Rich and Sweet, Purple Sweet Potato Brownies
Hi guys! I had posted on Instagram, my purple sweet potato brownies this time last week, I promised to deliver the recipe so here it is!! I did a lot of research before testing out the recipes because I realized there are multiple types of Purple Sweet Potatoes(!) and their flavor profile is a bit different from one another.
Yes, who knew! I was actually going for Ube brownies, which are a popular filipino sweet potato and used in a lot of desserts, however I don’t think the ones I used are the true Ube potatoes. I found my purple sweet potatoes from Trader Joes! Ube potatoes are usually found at Asian / Specialty markets, and unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get to any markets lately but I did my hands on SOME type of purple potato.
For reference from some research, there are Okinawan and Stokes types of sweet potatoes. Okinawan have a light/beige color skin, while Stokes have darker, brown/purple skin. Also there’s a difference between purple potato versus purple yams. Ube is a type of yam, which is most famously available in the Philippines, and more difficult to buy in the United States. A lot of people tend to use Ube extract to get the unique flavor in baked goods. More info on the purple sweet potatoes are here at Spruce Eats, which I found super helpful!
SO here is the recipe! It’s important to note, to boil the potatoes and do not skimp on this step. Because we are using a dense ingredient, we need to remember to keep some moisture in the recipe so we don’t have dry brownies!
Purple Sweet Potato Brownies
The flavor of sweet potato with a hint of cinnamon and brown sugar. A really rich delicious recipe!
- 300 grams sweet potato puree (1-2 medium sized)
- 200 grams unsalted butter (room temperature )
- 200 grams light brown sugar
- 2 whole eggs (room temperature )
- 300 grams all purpose flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/4 tsp salt
Line a 8×8 pan with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 340 degrees fahrenheit
Boil sweet potatoes
Boil the sweet potatoes in a pan, making sure the water covers the potatoes over medium high heat
The sweet potato is cooked if you stick a fork through the potato and slips out clean
Let the sweet potato cool, and weigh the sweet potato after it's been boiled
Mash the sweet potato with a potato masher, fork or a food blender
Make the wet mixture
With a hand mixer or in a stand mixer, whip the butter and brown sugar until well combined.
Add in one egg add a time and mix well, along with the vanilla extract at the end
Add in sweet potato puree, and milk and blend again well
Combine dry ingredients with wet
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt
Fold in dry ingredients into the wet, be careful not to over mix. If there are some streaks of flour it's okay. Overmixing will result in dense brownies!
Bake time!
Pour the batter into the prepared 8×8 pan in the oven for 35 minutes. Keep an eye on it so as not to overbake. Better to underbake then over! It helps to rotate the pan halfway to ensure even baking through out.
Let it cool out of the oven completely, and cut the brownies into 16 pieces (4 columns and rows). Keep it in a container up to a week outside and up to another week in the fridge.
Pro tip: I love a room temperature brownie, but if you microwave for 15 seconds it is super delicious!
Let me know what you guys think if you make it!
Lots of love,
Rina
