Sweet Potato Brownies Recipe - Dr. Axe

Sweet Potato Brownies Recipe

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Brownies are one of my favorite desserts. How could they not be: they’re chocolatey, creamy and simple to make. But are they healthy? Well, with these sweet potato brownies, you don’t have to worry anymore.

Secret Ingredients

You might be confused about how sweet potatoes could play a role in a homemade brownie recipe. Do they make the brownies taste like vegetables? Will the brownies be the wrong texture? Worst of all, will anyone know that there are sweet potatoes in these brownies?!

The answer is no! In fact, these sweet potatoes are one of the secret weapons in this brownie recipe. Adding the vegetable means you’ll get all the benefits of sweet potato nutrition each time you take a bite out of these brownies.

I’m talking nearly 700 percent of your daily value of vitamin A and tons of antioxidants, which keep your skin looking awesome. They also lower inflammation and cholesterol levels — plus, sweet potatoes taste great!

But these sweet potato brownies have another secret ingredient: avocados. Benefit-rich avocados are one of my favorite foods, and I love them in baked goods as well. They add healthy fats, protein and a super creamy texture. And no, avocados won’t turn these brownies green!

Sweet potato brownies ingredients - Dr. Axe

How to Make Sweet Potato Brownies

Let’s whip up these sweet potato brownies!

Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees F. Next, grease an 8×8 pan with coconut oil and line it with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine the avocado, sweet potato, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla. The applesauce and maple syrup will sweeten up these healthy brownies without any refined sugar; that means no sugar crashes or hyper children!

Sweet potato brownies step 2 - Dr. Axe

Once the mix is creamy, add in the cacao powder.

Next, add in the eggs one at a time. Then, in a separate bowl, combine the coconut flour, arrowroot flour, salt and baking soda. That’s right, these sweet potato brownies are gluten-free. Next, combine both of the mixtures until smooth. Then transfer the sweet potato brownie mix to a greased pan and bake for 25–35 minutes.

While the sweet potato brownies are baking, combine the frosting ingredients in a separate bowl and mix until creamy and smooth. The consistency may be a blend between syrup, icing and frosting.

Sweet potato brownies recipe - Dr. Axe

Once the brownies are done baking and have cooled, frost them with the mixture and enjoy! One batch makes approximately 12 of these chocolate sweet potato brownies. Want something a little extra? Try topping the brownies with mini dark chocolate chips.

Other Sweet Potato Recipes

Looking for more sweet potato recipes to try out? Here are some to get you started:

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Sweet potato brownies

Sweet Potato Brownies Recipe


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  • Author: Dr. Josh Axe
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 12 1x
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Description

Brownies are one of my favorite desserts. How could they not be: they’re chocolatey, creamy and simple to make. But are they healthy? Well, with these sweet potato brownies, you don’t have to worry anymore. And yes, they still taste amazing!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 avocado
  • 1 cup cooked sweet potato purée
  • ½ cup applesauce
  • ¼½ cup maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • ¼ cup coconut flour
  • 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
  • ½ cup cacao powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting

  • ¼ cup honey (or maple syrup)
  • ½ cup sprouted almond butter
  • ¼ cup cacao powder
  • ½ cup coconut milk
  • sea salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Grease 8×8 pan with coconut oil and line it with parchment paper.
  3. In a bowl, combine avocado, sweet potato, applesauce, honey or maple syrup and vanilla. Once creamy, add in cacao powder.
  4. Add in eggs one at a time.
  5. In a separate bowl, combine coconut flour, arrowroot flour, salt and baking soda.
  6. Combine both mixtures until smooth.
  7. Transfer to greased pan and bake for 25–35 minutes.
  8. While baking, combine the last 5 ingredients listed in a separate bowl and mix until creamy and smooth.
  9. Once the brownies are done baking and have cooled, frost with this mixture.

Notes

Want something a little extra? Try topping the brownies with mini dark chocolate chips.

  • Prep Time: 15 min
  • Cook Time: 30 min
  • Category: Desserts
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 brownie
  • Calories: 222
  • Sugar: 13.5g
  • Sodium: 236mg
  • Fat: 13.3g
  • Saturated Fat: 4.3g
  • Unsaturated Fat: 7.9g
  • Trans Fat: 0g
  • Carbohydrates: 24.9g
  • Fiber: 5g
  • Protein: 6g
  • Cholesterol: 55mg

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25 Comments

    • Merk on

      Here are my substitutions which taste better to me and my friends:
      Coconut oil and a little ghee instead of avocado. Also, I add a half banana and a teaspoon of stevia. Honey instead of maple syrup. Rice flower or almond flower instead of arrow root flower Inot always easy to find the latter).

      Reply
  1. Solica on

    My recipe flopped! I tripled the recipe and placed in a 9 by 13 inch pan

    The brownies are very wet..looks like a quiche
    Don’t know how to fix it up

    Reply
  2. Laurie on

    Oh, I am so confused! I have diabetes and I am wanting to not take meds. I have been looking at the plant based diet which is hard to follow! I am looking at your recipes and I am thinking how can this be good for me? I want them to be as it would be easier to follow. So much oil and fats and I am thinking they say fat is really my enemy???? Please tell me what you think.

    Reply
    • Jake D. on

      Hello Laurie. Let’s see if I can get your started in a better direction, and help you to begin to understand what is behind this confusion. Please bear with some of my long sentences. Much of the confusion (about health and nutrition) comes from the “baby talk” that is so prevalent these days, with regard to topics of healthy living. Here are some quick examples, to get you started: You hear someone make a comment about the effects of eating beef, upon your overall health. Well… try asking yourself some (or all) of these questions: Are we talking about feedlot (CAFO) beef? Are we talking about beef from an animal that roamed organic pastures for its entire life? Are we talking about beef from a hot dog? Are we talking about a piece of sirloin, from a “pastured” animal, that was cooked with care? Are we talking about meat, eaten with poor-quality bread and condiments, as occurs in a fast-food burger? Or are we talking about high-quality beef, prepared in a healthy manner, that is eaten with a large plate of veggies, along with a modest amount of healthy fats? Do you begin to see the many variables at play here? Can you begin to imagine how some (or all) of these factors… (and there are MORE of them)… could make a difference in whether that meat contributed toward a high level of health, or instead… it helped to ruin your health? The same goes for fats. There are fats that should never be eaten. Here is an example of a fat that should not be eaten. Someone grows a cotton crop, sprays it with many poisons, harvests the seeds, uses solvents to extract the oil from the seeds, leaves toxic solvents in the oil, allows this oil to oxidize; (go rancid), puts the oil into a plastic bottle, stores it in a warehouse, then dumps it into a deep fryer, (at 375 degrees), and then cooks french fries in it for 4 or 5 days, without changing that oil. When you eat those french fries, you can ABSOLUTELY expect that oil/fat to harm you. Period. This is bad. So to end the “baby talk”, stop comparing THAT oil, (which I just described), with butter from an animal raised on pasture. Also do not compare it with olive oil from organic olives, that are pressed and bottled with care and love and delivered to your table in short order, and eaten without exposing that olive oil to high temperatures. When you shift your thinking, and begin to see the finer points of these foods and how they are prepared, you’ll begin to see through the confusing mess that is out there in the world. You can also help yourself by NOT getting any of your health information from the 6:00 p.m. or 10:00 p.m. news. There is much more to be learned, but this is the starting point. One last example: Someone feeds casein, (extracted from milk from poorly-raised cows), to rats, living in a lab. (We already have several problems here, with this experiment.) Other lab rats are fed without that poor-quality protein source. Later on, when the rats health deteriorates, the researchers report that “consumption of protein” is bad for humans. Do you see what goes on here? They used rats; not humans. They used a crappy protein source, then they equate that with all protein. That protein might have been fed in the context of some “rat chow” or other crap “food”, but they tell you that eating protein with veggies is going to harm you. And on and on and on. And you should also ask who was paying for this study to be conducted, in the first place. This was a true-life example, and the bashing of “protein”, due to the study and the people who spread this info, was widespread. Learn to discern “baby talk” from legitimate information. Try reading a book, such as “The Immunity Code”. And turn off the television. You’ll be healthier for having done that. Best of luck to you!

      Reply
      • Karenlee on

        Jake D; Love your commentary on discriminating between healthy and horrendously processed foods. You should think about writing your own books.

      • Shale on

        And…this analogy applies to so so many other things that are shoved down our throats every. single. day.
        Always seek out who is putting up the money for the results they want you to have.

  3. Jayne on

    These are so delicious! We make them all of the time! It sure takes care of the chocolate cravings! We are making them today for Thanksgiving!

    Reply
  4. Barbara on

    I’m sure these will be delicious, but many of us would like to have the serving size & nutritional breakdown information. Thanks!

    Reply
  5. Katie on

    I’m super excited to try this recipe. A question about the avocado…what size of avocado-large or small? Or could you provide a measurement like 1/2 cup, 1 cup?

    Reply
    • Debbie N. on

      I think this is important because I made the recipe and the avocado I used wasn’t the smallest one. I wondered if I should use less, but went with it. I ended up with brownies that were quite wet. I ended up returning them to oven two separate times in an attempt to reduce the moisture, but that didn’t help. I suspect the fat from the avocado was the reason. I really didn’t find the recipe very good.

      Reply
  6. Nancy on

    I thought if you heated honey you ruin all the goodI in honey .
    Is there a substitute for honey .
    Is use the honey in the frosting as it’s not heated .
    But I never heat honey .
    Thank you

    Reply

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