what? Sweet potato?! yes, and you wouldn’t be able to tell if I didn’t spill it out. It was my amazing friend Ashleigh’s birthday last week, so we had some cake times! Amazing ones! Since she is gluten intolerant I had to look for some gluten-free options and I found this recipe at a great blog called – gluten-free-vegan girl. And guess what. At the lovely celebration that we did in Dolores Park, nobody was even close to guessing that these brownies had sweet potato in them, or that they were sooooo guilt-free. So here goes. You’ll need:
- 3 cups peeled, chopped, cooked and cooled sweet potato
- 3 cups dates, pitted
- 1 cup unsweetened plant-based milk
- 3/4 cup high-quality unsweetened cacao powder
- 3/4 cup chopped sugar-free vegan dark chocolate *
- 3/4 cup brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup potato starch (or cornstarch)
- 4 heaped tbsp all-natural peanut butter (any kind of nut butter will do)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1/2 tsp maldon salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit. Start by processing the cooked sweet potato in a food processor until completely smooth. Add in the milk, dates, vanilla and nut butter as well and continue processing until you have a creamy paste. 
2. In a separate bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients except for the chopped chocolate (and optionally the walnuts). Pour the wet mixture in to the bowl and stir thoroughly. Finally stir the chocolate (and walnuts). Save about 2 tbsp of the chopped chocolate! 
3. Pour the batter into a rectangular cake pan lined with parchment, sprinkle the 2 tbsp of chopped chocolate on top and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the top has started getting a few cracks. Let the cake cool completely. 
I baked it the night before the party, so after they had cooled down, covered it with cling film and put in the fridge till morning and that’s when I made the icing. There many options you can go here with. Here is what i did.
- 2 cups organic powdered sugar
- ¼ cup (½ stick) dairy-free soy margarine, softened
- ¼ cup plain unsweetened almond milk or soymilk
- ¾ cup unsweetened pure cocoa powder
- ½ t. vanilla
Mix all these together and spread it as much as you prefer. Voila!
These were such treat. Moist, chewy dense and delicious. Everything you would want your brownies to be and more. Try out and you’ll be surprised.
Santa Xx
Vegan Santa 