I’ve had this recipe for sweet potato brownies bookmarked for weeks, just waiting for the weather to cool off ever so slightly so that I’d feel like baking something so autumnal sounding.
Do you know who Dan Lepard is? He’s the man behind a zillion and one inspiring sweet recipes on The Guardian, a writer, photographer and champion bread baker.
I love reading Dan’s recipes; he uses such interesting ingredients to produce attainable, wholesome, down to earth sweet treats. Some recent examples: rye and oat blinis, wholewheat plum tart with sherry cream, spelt and corn batch rolls.
As Dan points out, lowering the fat and sugar content in a dessert while still keeping the texture right is a pretty complicated affair. I’m not really one for low-fat desserts myself – what drew me to these was pure intrigue. Using baked sweet potato as a binder? Crazy talk. I had to try for myself.
The secret to the question of texture when reducing fat and sugar is to add some cooked starch – the soft baked flesh binds the mixture while at the same time adding moistness to it.
And you know what? It works like a dream – the texture is pretty much spot on.
The flavour is full impact dark chocolate; a really rich, intense cocoa. Chunks of pecans and more dark chocolate add a welcome additional layer of texture. Whether you’re after a less fattening brownie or just intrigued with this kind of fun experimentation: try ’em. You won’t be disappointed.
For the full recipe, visit The Guardian.
