Sweet Potato Brownies

The other day my mom accidentally bought sweet potato puree instead of pumpkin puree. Since I didn't have any recipes using sweet potato puree and I wasn't really sure how to use it, I decided to turn to Martha, Martha Stewart I mean.

Since my family is pretty healthy anyways, I thought her recipe for sweet potato brownies looked worthwhile to try. I added in walnuts (which turned out to be a good addition) and they turned out to be immensely fudgey and good tasting brownies that you don't feel icky after eating.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Using good cocoa really
makes a difference.

½ stick butter

2/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder

½ cup whole-wheat pastry flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup sweet-potato puree

1 large egg

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon instant coffee powder

½ cup walnuts

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square pan; set aside. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Remove pan from heat, and stir in cocoa. Let cool slightly.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Stir in sugar and sweet-potato puree, then egg. In a small bowl, stir together vanilla and coffee until coffee is dissolved; add to cocoa mixture.

Add flour mixture to cocoa mixture and stir until no traces of flour remain. Spoon into prepared pan; smooth the top.

Make sure you smooth out the top
before placing in the oven.

Bake until surface of brownies looks barely dry and an inserted knife comes out with a few moist crumbs, about 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature before serving.

To make these more decadent, you could always add in a half cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I would suggest you first try them to see if you want that added taste.

Very fudgey with walnut chunks.

Sweet potatoes are actually considered a "super food". One medium-sized sweet potato has ons of beta-carotene and a day's value of vitamin A as well as a third of your daily vitamin C's needs. One sweet potato even has as much fiber as a  ½ cup of oatmeal.

White Chocolate Swirl Brownies

Chunks of white chocolate goodness.

After a total of seven snow days, today finally marked the last day of midterms!

I thought it may be festive to bring in something for our first day as second semester seniors tomorrow so I chose to try a new technique of mixing white and semi-sweet chocolate.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 sticks softened butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 plus 2/3 cups white chocolate chips or chunks

2 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions:

The batter before swirling in the melted white chocolate.

Heat oven to 350°F and grease a 9 x 13 pan. 


Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy and then add the eggs and vanilla and beat these ingredients together well. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and gradually blend this into the butter mixture. Stir about a cup of white chocolate chips. Spread batter in prepared pan. 


In a small saucepan place 2/3 cup of white chocolate chips and two tablespoons of heavy cream over low heat. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon until melted and sooth. Drop spoonfuls of the melted white chocolate mixture over the chocolate dough that is already in the pan. Afterwards, take a knife and using back and forth strokes, swirl the white chocolate in with the batter.

Bake 30-35 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely and then cut into bars.

They turned out crisp on the edges, but even these parts tasted good. Not exactly the complete swirl look I was going for after they baked on top but the taste was still there and that's what really matters.