original recipe from Joy McCarthy
Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. (as close as I can get) mashed, cooked sweet potato
¾ cup almond butter
½ cup + 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
2 single servings organic unsweetened applesauce- or short of 1 cup
2 eggs
1 ½ cups raw cacao powder
2 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. sea salt
¼ cup dark, semi-sweet mini chocolate chips- I like Thrive and Enjoy life brands
Instructions :
Preheat oven to 350 and bake a large sweet potato until fork tender- about 40 min.
Remove from oven and let cool, set aside.
Reduce oven temp to 325. Line a 9X9 baking dish with parchment paper. (I used an 8X8, they did not spill over, but rose to the rim)
Take the cooled sweet potato and slide the skin off and mash the flesh. Measure out 1 heaping cupful.
In a large bowl add the sweet potato, almond butter, maple syrup, applesauce and eggs. Mix until there are no lumps of almond butter. Pour all of the dry ingredients on top. Do not overmix, or the baking soda will activate too early and the brownies won’t rise. Mix just enough to remove the bumps and lumps.
Pour into the pan over the parchment paper and smooth into the corners. Sprinkle lightly with the chocolate chips.
Bake for about 40 minutes, but check them at 25. Mine took 45 minutes at 8432 feet. A toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into 16 squares. Keep and serve chilled. You can individually wrap in plastic and freeze any extra. These will last in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Nutritional Highlights:
Sweet potatoes are a powerhouse of antioxidants. They are high in Vitamin C and carotenes. Although it is a starchy veggie, studies have shown that they help in blood sugar stabilization by improving the bodies response to insulin. They are high in fiber too.
Cacao – aka pure chocolate, contains flavonoids and proanthocyanidins which are the same compounds that provide the health benefits in many fruits and medicinal plants.
Almond butter lends a good healthy fat, protein and a little more fiber to the mix.