When I graduated from high school, I worked at a factory during the summer. A co-worker from the deep south mentioned while in the breakroom that she would make a Sweet Potato Pie. I looked at her like she had two heads. I was thinking, you have got to be kidding. She commented she would bring in one of the pies for the workers to eat. It was so good! Sweet potatoes are grown all year round so that you can make it any time of the year, but the flavors remind me of the holidays.
Retirement means being a little more frugal with money. So I have been buying all my kitchen small appliance toys for the past five years before I retire in the upcoming year. My new toy came Thursday, and it is a Breville Immersion Blender that had been back-ordered at Williams Sonoma for two months. I love it! I made the sweet potato puree for this recipe using this blender in the provided cup. It was perfect for blending the butter, maple syrup, and cooked sweet potatoes into a puree. The blender took all but 1 minute.
The taste to me was so much better than using canned sweet potatoes. I used four small sweet potatoes in a steamer bag that only took 9 minutes to microwave. Skin them and cut them into small pieces. You can certainly use canned sweet potatoes and mash them with a fork. Since the can version is packed in syrup, don't add maple syrup or butter.
This cookie's added surprise is the pecans and how it transforms this cookie into a sweet additive to any Christmas Dinner. I hope you try this wonderful cookie!
Ingredients You Will Need
- Flour
- Sugar
- Sweet Potatoes
- Vanilla Extract
- Pure Maple Syrup
- Egg
- Unsalted Butter
- Chopped Pecans
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Kosher Salt
Instructions
Add your cooked sweet potato to a blender or use an immersion blender.
Once you add the syrup and butter, it comes together and looks (and tastes!) delicious.
I love using a cookie scoop to get uniform cookies. They look so pretty when they are all the same size and shape. Also, feel free to press some extra pecans into the top of the cookies before baking for a nice extra presentation.
FAQ's
For this recipe, I choose Steamables Sweet Potatoes, Petite. I could have used fresh, but I wanted to try the new Steamables that came out. I could not distinguish between fresh or the whole sweet potatoes that you can steam in a bag. It also was a much shorter cooking time.
You can use canned yams or sweet potatoes in a pinch, but you will need to adjust the amount of maple syrup you add. A 16 oz can of yams is equal to 1 ¾ to 2 cups of puree. Depending on the brand's type of syrup the yams are packed in, you will have to judge if anything needs to be added to the puree.
Other Holiday Cookies
Recipe
Southern Sweet Potato Pie Cookies
Barbara HallWould you like to save this recipe?
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Ingredients
SWEET POTATO PUREE
- 2 (2) Sweet potatoes
- 1 Tablespoon (1 Tablespoon) Butter unsalted
- ½ Tablespoon (0.5 Tablespoon) Pure maple syrup
COOKIE DOUGH
- ½ cup (113.5 g) Butter unsalted room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (300 g) Sugar white
- 1 (1) Egg
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Maple syrup
- 1 cup (280 g) Sweet potato puree
- 2 ½ cups (312.5 g) All-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Kosher Salt
- 1 cup (99 g) Pecans chopped
Instructions
SWEET POTATO PUREE
- I found sweet potatoes in a steamer bag at my grocery store, but you can bake or microwave 2 large or 4 small until cooked. Set them aside till they cool a little, then take the skins off and cut the sweet potatoes into small pieces. I added the cut-up sweet potatoes to the immersion blender cup, plus the maple syrup and butter. Pulse until it becomes a puree. It took me less than a minute to blend the ingredients. You can use canned sweet potatoes, but they are usually canned in syrup, so mash them and don't add maple syrup or butter.
COOKIE DOUGH
- Weigh or measure the sugar and set aside. In another bowl, weigh or measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and run a whisk through to blend. In a stand or hand-held mixer, add the sugar and the butter and mix on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract, maple syrup, sweet potato puree, and mix through. Break the egg into a small bowl (just in case some shells pieces break off) and add it to the rest of the wet mixture. Once blended through, turn the mixer down and slowly add the flour mixture till it is incorporated. Add the pecans and mix through for about 30 secs to a minute. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C or 180°C) and line 2 cookie pans with parchment paper (I use parchment sheets). Using a medium cookie scooper, space out twelve scoops onto the cookie pan about 2" apart. This gives it space to spread and rise. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Leave the cookies on the baking pan for a minute or two before moving them to a cooling rack. This size batch makes about 2-½ dozen. Enjoy!
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NUTRITION DISCLAIMER
I am not a certified Dietitian or Nutritionist. The nutrition amounts given below are provided through a program and are only a guideline.
Monet says
is there a recommendation for fresh potatoes? still use them in a plastic bag to steam?
Barbara says
Hi Monet, The fresh sweet potatoes can be baked, steamed in a bag, or microwaved. I just steamed them because I found in the grocery store these steamer bags with fresh sweet potatoes. They were so tender and not over baked. Plus, the steamed sweet potatoes took less time than if I baked them. Hope this helps! - Barbara
GaryPeter Casella says
Hello, Again....OK, made 1 cookie to see how long it should cook in our oven, given every oven has its own ways...and the cookie I made was marvelous! I did a bit extra flour, seeing that the dough was now as firm as I was used to seeing, as well as en extra sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg. The edges were browning when I removed it from the over and then I gave it, as you said, a few minutes to cool. Then I ate it and happily, the cookie was crunchy on the edges and chewy in the middle (I love chewy cookies and have, with other recipes for other cookies, added a pinch of corn starch or egg yolk to assure the chewy texture. Oddly, I am no fan of sweet potatoes no matter how they are made, whether roasted or in a casserole with marshmallows, a Christmas staple for some, which I cannot undertand. However, a sweet potato pie I have made and learned from, adding more or 1 extra potato to make it thicker. I only began to learn how to bake during lockdown, and here, in Italy, was able to buy US measuring cups and spoons, etc...but some things I have to get the algebra out to measure between ounces/stick, etc...into grams. We are many, Americans, I mean, in Europe and every person from Europe enjoy, so much, our baking recipes. My husband, from Naples, where cooking is divine, so looks out baked goods which makes me happy to make them for him. Of course, it is the holidays so after they are done, on January 6, here, we go back to less baked goods as my blood sugar cannot take it for more than a month! My 1 guilty, somewhat, pleasure is a banana bread, as mine has 3 bananas in it...less sugar, or cut with brown sugar, and less butter so I feel less guilty.
Again, I am sorry for my 1st comment about the sticks to grams issue I was having, though it was how much do 2 potatoes weigh. I should have read on.
Thank you for this, as it is going in my notebook of recipies I want to keep.
Tanti Auguri per un Buon Natale!
Gary
Gary says
Sorry, I found the measures in grams/cups further down. Just habit asking US recipe sites to post in grams and such. So far so good....yummy batter but will bake tonight when husband can walk in and smell "Christmas"!
Again, sorry.
Gary
Gary says
Hello, I am baking your cookies recipe right now. I was wondering, in future, if you might put how many grams you need for this recipe...as I am not sure what makes up a "small" sweet potato and a large one. I had 4, not enormous sweet potatoes, but I am in Italy, so per memory, they are not those huge potatoes my mother would bake. I am going to blend them when they cool (only took about 15 minutes to steam...but I already chopped them). As I am in Italy and I know other people here use American recipes, it would be such a help if the portions were in grams. I am lucky that I have US measuring cups and spoons, and a scale to weigh things out...but grams/ounces for the correct potato amount would be helpful. Thank you and Happy Holidays!
Barbara says
Hi Gary, I have been trying hard to make my recipes easy for my fellow bakers no matter where they live. The fact that someone in Italy is making a recipe that I created is the best reward I can get. I am glad you liked the cookies, and I have a friend whose husband is the same way; he did not like sweet potatoes but enjoyed this cookie. I am also glad you can tweak a recipe to suit your taste; this is how the recipe really becomes yours. - Happy Holidays to you also - Barbara
Kayla says
Ms. Barbara you are the jam! This recipe was a night baking experiment and I enjoyed how much these cookies taste like a real slice of pie. Cookie recipes are always a concern of mine but this is perfect. Many blessings to you ma’am!
Barbara says
Oh, Kayla, you made my night! I am so glad you enjoyed this cookie and I hope I made the South proud with my version of Sweet Potato Pie! - Barbara