beat in the egg, followed by the sweet potato puree and vanilla extract. Working by hand, stir in the flour mixture, then mix in the oats. Stir only until everything is just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans.
Drop tablespoonfuls of the dough onto the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 min, until cookies are set.
Let cool on sheet for 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.