Rich, decadent, and unbelievably fudgy, these secretly healthy sweet potato brownies are so completely delicious that no one can ever believe the ingredients!
Are you looking for a healthy brownie recipe that DOES NOT taste healthy?
This ultra chocolatey sweet potato brownie recipe absolutely fits the bill. Imagine a brownie that tastes like pure bliss and is pretty much impossible to stop eating.
Suddenly you look up, and the entire pan of brownies is gone.
Seriously, that’s how good these are.
You may also like this Healthy Banana Bread
The best healthy sweet potato brownie recipe
In these secretly lightened-up brownies, the sweet potato adds depth of flavor and moisture, keeping the brownies soft and fudgy without needing any oil in the recipe.
The vegan sweet potato brownie recipe can be suitable for low calorie, gluten free, and sugar free diets. And there’s a flourless option as well.
You also get extra protein (5.6 grams per brownie!), iron from the cocoa, and a vegetable serving, all at the same time.
Brownies > vitamins.
(Please don’t quote me on this.)
Above, watch the sweet potato brownie recipe video
You probably know by now how much I love brownies.
Vegan Brownies, Peanut Butter Brownies, Zucchini Brownies, and Chickpea Brownies…
Today you get brownies again.
Hope you like brownies.
(Does anyone not like brownies??)
Also try these Black Bean Brownies
Vegan sweet potato brownie ingredients
This is what you need to make the recipe: sweet potato, cocoa powder, pure vanilla extract, nut butter, flour, sweetener, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips.
To make nut free brownies, swap sunbutter or your favorite allergy friendly alternative for the peanut butter or almond butter. Or make these Healthy Brownies.
I like to use a fourth cup of regular unsweetened cocoa powder and two tablespoons of Dutch cocoa. If you can only find regular, that’s fine to use for all six tablespoons.
You can use store bought canned sweet potato puree. Or make your own by roasting a sweet potato (here’s the best way How To Cook Sweet Potatoes) and then blending the flesh or mashing it extremely well with a fork until smooth.
How to make sweet potato brownies
If using homemade sweet potato puree, see how to make it above.
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line an eight inch baking pan with parchment paper, or grease it well.
Unless it is already smooth and easily stir-able, gently warm up the nut butter to soften. Then whisk it together with the mashed sweet potato and pure vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
In a separate bowl, stir together all remaining ingredients, making sure that the baking soda and salt are evenly incorporated.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet, and stir to form a brownie batter. Smooth into the prepared pan, scooping out all traces of batter.
Use a second sheet of parchment paper to really smooth everything down. (Watch the step-by-step video above.)
Bake the brownie pan on the oven’s center rack for twenty minutes. It will look underdone when you remove the pan after this time, but the brownies firm up quite a bit as they cool.
(If yours are still too gooey for some reason after cooling, loosely cover the pan and refrigerate a few hours. This will let them firm up more while still keeping them fudgy.)
Still craving chocolate? Make Avocado Chocolate Mousse
Frosting options
Feel free to either keep them plain and unfrosted or frost the sweet potato brownies with your favorite homemade or store bought icing.
Or you can frost them with my Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.
The brownies in the video above are topped with chocolate sweet potato frosting. To make that easy two ingredient frosting, melt twelve ounces of chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate bar, then blend with the scooped out flesh of a large baked sweet potato until completely smooth. That’s it!
Sweet Potato Brownies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sweet potato puree
- 1 cup peanut or almond butter, or allergy-friendly sub
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 6 tbsp flour (Oat, white, or spelt flour work. Readers reported success with almond flour)
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips + more for the top, optional
- 2/3 cup sugar (for sugar free, try these Keto Brownies)
- 6 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- If using homemade sweet potato puree, see how to make it above. To make the brownies, start by preheating the oven to 325 F. Line an 8-inch pan with parchment, or grease well. If not easily stir-able, gently heat nut butter to soften. Whisk it with the sweet potato and vanilla until smooth. Stir all remaining ingredients together (making sure the salt and baking soda are evenly incorporated), then pour dry into wet. Stir to form a batter. Smooth into the baking pan, scooping out all traces of batter. Use a second sheet of parchment to really smooth everything down. Bake 20 minutes. They should look underdone when you take them out. The brownies firm up as they cool. If for some reason yours are too gooey after cooling, loosely cover and refrigerate a few hours. Frost if desired.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Healthy Dessert Recipes
Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Can you taste the sweet potato, or does it camouflage with the chocolate?
I have the same exact question. 🙂 I LOVE all things sweet potato, and I LOVE every CCK recipe I’ve tried (which are a LOT of recipes)… Thank you for your beautiful new book! I’m thrilled you released it yesterday just as I was looking for a perfect breakfast recipe to bake a friend. They LOVED it, and I’m so very grateful!! <3
Thank YOU so much!
Dear Katie
In my country sweet potatos are hard to find. May I replace them with regular plain potatos?
I also wanted to know: if one substitutes sugar for stevia in the Zucchini Brownies, will they be dry? How would you preserve their moisture?
Thanks for all your amazing recipes and inspiration.
Unfortunately there’s just no way to know unless you experiment! Be sure to report back if you do 🙂
I don’t think regular potatoes would be the same. Maybe you could try cooked carrots? Those have a similar flavor and consistency to sweet potatoes. Or half carrots and half regular potatoes?
You could do pumpkin as a substitute or another similar squash.
No I would not use regular potatoes, you need the moisture from the sweet potatoes. You could however substitute zucchini, pumpkin or even apple sauce if that’s what is available.
you don’t substitute sugar for stevia because there is no stevia in the recipe. you could substitute stevia for the sugar, but I would not recommend it.
Do you have any winter squash? I would use that, it is more similar. Like kabocha, buttercup, etc.
my made these brownies and my family never knew they contained sweet potatoes and they loved them.
I just made these! You can’t taste the sweet potato at all. I can taste the nubutter more than the cocoa but I felt it wasn’t overpowering. I used Sunbutter. My daughter, picky, is currently licking the spoon! I haven’t tried the actual cooked brownie yet but Ill be back to review that. Hope this helped.
I think it’s pretty neutral here and could not taste it at all. 🙂
Great to know. Thank you! 🙂
I’ll answer for her: You cannot tell at all! I served these for 7 kids and they all liked them and had no clue!
I made to day for the 1st time and love these!! Did not taste the sweet potatoes.
I’ve made these twice in the last week and they’ve only gotten better! I can’t taste the sweet potato at all and have also eaten them for breakfast once or twice… 🙂
Haha! You Rock!
No, just the chocolate And vanilla
Hi! I tried it yesterday! Awesome! My bf couldn’t tell which one was the “secret ingredient” hihihi! So, no: you really can’t tell! My version would be a little more sweet potato / oat flour and less peanut butter but that’s just my taste… for my bf is my top dessert until now!!! THANK YOU!!!
These are so good, they are a regular at our house. Whenever I bake, I always throw a sweet potatoe in the oven to have when needed to make these brownies. If you’re wondering, you cannot taste the sweet potatoe, all you taste is chocolate gooey goodness ?
They don’t taste like sweet potato until you know it. I am a chocolate lover and I can die for brownies, and this ones have been one of my favourites. I tried them with a friend that didn’t tell me they were made with sweet potato and now I’m making them by myself.
if you haven’t try them yet, you should, ‘cause I’m sure you will love them too.
Is delightful, no sweet potato flavor just good old chocolate.
I just made them and no. Surprisingly you cannot taste the sweet potato.
It doesn’t taste like sweet potato at all to me, and I even use less sugar. It all blends together, flavorwise. I also like using half peanut butter half sunflower seed butter to make the nut flavor more ambiguous so the focus is on the chocolate!
The peanut butter was way more prominent than the sweet potato. It wasn’t noticeable
Looks yummy and oh-so-fudgy! Sweet potato in brownies – what a great idea.
Due to dietary restrictions, I am not eating refined sugar or “natural” sugars (honey, maple syrup, no fruit combined with other foods) right now. But I can use stevia! Do you have any ideas for how to sub stevia in this recipe…I know that removing sugar completely changes things.
Thanks!
I haven’t tried, but be sure to report back if you experiment!
Hi Rachel. I have similar restrictions. I have found Lakanto to be a good product to substitute granulated sugar. When I’ve used Stevia I just kinda experiment and taste the batter as I go along. If the sweeter is a liquid (agave etc.) then I’d add extra of whatever liquid is in the recipe. I have found Katie’s recipes to be pretty forgiving.
You can use a baking blend. Use half the amount you would of sugar.
I used 1/3 cup granulated xylitol and 1/3 cup Whey Low, “sugar for diabetics.” They turned out fantastic.
Thanks!! I love Whey Low 🙂
Xylitol will still raise your blood sugar. Stevia, erithrytol and monkfruit are all better choices and generally measure the same as sugar. Trying a blend of 2 or 3 of those work well without the after taste. Look up Xylitol.
Also Diabetics, Please note many “sugar free” low calorie and zero calorie products contain Maltodextrin which will raise your blood sugar even more than regular table sugar. Again feel free to look it up.
I’ve done half sugar, half stevia. It turned out great! I’ve also tried half sugar with banana, not quite as good.
Use truvia! Stevia by itself leaves a horrible aftertaste. Truvia mixes pure cane sugar with stevia and it tastes JUST like sugar. What’s better is that it is so sweet, you only have to use half of the amount of sugar that a recipe calls for. So if a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, you use 1/2 cup of truvia. It only has 10 calories per tablespoon and it tastes IDENTICAL to sugar, I’ve baked with it and made tea with it, my family didn’t knotoce the change at all. If you cant have even a little sugar, please don’t use stevia, especially for baking. By itself it does not bake correctly.. and it tastes horrible. My father is a diabetic and he uses it (in moderation)
Yeah Trivia is way better!
I tried applesauce instead of Peanut butter for the calories, and still tasted and had the texture of brownies!!!
Thank you for commenting that you did this!
Thanks so much for your comment on subbing apple sauce for peanut butter Ashley! My daughter is anaphylactic with ALL nuts and most seeds. I can use Wow Butter when I can find it, but its very expensive! Guessing I could use a little oil for texture and mostly apple – maybe pumpkin or more sweet potato could also work perhaps?! Thanks again!
Ah, reading this wasn’t such a good idea. Now I’m entranced with the desire to stuff my face with as many brownies as I could get my hands on. My sister makes some of the best brownies I’ve ever had, but for health purposes we use black beans instead of flour. The sweet potato aspect is an interesting mix. I’ll have to ask my sis about it.
Thank you, Katie, for all of these delicious recipes. 🙂
These are 100 times better than black bean brownies
Hey Katie! I bought your new book and I’m so excited to try all the new recipes!!
I saw at the end that your savory cookbook will be coming soon. Is it going to be sold in bookstores like your first book, or will it also be an e-book? Just curious! I’ll be purchasing it either way 🙂
Pretty sure it will be a hard copy in stores :). I’m trying to find a publisher who believes in my vision for a savory book. So far, everyone wants a second dessert book, but my passion just isn’t in it. If nothing else, I will self-publish, because this book needs to happen. I have too many non-dessert recipes I want to share.
Yes, we need a savory cookbook from you!!!
Oh! Fudgy brownies! My favorite! Thank you.
it is possible to sub pumpkin puree for sweet potato puree? Have you ever tried this, or do you think it would work, basing on what you know about both vegetables’ texture? I am asking because they look so good and I could maybe convince my father to have a go at them (he is on a sugar-restricted diet, but prefers to shun out all cakes rather than eat “strange things”… and it doesn’t improve his mood, according to my mother). But I don’t know where we could get sweet potato puree, so we would have to make our own… and that already doubles cooking time 🙁
I would think it’d be okay but honestly haven’t tried it. If you try it before I do, be sure to report back!
I subbed pumpkin purée and they turned out great!!! Thank you for the great recipe 🙂
Thanks for reporting back and letting other commenters know it works!
Yay! I had the same question! going to try this!!
Hi there? How do you store these and for how long? Thanks
I was just thinking about subbing pumpkin and was scrolling through the comments hoping someone already did it and posted. Thank you! : ) And thanks Katie for your brilliant recipes!
I substituted pumpkin for the sweet potatoes and coconut butter for the peanut butter and it turned out amazing! Best brownie recipe ever!
You can cook 2 sweet potatoes in the microwave to get the puree without doubling cooking time.
Thanks for sharing! I was just planning to make these with an organic pumpkin puree I already have on hand but it’s nice to hear that it does work well.
Just bake sweet potato while making supper, before you plan on making these. Scoop out and mash, cool and use, or refrigerate until later use.
These look delicious! I’m also a serious chocolate addict, but have pretty much given up sugar…ergo no brownies in a long time! I wishfully read your desert recipes as a kind of compensation, and with this one, I noticed you mentioned xylitol. Have you used this in your baking, and does it come close to the taste of sugar? I’ve been hesitant to try, but this recipe has me pretty hyped about the idea!
As long as a recipe doesn’t contain yeast, it’s usually okay to sub xylitol (with little taste difference) in an equal amount in a recipe, and the baking time remains the same. In large quantities, it can cause a bit of an upset stomach for some people, so that’s something to keep in mind.
My go to for ANY sweetener is DATE SUGAR its a whole food just ground dates! Per Dr Michael Greger !! Plus sooo good
How do I get sweet potato puree? Do I make it myself? How?
Love this recipe!
You can either buy it canned, or you can peel and roast sweet potatoes (or microwave them, but I like the flavor of roasted better), then puree the cooked flesh in a blender or food processor. I usually buy canned.
I have used pureed sweet potato in a jar (babyfood!) and it works great. Just use 2 small jars, or 1 tall jar (7.5oz/213ml) and it ends up being the exact right amount for this recipe.
What an ingenious idea! Baby food! I would have never thought of that. Thank you!
I don’t have access to sweet potato puree or a blender/food processor (I know.. how do i survive at all?!) but I literally just roasted a whole large sweet potato until it was as soft as possible (I think mine took about an hour and 20 mins), waited for it to cool, peeled off the skin and mashed the flesh. It was so soft by that point that I felt no need to process more. I don’t think it affected the end product at all.
Ahhh, I’m so excited about this recipe! I’ve tried a few sweet potato brownies recipes from other blogs, and they were pretty good, but something was a bit off. Your recipes always turn out perfectly, so I’m glad I’ve finally found a sweet potato brownie recipe I can trust. 😉
are they frosted?….they look it in the yummy pics
They are. I used my Chocolate Coconut Butter recipe in the breakfast ebook. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want the post to sound like a sales pitch for the book (since I’d already mentioned it once). But you can use any chocolate frosting or keep them plain 🙂
I have never heard of this! But I’m intrigued. These look delicious
These look amazing! I would love to sink my teeth into some chocolate right now. Perfect timing on the sweet potatoes 🙂
Hi! I was wondering if cooked sweet potatoes can be used? I have a huge lot full of those!?
*pot
Absolutely.
What a great idea. I wish I had thought of it, but thankfully you did. I will be making these for sure.
These brownie turned out so wonderful! I subbed the sweet potato purée for pumpkin purée and the nut butter for powdered peanut butter (pb2). I also needed to add a tbs of cashew milk to the batter and the final product was amazing! The batter was a little hard to work but definitely paid off with the final product 🙂
Thank you so much for making them!
You answered my question! Was thinking about using PB2 and just adding a bit of fat to make the batter workable. Thanks for your comment, Grace!
I just stumbled across this recipe. I have some PB2 but have never used it. How did you substitute it for the peanut butter? Cup for cup and added the liquid to make it easy to stir??
I was going to use When I tried these, but didn’t know how much of the powder to use. Did you add water to the PB2 before making the brownies? How much PB2 did you use for this recipe. Thank you
Did you finally try it? I’m making them tomorrow and I will use PB2 😀 Thanks!
I followed these instructions exactly, but using almond flour. They only bake up slightly. When I tried to cut the brownies after they cooled it turned into a chocolate mash. They are currently in the fridge where I’m going to leave them overnight. I figure it will resemble more of a fudge than a fudgey brownie. I sampled the cooled “brownies” and it tastes like peanut butter and chocolate mixed together. I also think it’s way too sweet.
I might try the recipe again with a different flour and less sugar. Maybe with more baking soda? I’m not really sure how to fix this.
These brownies look seriously amazing! I really need to convince my mom to buy sweet potatoes now. And I would’ve never guessed there was no oil in the recipe. Jaw dropping info right there.