We’re Obsessed With These Flourless Sweet Potato Brownies

It’s official: we’re obsessed with these flourless sweet potato brownies.

Sweet potato brownies are the original real-food energy bar, made without any flour– just sweet potatoes, almond butter, maple syrup, cacao powder, salt, vanilla, and chocolate chips. It’s a surprisingly simple mix that you just throw into a blender, pour, spread, and bake.

This recipe yields a really decadent, fudgy brownie that I eat like an energy bar substitute– it’s full of healthy, nourishing fats and complex carbohydrates with a great, chewy brownie texture.

It’s naturally gluten-free, vegan, and filling without the crash– like the best homemade energy bar you’ve ever had. Great fuel for kid lunches, post-gym, a workday pick-me-up, or as a sensible, clean dessert for chocolate lovers. I make ours with farmers market sweet potatoes and local maple syrup, because I’m intensely locavore like that.

Make no mistake, this is a brownie recipe– and a good one at that!– but if you’re someone who insists on eating real, whole food snacks, this is an awesome staple to add to the rotation. The sweet potato gives these brownies a really decadent, rich texture regardless of the added nutrition.

Bookmark this recipe for easy reference later– it’s a keeper!

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Flourless Sweet Potato Brownies

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
• 1 cup almond butter
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 Tablespoons water
• 5 Tablespoons chocolate chips (2 Tbsp for batter, 3 Tbsp reserved for sprinkling on top)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line an 8″ by 8″ glass brownie pan with parchment paper. Set aside 3 Tablespoons chocolate chips for sprinkling on top of batter before baking.
2. Pour 3 Tablespoons of water into a blender. Then, add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. If you don’t add the water first, your blender might have trouble smoothing what should end up being a pretty thick batter.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan, smooth to the edges, and sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until a tester stuck in the middle comes out almost clean. (Whatever sticks to tester should be fudge-like, and brownie-ish, but not wet.)
4. Cool in the pan before slicing and store in the fridge or freezer– they’ll be delicious cold or at room temp, and you can also eat them right out of the freezer. Enjoy!