Sweet Potato Brownie Adventures

Want a tray of brownies without my delirious rambling?

Click here for my melt-in-your-mouth sweet potato brownies recipe.

Otherwise, prepare to read about my adventure in sweet potato brownies™.

Earlier this year I posted a recipe for Sweet Potato Brownies. It was an on-the-whim type of recipe that I made once, decided was good enough, and posted. They were good brownies, super melty and soft with lots of chocolate flavor, but they had a notable starchiness from the sweet potato that I couldn’t get over. Eventually I put the post on private and forgot about it.

Then yesterday I was hit with an uncontrollable and explainable desire to make the damn best sweet potato brownies, so I picked myself off the couch and went to the store to buy sweet potatoes.

Batch 1:

• “These taste really good but they’re a bit…I don’t know…gummy?” my mom says

My motivation grows stronger. I decide some kind of fruit puree might add moistness, better yet, carrot puree which I find more mild than applesauce, and that the food processor likely overworked the sweet potato. Fork mashing it is.

Batch 2:

• Much better texture….but what was that I tasted…..a hint of….gumminess?

They are good, but I am on a quest for the best. By this point I am also running out of maple syrup. I decide to start making half batches.

I go to sleep, dreaming of sweet potato brownies.

The next day I start immediately after work. I double the oil to 2 tbs (1/4 cup if I were making full batches), and mash the sweet potatoes with it, like when making mashed potatoes, thinking this will prevent the starch from “developing”.

Batch 3:

• The dough has that characteristic starchy pull to it. ‘Oh no’ I think.
• Maybe there’s too much sweet potato in the batter?
• I am pleasantly surprised, despite 3.5 ounces of sweet potato in the batter, the final brownies have a great texture: soft, fudgy, and a bit chewy (in a good non starchy way)
• “Oh I like these ones”my mom says

But I’m not finished yet. I decide to see what happens when I reduce the amount of sweet potato. I reduce it from 3.5 to 1.5 ounces and mash the sweet potatoes with a tsp of oil. I reduce the oil in the batter back down to 1 tablespoon.

Batch 4:

• The dough is much more liquid-y than the other batches.
• The middle still looks wet after baking for 10 minutes, so I have to bake it about 5 minutes more.
• The brownies are just the way I like ’em. Soft, melty, and gooey. Probably too gooey for the average joe. Was it a fluke? Why was the dough so liquidy?

I decide to recreate a new version of Batch 4 to see whether I screwed something up that led to its liquidy batter consistency. I’ve made so many sweet potato brownies that I’m not even sure I remember how exactly to make them.

This time I add 2 ounces of sweet potato, which I mash with 1/4 tsp of oil. Probably not necessary, but who am I to question this convoluted method I’ve developed? I’ve run out of good chocolate chunks and am using shitty chocolate chips. I learn that chocolate quality really matters in brownies.

Batch 5:

• The batter is liquidy, but slightly less than batch 4. Does .5 an ounce of sweet potato make that much of a difference? Fairly believable.
• I add 1/4 tsp of apple cider vinegar to the sweet potatoes. I’m not sure why.
• It’s also 10 pm and I’m too impatient to let the sweet potato fully cool so most of the (shitty) chocolate chips melt
• I decide to go to Trader Joe’s the next day and buy some chocolate chunks because Nestle chocolate chips taste janky, which I try to rectify by adding a splash of vanilla extract
• They’re less gooey than the last batch, but still very fudgy…it still might be a bit too much for the average person.

Is this what obsession is? Will I ever make the perfect sweet potato brownie? That day I go to the store to pick up a new bottle of maple syrup. It reads “16 1/4 cup servings”. I read “16 potential attempts at sweet potato brownies”.

I want to determine if 2 tablespoons of oil are necessary for 3.5 ounces of sweet potato, or whether I can get away with only one. But I’m going to be a bad experimenter and reduce the sweet potato to 3 ounces at the same time. I’m starting to think this is a concave problem with no absolute maxima, but I’m still hoping to stumble upon a local maxima. If only I could apply stochastic gradient descent to cooking.

The fridge has been taken over by brownies. I eat sweet potato brownies for breakfast. I’ll probably eat sweet potato brownies for lunch. I get back from work and begin measuring out ingredients. It feels like muscle memory.

Batch 6:

• I’ve developed a batter intuition. Glossy is good. Dull means too much starch. The thinner the batter, the more gooey the brownies.
• 3 ounces of sweet potato and 1 tbs of oil gives the most beautiful batter I’ve ever seen. Angels are singing in my head, but maybe that’s from the past restless nights of sleep.
• After I remove the brownies from the oven (they’ve lost their shine and are matte now, I take a nap to clear the angels from my head. Post nap hunger leads me to the brownies. Cold from the fridge they’ve regained glossiness. I hesitate before I take the first bite, but as soon as I taste chocolate I realize I had been nervous for no reason.
• The brownies are soft and fudge-y with a complex chocolate taste, and there is exactly zero gumminess to be found. They don’t taste healthy in the slightest, despite being low-fat, vegan, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free.

I’ve found the recipe, the quest isn’t quite over. Perfection is one thing, but repeatability and scalability (I had been working with half batches) is a whole ‘nother beast.

The next day I prepare for the final and most intense battle: baking a full pan of sweet potato brownies.

Batch 7:

• The batter looks as it should: pourable and glossy, but thick enough that I have to scoop out the last bits of batter with a spoon. The batter is a bit less glossy than batch 6, which I blame on some chocolate chips melting (hey you, let the sweet potatoes fully cool).
• I bake them for 22 minutes. They’re matte when I take them out of the oven but I’m not too worried. I leave them on the counter to cool and transfer them to the fridge before I go to sleep.
• The next day I try them. Angels are singing again.

In conclusion, I’m completely nuts, but hey, I have the most incredible tray of sweet potato brownies in the fridge right now. I’m going to go hibernate for a very long time, only waking occasionally to stuff my mouth with brownies (maybe not a good idea considering the instant espresso, but based on what I’ve written, it’s safe to assume my judgement’s muted). Meanwhile, you should go make some sweet potato brownies so we can bask in their glory together.

You can find the full recipe here.

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Quinoa Cupcakes (Gluten Free)

This morning Tumblr informed me that it was Chomps of Life’s 2nd birthday.

Whoa.

That means that I’ve been making posts, albeit infrequently, for 2 entire years.

For someone who is always switching hobbies, 2 years of blogging is quite a feat.

Lately I’ve kind of neglected Chomps of Life, but that was mostly because my laptop was broken and I only recently got a new one.

Anyway, that’s besides the point.

The point is that Chomps of Life has been around for two entire years, and  that calls for cupcakes!

These cupcakes are inspired by my favorite quinoa chocolate cake. They’re soft, dense, and fragrant, and have a faint quinoa taste because they lack chocolate to mask the natural quinoa flavor.

Don’t let that scare you, though! They’re still delicious and taste like vanilla cupcakes. I gave my friend one, warning her that they were gluten free and made with quinoa, and she thought they were yummy. They are, they really, really are!

Look at that beautiful texture (and coloring – they’re naturally very yellow!):

Since I’ve only made these cupcakes once, this isn’t a perfected recipe yet (I’ll post an updated one eventually!). However, they are still delicious and I recommend anybody looking for easy gluten free vanilla cupcakes without 159384 different flours try them.

Quinoa Cupcakes

• ½  cup quinoa
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup potato starch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt

1. Rinse the quinoa.
2. Bring the quinoa and water to a simmer in a medium pot. Cook 10 minutes then turn off the heat and cover. Let rest for another 10 minutes then fluff with a fork.
3. Alternately, put the quinoa and water in a microwave safe bowl. Cover the bowl with a plate and cook for around 8-10 minutes in the microwave. Then let cool.
4. When the quinoa has cooled some, combine with the butter, eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, potato starch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a blender. Blend until smooth. If the mixture starts to separate, continue blending until homogeneous.
5. Divide the batter among 12 cupcake liners.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for around 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out without any wet batter.
7. Cool then frost with any frosting desired.

Chocolate Macarons

I’m not going to sugarcoat this: macarons are finicky little beasts.

Out of the various times (read: 5 or more) I’ve tried to make them, all batches have failed to some degree.

Sorry to say, the batch pictured was somewhat of a failure too. I admit I’m sort of deceiving you with these pictures.

This batch wasn’t a disaster by any means and the macarons tasted delicious, formed adorable ‘feet’ and had a perfectly soft/chewy texture combo, but the other ¾ of the batch had cracks.

I’m pretty sure it’s because I didn’t let the macarons rest long enough before baking them, given the last ones in the oven had the fewest cracks. Lesson learned.

From my many attempts at macaron making, I can give the following tips with confidence:

1. Let the macarons rest!
2. Weigh the ingredients. For a while I didn’t have a scale and thought measuring in cups would work just as well. It doesn’t.
3. Let the macarons cool before filling. The last thing you want is to ruin a perfectly good beautiful batch of macarons with runny filling – I know from personal experience.
4. If the macarons stick, wipe a damp cloth on the bottom side of the parchment. (Works best if they are still warm.)
5. Don’t over or under fold the batter. Over folding can cause excessive spreading, and under folding can lead to bumpy macarons. (I wasn’t lying when I said macarons are finicky.)
6. If you succeed on your first try, gold star for you (and please, send some of your skills to me!). If you don’t, try again.

Chocolate Macarons

• 150 grams powdered sugar
• 110 grams almond meal
• 10 grams dutch processed cocoa powder (~2 tbs)
• 100 grams egg whites
• 50 grams sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Sift together the powdered sugar, almond meal, and cocoa.
2. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually adding the sugar. Stir in the vanilla,
3. Fold the dry ingredients into the whipped egg whites until no streaks remain.
4. Pipe or scoop the batter onto 3 parchment paper lined baking trays. Allow to rest for at least an hour and a half.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 16 minutes. If the macarons stick to the parchment, wipe the bottom side of the parchment (below the macarons) with a damp cloth. This should loosen them and make them easier to remove.
6. Fill with ganache.

Chocolate Ganache

• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream

1. In a saucepan, heat the chocolate and heavy whipping cream until a smooth chocolate mixture forms.
2. Cool until spreadable.

On a side note, I’m interested in posting more dinner recipes! For some reason, I’m feeling quite sugared out. Lately I’ve been cooking my own meals (or having my mom order takeout), so there’s a bunch I can potentially share!

Five Minute Oatmeal Pancakes!

Five minutes from now you could have seven pancakes. Seven soft, fluffy gluten free pancakes that taste just as delicious as their wheat-filled counterparts. Honestly, they’re easier to make than regular pancakes and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to make flour ones again.

I’ve made this recipe six times in the past week – three times plain, once with chocolate chips, and twice with cocoa – and all versions received raving reviews from my parents and peers alike. Make this recipe, fall in love, and never spend more than five minutes making pancakes again.

EDIT: From an attempt to cook these pancakes on a regular frying pan, I’ve realized how important a nonstick surface is. So unless you want to make scrambled pancake, use nonstick!

Five Minute Pancakes 

(1 minute for gathering ingredients, 1 minute for blending, and 3 minutes to cook; it’s really that easy!)

• ¼ cup old fashioned oats
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon powdered sugar (I use 1 pitted date!)
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup milk
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender.
2. Blend for about a minute, or until the mixture is smooth.
3. Cook at medium-high heat on a non stick pan until golden brown.
4. Serve plain, or with syrup, jam, ice cream, or chocolate sauce.

Three Ingredient Banana Cookies

These are quite possibly the easiest cookies to make, ever.

They are vegan, gluten free, and sugar free, yet still taste great and are fun to eat. I added some cinnamon and chocolate to make them even more fun.

When it comes to baking on school nights, I’m super lazy, so these were an easy way to use up ripe bananas. Plus, my dad was able to try them, something he isn’t usually able to do because he’s still on his raw food + fish (+ chocolate ice cream, but he’d deny it if you asked) diet.

If you have bananas and want an easy recipe to try, make these cookies. They’re not thick and buttery like most cookies, but they’re still delicious! I ate them with ice cream and melted chocolate – just because.

Three Ingredient Banana Cookies

• ½ cup mashed bananas
• ¾ cup old fashion oats
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Optional Ingredients (I added all):

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 cup chocolate chips

1. Mash the bananas.
2. Add ½ cup oats.
3. Grind the remaining ¼ cup oats in a blender or food processor to create a fine powder, then add. OR, simply add the remaining ¼ cups whole.
4. *OPTIONAL* Add in the vanilla extract and chocolate chips.
5. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.
6. Scoop into round balls onto a baking sheet, flatten with your fingers, and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Classic Chocolate Brownies

I’m currently trying to write my common app essay, which is, to put it lightly, a painful and mind numbing process.

So here are some brownies I made a while ago. (What I would do for one now.)

Classic Chocolate Brownies

adapted from here

• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, vanilla, sugar, and eggs.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Bake in a 9×9 or 8×8 inch greased baking pan at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until the sides begin to pull away from the pan.

Classic Banana Bread

Last week I came home to six overripe bananas. They were sitting on the counter: mushy, with outsides spotted brown, and no one wanted to eat them.

So I did what anyone would do; I made banana bread. I used a really simple recipe (normally I use one that calls for creme fraiche among other specialty ingredients), and surprisingly, the results were really good!

I topped slices with strawberries and chocolate ganache, and wow, it was delicious!

Classic Banana Bread

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 ½ cups mashed bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
2. In another bowl, beat together the oil, sugar, and vanilla.
3. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Stir in the mashed bananas.
5. Add fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring until barely mixed.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips.
7. Bake in a greased loaf pan at 350 degrees, for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Blondies

Whenever I need a quick dessert, something to bring to a friend’s house or just to eat myself, I make these blondies. They’re EXTREMELY easy to make and don’t require any fancy ingredients. Perfect for when I’m feeling lazy (which is, well, most of the time).

And, they taste pretty awesome.

Blondies

adapted from here

• ½ cup (8 TBS) butter, melted
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Stir together the melted butter and brown sugar.
2. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. Fold in the flour until no streaks remain.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Pour in a greased and parchment’d 8×8 inch pan and bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle.

C is for Choux Pastry Puffs

Okay, I have a confession. If you couldn’t already tell, these are actually eclairs. Choux really only refers to the dough used to make eclairs, while eclairs are choux dough doused in chocolate and loaded with custard (an improvement if you ask me!)

But to continue my Alphabet Around the World Challenge, which has been neglected for far too long, I needed a recipe that started with a C, and Choux fits that criteria!

This recipe was actually very simple, although a bit time consuming, and the results were delicious! I’d shy away from calling any recipe with choux foolproof, but this one seems to be very close to that! 🙂

Alphabet Around the World: A, B, C

Choux Pastry Puffs

recipe adapted from here

• 1 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a rolling boil.
3. Once boiling, immediately add all the flour, and stir until combined.
4. Continue cooking about a minute, or until it forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan (internal temperature should be 80 degrees C or 175 degrees F).
5. Remove from heat.
6. Allow to cool until 50 degrees C (120 degrees F).
7. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition.
8. Put the dough into a pipping bag (or plastic bag with corner cut).
9. Pipe the dough onto baking trays. They will puff up during baking so separate each piece by 3 inches.
10. Spritz the baking trays with water, and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until dark golden brown.
11. When the eclairs are removed from the oven, cut small slits into the sides to allow steam to escape.
12. Let cool completely.

Easy Vanilla Custard Filling

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Bring to a boil a pan filled with about 2-3 inches of water.
2. In a glass or metal bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except the vanilla.
3. Place the bowl over the boiling water.
4. Whisk for about 20-25 minutes, or until the custard thickens considerably.
5. Remove from heat, whisk in the vanilla, and then let cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze

• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream

1. In a saucepan, heat the chocolate and heavy whipping cream until a smooth chocolate mixture forms.

To assemble the Eclairs

1. Cut 3 slits in the side of each eclair. Twist the knife when you cut them to form a more circular hole.
2. Place the cooled vanilla custard in a pastry bag (or plastic bag with corner cut), and then pipe into each slit until each cavity is filled.
3. Either brush or dip the eclairs into the chocolate glaze, then place on a baking rack and allow to sit until hardened.
4. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve made countless versions of chocolate chip cookies: some calling for bread flour, others for egg yolks, some even for vanilla beans and brown butter and the like, but I’ve found, when it comes down to it, simplicity is best.

These cookies are good. They’re not too thin, not too thick, not too crispy, not too soft. They’re not the most extravagant cookies – they’re far from it – but they’re buttery and chocolatey, and sometimes simplicity is best.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

recipe adapted from here.

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 ¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 bag (2 cups) semi sweet chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. In another bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients until there are no streaks of flour. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour (or just skip this step – most of the time i do)
6. Divide the dough into 2 tablespoons sized portions, and then bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Bake for shorter or more time depending on personal preferences. 🙂