I love gingerbread and ginger cookies and this year I wanted to increase the nutritional value of them. Sweet potatoes seemed like the perfect vehicle for chewy ginger cookies with molasses. If I hadn’t mentioned they contained sweet potatoes none of my parents’ guests would have known and that’s the true test.

I mixed these cookies in the food processor and while the dough is a little soft, they baked up beautifully. The food processor made the batter silky smooth. I cooked the sweet potatoes in the microwave, peeled and mashed them then measured out the two cups I needed.

2 cups brown rice flour
2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup tapioca starch
2 Tbs ground ginger
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup sanding sugar or raw sugar (optional, for garnish)

Preheat oven to 350*F. Prepare several cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix well. In the large cup of a food processor add molasses, agave and coconut oil. Pulse until combined. Add about a quarter of the mashed sweet potatoes and a quarter of the dry ingredients. Pulse until well combined. Continue to add sweet potato and dry ingredients until everything is combined and mixed thoroughly. Drop cookie dough onto the cookie sheet with a spoon about one inch apart, trying to keep a uniform size. Smooth out the tops of the cookies with a damp spoon. Sprinkle cookies lightly with sanding sugar and bake for 13-15 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on cookie rack. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator.