Deliciously sweet, moist, and somehow "fruity" and "caramely" all at once, these carob sweet potato brownies are full of interesting ingredients. Well, two of these I already gave away in the title: sweet potatoes (a nice easy veggie to sneak into a dessert), and the other is carob.
A chocolateless brownie might sound a little odd, but there's a very good reason I went with carob here and I'll elaborate on it more below. For now suffice it to say, it's a lovely change-up from good ol' chocolate, and it's been waaaay too long since a carob dessert happened here, so it was about time and I'm glad I had an excuse to put it to use again.
The other sneaky ingredients in these naturally eggless, gluten-free, dairy-free brownies? Read on :)
Last week I received a lovely email from "Grandma Judy" asking to be pointed to a recipe or just if I had any recommendations for a treat for her grandson's birthday. His current food range is very limited due to food sensitivities when it comes to desserts... Ideally a brownie of sorts was wanted.
I've had the pleasure to assist with ideas for some challenging food sensitivity cases in the past, and these projects have been extremely enjoyable and rewarding. Reminiscing on some of them now, there was for instance this Crazy Fruity Carob Pudding Cake for the cutest 1yo's birthday party with some limited food choices. Or this Caramel Coconut Cake, consisting of a single ingredient only (coconut!) for another little one with a condition that prevented him from having a birthday cake otherwise. Or this special food-sensitivity friendly Fig Hazelnut Caramel Cake wedding cake...
Well this time around, how could I resist a boy who needs a brownie on his b-day!
Grandma Judy gave me a list of approved ingredients, which included a small list of items that could be used: sweet potato or squash, tigernuts, cassava, arrowroot, hemp, date syrup or maple syrup, carob (and a few non-vegan ingredients, like gelatin and lard). Pretty much all else was to be avoided (especially some of my favorite players, like nuts and seeds, coconut, bananas, avocado, grains, etc.).
As I began thinking of existing recipes that might work for this situation, my mind kept circling back to trying something new. As I haven't had the opportunity to visit special shops for all the ingredients here I just had to work with what I had access too. Right off the bat I decided they'll have to be sweet potato brownies, because well, veggies snuck into a treat are always fun. Plus it would be great for texture, binding, etc. in a recipe like this. For the flour I used a mix of cassava flour and tigernut slices. And maple syrup as a sweetener. No oils, no nuts or seeds, gluten, dairy, eggs, etc., but a lot of yum! :) -- which I hope will make these accessible for others with similar food restrictions.
Cassava flour is something that's been pretty challenging for me to get into until now. I've been asked for recipes using it for years now, but it's just not an ingredient that I've seen being commonly available here and overall it's pretty pricey, so I've been skipping it... but I recently saw some in a shop and decided to finally grab a bag to play around with sometime. And so I was glad to have Grandma Judy give me an excuse to put it to good use here :)
If you're not familiar with cassava flour, it's a grain-free flour made from yuca root, which is what tapioca starch is made of, though cassava flour differs in that it's not just the isolated starch but the whole root. Look out for it in the gluten-free baking section of your grocery store, or at health food shops. Or online on Amazon or Well.ca, etc.
The other thing is that although I also planned to use tigernut flour in these, the grocery store only had tigernut slices for sale. So I used those, which gave these a firmer texture that I liked better anyhow. Plus, the ones sprinkled on top get all nice and toasty after being baked in the oven -- delicious!
And speaking of texture. I recommend making these a day ahead, because I found their texture got better after a day of chilling in the fridge after baking and cooling off.
And last but not least, if you prefer, you can definitely half the recipe to use less ingredients. So you can do half for example and bake them in a small bread pan, or in muffin cups, and so on. Just keep in mind that they'll bake faster in a smaller batch so keep an eye on them.
So here you go, a rather unconventional treat today, but hoping it will bring a smile to someone's 2nd birthday out there :) Despite being made from unusual ingredients, these carob sweet potato brownies turned out quite special and I know it's a recipe I'll be coming back to myself (they make a pretty tasty snack, or a quick breakfast too).
Happy birthday, grandma Judy's little one! :)
P.S. I added a bit of cinnamon and vanilla to these for a bit of extra flavor, but they're not essential. So if they're on the no-go list, feel free to skip.
Carob Sweet Potato Brownies
Delicious, sweet, and fruity, these vegan and paleo carob sweet potato brownies are not only gluten-free and dairy-free, but quite allergy-friendly.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 9-12 servings
- Category: brownies
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: dessert
Ingredients
Brownies:
- 2 cups tigernut slices
- 2 cups cassava flour*
- 1 ½ cups sweet potato puree**
- 1 ½ cups maple syrup
- ½ cup toasted carob powder
- ½ cup water
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)
- 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
- ¾ tsp salt
Toppings:
- approx. ¼ cup more tigernut slices***
- optional: edible rose petals and blue cornflower petals
Instructions
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line an 8"x8"x2" dish (or something of a similar size) with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Process all brownie ingredients in a food processor until it sticks together and becomes uniform. Transfer into the prepared pan and press the mixture down, distributing it evenly throughout the pan. Sprinkle with tigernut slices if using (though not with flower petals yet).
3. Bake in a pre-heated oven for approx. 50 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out dry. Cool on a wire rack. Then slice and chill overnight in the fridge (for best consistency, or you can enjoy earlier if preferred otherwise). Optional: prior to serving, sprinkle with the dried flower petals. Enjoy!
Notes
*I used Otto's Cassava flour for these. I've heard that different brands of cassava flour sometimes produce different results, so can't vouch for other brands as I have not tried them yet.
**Note: the sweet potato puree should be firm and not too liquidy (otherwise, you'll need to play around with lowering the amount of water in the recipe to accommodate for the extra moisture). You can just steam some sweet potatoes until completely soft, then mash them up with a fork, or bake them until they are at a mashable consistency. Alternatively, can used canned sweet potato puree. If making your own mashed sweet potatoes, make sure it's slightly chilled or at a cool room temperature before adding to the blender (so as to to avoid the hot potatoes causing the maple syrup to caramelize in the food processor while blending).
***For this entire recipe I used a 170gr bag of sliced tigernuts from Organic Gemini. So I took what was needed for the brownie base and sprinkled the rest on top as a topping.
Keywords: Carob Sweet Potato Brownies (gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan)
Andrea Armstrong says
Im not sure if you are aware but you made this fully AIP compliant. THANK YOU!!! I will try this soon!!
Nahisha Serfas says
Is it possible to replace the tigernuts by something else?
Audrey says
Hi Nahisha. I think almond slices (or hazelnut slices, etc.) should work fine here instead of the tigernuts. If you try it, would love to know how it worked out for you.
Jo says
Could I use any other , more Common, flour?thx
Audrey says
Hi Jo, I made this, erm... unusual, recipe to fit an unusual circumstance for someone with a relatively restricted diet. As a result the flours are pretty none standard and can be costly. I haven't played around with other flours in this particular recipe, but in my experience rice flour can replace cassava a lot of the time, so if you're feeling adventurous you can always give that a go.
Bruna Fogaça says
Hi Audrey, what could I use to substitute the tiger nuts? I live in Brazil and here we can't find them yet. Thank you :)
Audrey says
Hi Bruna, I haven't tried it with anything other than tigernuts, but I imagine you can try this out with another thinly sliced nut, like thinly sliced almonds. I'll wager it will work just fine. Let me know how it turns out if you try it.
Cassie Autumn Tran says
Sweet potatoes in baking is the way to go! These brownies look BEAUTIFUL and absolutely delicious. I have never tried baking with cassava flour before and I don't think it's been very recently since I've had a cassava-based baked good! Would you say the cassave yields a denser and thicker texture like almond flour?
Audrey says
Hi Cassie, it seems like it's a bit more similar to grain-based flours actually, although it also has a slight taste of its own. I've tried substituting with it in cookies that I normally make with rice flour and it worked well texturally (just added a different taste). It's a lot finer than nut flours and feels starchy.
Daniel says
Hi Audrey,
Just checking: Is that really 1.5 cups of maple syrup? Seems like a lot.
Audrey says
Hi Daniel. Yes, that's the correct amount. It's a larger recipe (the brownies are big and fluffy). You could try to cut it down some, but I liked them sweeter. You could also half the recipe and make a smaller batch (that's what I'm doing next time myself!).
Nat says
is 1 1\2 cups Maple syrup is correct? thats a lot of sugar
Audrey says
Hi Nat. Yes, that's the correct amount. They're pretty sweet :)
Wende says
Hi Audrey.....can't wait to try these, my question is if you were going to use tigernut flour how much would it be, same as slices.? I just bought some sweet potatoes this morning, this sounds like a Great way to use them....
Audrey says
Hi Wende. I haven't tried these with the flour. When I decided on the slices, I knew they would add texture to these (as they don't blend down as fine as the flour in this recipe), so that's why I went with them. That said, you could give these a try with the flour and see how it goes (I'd love to hear about it, of course!). I'm not sure the amount to use as I haven't tried it out myself, but I'd start with the equivalent in weight. So the tigernut slices here (for the brownies, not topping) weigh approximately 130-140 grams. So I'd try it with the equivalent of that in the flour.
joan harrington says
This looks wonderful. I am one of those few people who can't manage carob but do fine with cocoa powder. Would I substitute an equal amount of cocoa for the carob, and alter the amount of sweetener for this recipe? Thanks
Audrey says
Hi Joan. You can definitely give it a try with the cocoa. The flavor would be a little bit different, as carob is naturally sort of more sweet and caramely, but I think the cocoa would work great. Would love to hear how you go if you give it a try.