Our Lady of Leftovers: Still with the sweet potatoes!

It’s just one of those things — after Thanksgiving AND Christmas, there’s always still so much food left! It’s worse for us, since we’re house sitting, and our host left Christmas Day — he just shoved his leftovers in the fridge and said, “Eat up!” Well, we tried. And we’re still trying. But there’s only two of us, and without his three little boys to help, well, we’re kind of stuck.

Without my little ramekin dishes, I’m not inclined to make sweet potato custard, but I did run across several versions of a tender and tasty sweet potato cookie. It’s so far out of what I usually would do with sweet potatoes that we whipped up a quick double recipe. Turned out really well — and I could see substituting mashed carrots, too, if you have any leftover glazed or roasted carrots lurking in the fridge.

Sweet Potato Cookies

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
• 3/4 cup quick-cooking oats – instant packaged oatmeal will work
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter or margarine, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup packed sweet potato mash
• 1 egg OR 1 tbsp. freshly ground flax seed + 2 tbsp. water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.
2. Cream butter with both sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Next, sift together your dry ingredients – flour through cinnamon — and then mix well together with oats.
4. Lightly beat the egg and add into the sweet potato mash, together with vanilla extract. If you’re using flax seed, mix your water with the vanilla, and then add the freshly ground seeds. Let them sit for about a minute, then beat into sweet potato mash.
5. Mix in sweet potato mixture into creamed butter and blend well. Then add in the dry flour mixture and combine thoroughly. Your dough will be a bit moist, but never fear! These cookies are quite tender, so this is normal.
6. Drop the cookie dough by tablespoonfuls. Slightly flatten the doughballs as these cookies do not spread too much. Bake for 14-16 minutes until the edges are starting to brown.
7. Remove from oven and let cookies rest on the sheets for a couple of minutes to firm up further before removing them to cool completely on a rack. Enjoy! Makes about 26-28 teaspoon sized cookies, and you’ll never get them all in one cookie jar, so eat up!

Those are quite tasty! And now we need something to go with them…

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