Season’s greetings, seekers of interesting and new holiday cookies! We have a healthy-ish one that makes use of a seasonally appropriate ingredient: the sweet potato. Yes, you may know this tasty tuber from other recent roles on your table, but this time we will slip that sweetness into a grabbable version that will end your search for an interesting new cookie.
Caravan member John Skaggs has been making these for years, you may even see this cookie behind the glass at Heirloom Cafe in Columbus, OH. As a company, we have used them in various cooking programs, and they are an easy sell to the pint-sized chefs. A word of warning: the sweet potato will make this a dense, moist cookie. If you overcook it attempting to achieve a crispy cookie, it will just end up tasting dry.
Here’s What You’ll Need:
½ cup butter softened
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup milk
1 cup mashed sweet potato *
2 ⅓ cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp allspice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup butterscotch chips or other filler
*2 smaller sweet potatoes should equal one cup. Bake in a toaster oven at 380 degrees for one hour, or in a regular oven at 350 degrees for one hour. Peel and let cool before using.
Here’s What You Do:
Place all ingredients except milk and butterscotch chips (or other filler) in a large mixing bowl. Mix using a hand-held electric mixer or stand mixer, adding the milk a little at a time. If, after a few minutes, the batter is seizing up, add a little more milk.
Mix in the butterscotch chips. Feel free to sub nuts, raisins, or chocolate chips here.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake in a 300-degree oven for 20-25 minutes.
Here’s How Kids Can Help:
Crack the eggs, measure or mix the spices, pour the milk.
Add the butterscotch chips or other fillings. Help mix.
Help drop spoonfuls of the mixture. Maybe sneak a small taste of the batter.
Let the adult do this step while you get ready to taste test the first cookie!
The Caravan provides nutrition, literacy, and music programs to children and families around Ohio. Find out more at wearethecaravan.com
