These Sweet Potato Cookies are soft, spiced, and studded with chocolate chips and pecans. The kind of cookie that makes your kitchen smell like fall the second they go in the oven.
Got leftover mashed sweet potato from dinner, or a can of puree in the pantry? Either one works perfectly here, so this is a great way to use up what you already have instead of letting it go to waste. And with pantry staples like oats, flour, and brown sugar filling out the dough, a batch of 24 cookies costs just $8.42 which is a lot less than a bakery box this size.
Why You’ll Love This Family Recipe!
These soft, fluffy sweet potato cookies are an easy and delicious treat for the holidays. Made with fresh baked sweet potatoes and warm seasonal spices, every bite is filled with cozy fall flavor and a tender, delicious texture.
They’re a fun holiday cookie recipe that’s sure to disappear quickly.
After years of baking for my family and raising 8 kids, I’ve made plenty of holiday cookies over the years. I love finding recipes that are easy to make and bring something a little different to the dessert table, and these sweet potato cookies are always a fun addition to our holiday baking.
You may also like to make Ooey Gooey Butter Cookies, Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies and Butterscotch Cornflake Cookies.
Ingredients
- Medium Sweet Potatoes – Fresh sweet potatoes add natural sweetness, moisture, and a soft texture to these cookies.
- All Purpose Flour – Provides structure while keeping the cookies light and tender.
- Baking Powder – Helps the cookies rise and gives them a soft, fluffy texture.
- Butter (softened) – Adds rich flavor and helps create a tender, delicious cookie.
- Brown Sugar – Adds sweetness and a hint of caramel flavor while keeping the cookies moist.
- Granulated Sugar – Adds sweetness and helps give the cookies a lightly crisp edge.
- Chocolate Chips – Add creamy chocolate flavor and little pockets of chocolate throughout each cookie.
- Rolled oats – Add heartiness and a little chew you won’t find in a typical cookie — they also stretch the dough further, so you get more cookies for less cost.
- Cinnamon and ginger – Give these that warm, cozy flavor that makes them taste like fall without needing pumpkin pie spice or a long ingredient list.
- Pecans -Add crunch against all that soft chocolate chip cookie texture — leave them out if you’ve got a nut allergy in the house, no other changes needed.
Get the complete ingredients at the bottom.
How to Make Sweet Potato Cookies
Step 1 – Prep the sweet potatoes. Poke and wrap 2 medium sweet potatoes in foil and bake at 400°F for 45-50 minutes, until they’re soft all the way through. Short on time? You can also microwave them: pierce each potato a few times with a fork and microwave for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway, until fork-tender. Or skip this step entirely and use 1½ cups canned sweet potato puree instead — no baking or peeling required.
Step 2 – Mash Sweet Potatoes – Allow the sweet potatoes to cool. Then remove the foil and the skin from the sweet potatoes. Place in a bowl and mash the sweet potatoes.
Step 3 – Reduce Temperature – Reduce the oven temperature down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 4. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, and baking powder.
Step 5. Then add in the rolling oats, salt and cinnamon.
Step 6. Mix in the ground ginger.
Step 7. Combine the dry ingredients together.
Step 8. In a different bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Combine with a hand held or stand up mixer until combined and smooth.
Step 9. Then add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Then add in the mashed sweet potato and mix until smooth.
Step 10. Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Stir the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture by hand with a wooden or plastic spoon until just combined (do not over mix). The dough will be soft and a little sticky — more like a thick muffin batter than a typical cookie dough. That’s normal, so resist the urge to add extra flour to firm it up; it’ll hold together fine once scooped.
Step 11. Gently stir in the chopped pecans and chocolate chips.
Step 12. Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to place the cookie dough on baking sheet.
Step 13. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges of the cookies are set. Be careful not to overbake — the centers may still look a little soft when you pull them out, and that’s exactly what you want, since they’ll continue to firm up as they cool. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
What Should the Dough Look Like?
If this is your first time making sweet potato cookies, the dough will probably surprise you — it’s much softer and stickier than a typical chocolate chip cookie dough, closer to a thick muffin batter than a dough you can roll between your palms. That’s completely normal and it’s because of the moisture in the sweet potato.
Don’t add extra flour to try to firm it up; a cookie scoop handles this dough just fine, and adding flour to compensate is the most common reason these cookies turn out dry.
Recipe Tips
- Sweet Potatoes – Bake the sweet potatoes in oven at 350 degrees up to 400 degrees. We usually bake them for about 45 minutes but cooking time will change depending on the size of your sweet potatoes. I try to get them about the same size.
- Baking Sheets – Line the baking sheets with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
- Cool Sweet Potatoes – Cool the sweet potatoes completely before mixing with other ingredients. Then they are ready to be mashed and the skin removed.
- Combining Ingredients – Combine the dry and wet ingredients together until everything is completely mixed together. Combine with wooden spoon for best results in a large mixing bowl.
- Scoop Cookies – To get the cookies about the same size, we recommend using a cookie scoop.
- Baking Cookies – Bake the cookies until the edges are golden brown. It usually takes about 10 minutes. Make sure to not over bake the cookies as they will finish cookie after removing from the oven. Place on cooling rack to cool the cookies.
Variations
- Make Recipe Gluten-Free – If you prefer to make this recipe gluten free, you can use gluten free flour and oats.
- Butternut Squash – Instead of using sweet potatoes you can also use butternut squash. It has a natural sweetness that make the best cookies.
- Seasoning – Feel free to add in other warm spices to this cookie recipe. Baking Powder, Baking soda, Cinnamon and nutmeg make the perfect combination. You can even add in pumpkin pie spice for a delicious pumpkin flavor.
- Chocolate Chips – We used milk chocolate chips to make this recipe, but you can easily use dark chocolate chips. Another options would be peanut butter chips or butterscotch chips.
- Nuts – Chopped nuts make a great addition, but you can omit them if you prefer.
Troubleshooting
- Cookies came out too dry? Your sweet potato may have been on the drier side — next time, add an extra tablespoon or two of mashed sweet potato to the dough.
- Dough seems too wet to scoop? Chill it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes before baking; it’ll firm up enough to hold its shape without adding more flour.
Budget-Friendly Batch
This recipe makes 24 cookies from ingredients most of us already have on hand — two sweet potatoes, a bit of flour and oats, and pantry spices. That’s a full holiday cookie tray for just $0.35 per cookie and a fraction of what a bakery box of the same size would run you.
It’s an easy way to stretch a couple of sweet potatoes into something the whole family will ask for again.
FAQs
Yes — swap in 1½ cups of canned sweet potato puree (not pie filling, which has added sugar and spices) in place of the fresh mashed sweet potato. It works just as well and saves you the baking step entirely.
Yes, we love preparing these cookies ahead of time and then freeze. It helps to cut down on holiday baking. You can freeze the cookie dough or baked cookies.
You can flash freeze both the dough or the baked cookies by placing on a baking sheet. Then freeze for about an hour, then store in a freezer container for up to 3 months.
Store the leftover cookies in an airtight container or bag at room temperature for up to 1 week. Place a piece of bread in the container with the cookies to keep them soft.
More Easy Cookie Recipes
It’s your turn to try these delicious cookies. Please leave a comment and star rating once you do.
Sweet Potato Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 Medium Sweet Potatoes
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Rolled Oats
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 cup Butter softened
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips
- 1/4 cup Chopped Pecans
See how we calculate recipe costs.
Instructions
- Poke the sweet potatoes with a fork and wrap in foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes until the potatoes are soft. You may need more cook time depending on the size of your sweet potatoes.
- Allow the sweet potatoes to cool. Then remove the foil and the skin from the sweet potatoes. Place in a bowl and mash the sweet potatoes.
- Reduce the oven temperature down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, rolled oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ground ginger.
- Cream the butter and both sugars together for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and mashed sweet potato until smooth.
- Add the flour mixture and stir just until combined — the dough will be soft and a little sticky, more like a thick muffin batter than a typical cookie dough. That's normal; don't add extra flour to firm it up.
- Gently stir in the chopped pecans and chocolate chips.
- Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to place the cookie dough on baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges of the cookies are set. Be careful not to overcook. The cookies may still look soft in the middle but they will continue to cook as they sit.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes. Then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Then the cookies are ready to serve and enjoy!
