If you know my daughter you know she loves her sweets. She is pretty good about veggies but she LOVES cookies. I love to bake so we get along really well.
We are planning a trip back to Bradford County and I saw my chance to bake and not have too many sweets around. I was going to pawn everything off on my SIL. Then I accidentally discovered something we just cant share! Sneaky sweets. Sweets with VEGGIES!
My plan was to try to make a healthier version of pumpkin cookies. I was ready with my applesauce for oil plan when I discovered I had used my can of pumpkin for smoothies. Shoot! What now? Hmmm think, think... I am a bear of little brain and I have ADD...wow that pan is shiny! Sweet potatoes were the last thing I made in that...sweet potato pie is good....its a lot like pumpkin pie...I have sweet potatoes. So after a bit of pondering and modifying the recipe we made cookies!
Now I wont lie. They would probably be even better with butter and chocolate chips. The ones we "tested with our mouths because they are cookies and ummy" were moist and pretty good! Next time I will try to make them with whole wheat flour so we can have super healthy cookies.
Hailey tells me we need to make them every day. I told her she could have one everyday. Two even. They are only 46 calories apiece. Hailey is willing to share ONE with Daddy. Speaking of Hailey, I have been blogging while I feed Blake and I haven't heard her in awhile. Hope there are some cookies left! If not at least I know she has had her veggies.
Ingredients:
- 1 Large sweet potato washed and pealed (1 1/2 cups)
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour ( or just 2 cups of all purpose flour)
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 cup apple sauce ( I used Mott's all Natural, no sweetener)
- 1 tsp Vanilla
Method:
Preheat oven to 350
Use cooking spray to coat cookie sheet.
Cut potato and boil until soft. Drain water and mash ( if you have a food processor,which I do not, I would run it though that. ) If you are very serious about calorie counting measure the sweet potato. You should have 1 1/2 cups. In a medium bowl mix sweet potato, apple sauce, sugar & vanilla ( You could probably use almond extract here if you wanted. ) Add dry ingredients and mix. ( I used a hand mixer on medium speed.) For a extra yummy goodness you could add 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips here. I checked it out and that would bring your calories up to 56 a cookie. Drop mounded teaspoonful onto cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. I have a quick bake option and with that it only takes about 7 min. Makes 32 cookies plus one or two.
SIL ( I'm not using her name because I didn't ask if I could) asked for cookies. Hailey and I got to work . Hailey says she is "a hard worker, and works hard for chocowait. " She helped me mix the dough, shape cookies, and she even got to reap the benefits. We had some small accidents along the way. I let her crack and egg. She was pretty shocked when it fell out " the wrong side" and missed the bowl completely. I love watching her get her pan, the one she had to " do all by myself", and take it to the oven. She was so serious about her "work". 
Blake even had fun watching her. I think he was hoping she would sneak him something while I wasn't looking. She does that. He's had several foods I don't think he's ready for because I looked away. We made some experimental cookies. I think they turned out ok. We like to "get creative in the kitchen like Curious George." Between the two of us we were able to get 126 cookies for " Aunt SIL's house." 
I loved the way she looked at me with her big dark eyes and said " Maybe she will share the chocolate with me." I can't believe she's grown up enough to help me in the kitchen. I miss my baby but I love spending time with my little girl. Every day is full of special treats just for me to enjoy and I'm so thankful I can be home with the kids and enjoy them.
