Soft Sweet Potato Cookies
Easy Sweet Potato Cookies Recipe
Simple, Festive Fall Cookies Made with Sweet Potatoes
This comforting, easy sweet potato cookies recipe is perfect for fall and the holiday season! Deliciously soft and chewy, with a slight crisp around the edges. Made with homemade sweet potato puree (or canned), the creamy sweet potato flavor comes through beautifully. Learn how to make sweet potato cookies in under 30 minutes, including a gluten free option.
Typically, fall is the season of pumpkin everything—but I love sweet potato just as much, if not more!It’s creamy, sweet-yet-savory, and wonderfully versatile. Personally, I think these sweet potato cookies turned out even more flavorful and festive than if I’d used pumpkin puree. (However, you can actually make these cookies with pumpkin instead, if you’d like.)
They’re so simple to make, and an adorable treat to serve at a holiday gathering! I made this sweet potato cookies recipe with homemade sweet potato puree, which you can make by simply roasting, peeling, and blending sweet potatoes. Or, for convenience, use canned sweet potato puree. Either way, you’ll end up with a batch of soft, chewy cookies that taste like fall.
Sweet Potato Cookies Ingredients
Softened butter
Light brown sugar
White sugar
Homemade sweet potato puree (or canned)
Cinnamon
Vanilla
Flour
Baking soda
Salt
Substitution Notes
- Butter: I haven’t made this chewy sweet potato cookies recipe with a butter substitute, so I can’t say with certainty how an alternative might work. If you’re willing to experiment, you could try making a vegan version using solid but softened coconut oil.
- Sugars: Similarly, I haven’t made this recipe with any alternative sweeteners, and I prefer the taste of real sugar. (Especially in holiday cookies like these!) You’re welcome to experiment with alternatives like coconut sugar, granulated stevia, and erythritol. Just know that these will likely change the taste and texture.
- Sweet Potato Puree: You can use either a homemade or canned sweet potato puree in this recipe. Or, to make this recipe in a different flavor, try other fall purees like pumpkin or butternut squash!
- Flour: Personally, I love the taste and texture of a refined all-purpose flour in my cookie recipes! But, if you’d like to make gluten free sweet potato cookies instead, try using a 1-to-1 gluten free baking flour. (I like Cup4Cup Multipurpose and Bob’s Red Mill.) Or, you could also experiment with oat flour—although the texture will be different.
- Baking Soda: This is essential to give your cookies their soft and fluffy texture!
- Flavorings: Cinnamon, vanilla, and salt pair beautifully with the sweet potato in this recipe. You’re welcome to add additional fall flavorings if you’d like, such as pumpkin pie spice or nutmeg.
Is canned sweet potato the same as sweet potato puree?
Yes, canned sweet potato is the same as sweet potato puree. (Same goes for pumpkin.) You can buy canned sweet potato at the store for a convenient, shelf-stable option. Or, roast, peel, and blend sweet potatoes for a homemade puree that, I think, is even more flavorful! Either canned or homemade puree will work just as well in this easy sweet potato cookies recipe.
How to Make Sweet Potato Cookies
- In a large bowl, cream together softened butter and sugars with a hand mixer.
- Add sweet potato puree, cinnamon, and vanilla, beating until integrated.
- Separately, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Add dry flour mixture into wet mixture in 2-3 batches, beating to form a dough.
- Portion dough with a cookie scoop (I used a 2-tsp scoop), roll into balls, then gently flatten each ball into a disc. Transfer to lined baking sheets.
- Bake at 350° (180°) for 8-10 minutes, until starting to brown at the edges.
Can I make pumpkin cookies instead of sweet potato cookies?
Yes, you can absolutely turn this soft sweet potato cookies recipe into a pumpkin cookies recipe. Just substitute the sweet potato puree with pumpkin puree! Again, you can use a homemade puree or canned pumpkin. For other pumpkin cookie ideas, try my pumpkin oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip pumpkin breakfast cookies, or mini pumpkin whoopie pies!
Soft Sweet Potato Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar
- ⅔ cup granulated white sugar
- ½ cup sweet potato puree, homemade or canned
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour, (or a 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
- In a large bowl, beat softened butter and sugars with a hand mixer until combined.
- Add sweet potato puree, cinnamon, and vanilla and beat until integrated.
- Separately, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
- Add flour mixture into wet mixture in 2-3 batches, beating with a hand mixer to combine into a dough.
- Scoop dough and roll into 1-inch balls, then flatten each ball into a disk. (I used a 2-tsp cookie scoop.) Transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment.
- Bake 8-10 minutes, until starting to brown at the edges.
- Cool 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days.
- Yields 68-70 cookies.
18 Comments on “Soft Sweet Potato Cookies”
This recipe is on point!!!! Cookies turned out delicious. Soft in the middle and crispy on the edges.
Highly recommend this recipe. You won’t be disappointed
Yay! We’re so glad to hear these sweet potato cookies hit the mark for you! It’s one of our favorite recipes – can’t beat that soft middle & crispy edges 🙂
Thank you for trying out the recipe & sharing your kind comment here. We appreciate you!
The cookies came out incredible! Such a great recipe.
Yay, Marina! We looove these sweet potato cookies 🙂 so glad to hear they turned out well for you!! (They’re awesome made with pumpkin puree, too…)
Forgive me if this is a silly question, I’ve been making cakes for over 20 years but have little experience with cookies and wonder if I could use a cookie cutter to shape these? Trying to find recipes to make with my girls (10 and 2).
Hi Melinda, great question! This specific sweet potato cookie dough is meant to be scooped, rolled into balls, and flattened slightly before baking. We didn’t design this dough to be a “roll-out cookie dough” (which is meant to be rolled flat and cut into shapes). You can totally try rolling out this dough & cutting it into shapes if you’d like (and if you’re willing to do some experimenting)! It might work. But we haven’t personally tested this recipe as a roll-out cookie dough, so I can’t speak to how/whether that would work out.
However, we do have several other roll-out cookie recipes that are designed to be cut into shapes, which could be fun to make with your girls! I have linked several of them for you below, in case you’re interested 🙂
Homemade Animal Crackers
Made with animal-shaped cookie cutter stamps, fun to enjoy plain or decorate as Frosted Animal Cookies
Christmas Spritz Cookies
A simple butter cookie dough that we shaped with a cookie press, but you could also roll out this dough & cut it into any shapes you want.
Holiday Sugar Cookies
A simple roll-out sugar cookie dough that you could cut into any shapes you like.
Wanted to make a new cookie this year. Had extra sweet potato puree. Saw this wonderful
recipe. OMG!!
This is a new cookie my family has now said ” it must be added every
year.” Thank you Thank you!
Wow, Patricia! What an honor to know your family wants to add these cookies to your yearly holiday traditions!! It’s such a great way to use up that leftover sweet potato puree and they turn out sooo soft and tasty. We absolutely love this recipe and my heart is warmed knowing your family could enjoy it together 🙂
These were really good. I rolled them in sugar and cinnamon, the flattened them and baked. Very good!
Hi Laurie, thanks so much for giving our sweet potato cookie recipe a try 🙂 We’re glad to know you enjoyed them, and what a delicious idea to roll them in sugar & cinnamon! Yum!!
These turned out to be the best CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES I’ve ever made! I followed the recipe exactly and my family loved them! So soft. Delicious!. But the dough was too sticky to work with so I chilled it, then used and reused the same small square of parchment paper between a drinking class and each ball of dough when squishing them before baking. My husband and I agreed these would be great with chocolate chips, so, I had frozen a small amount of dough and when I thawed it to bake more cookies, I added the chocolate chips, then froze the dough again. I didn’t bother to thaw it and make balls or squish, but just cut off a few chunks when the dough was soft enough and baked them: convection, 325°F, 8 min.? Nuts, too, next time!
Wow, Marty! We’re thrilled to hear this recipe for sweet potato cookies turned out so well for you – and what a brilliant idea to add chocolate chips!! Thank you for trying it out, and we sincerely appreciate you sharing the steps of your process in terms of chilling and freezing the dough. Your experimentation will surely be helpful for others who want to try out your tasty ideas! 🙂
Made these tonight. I used pumpkin puree instead of sweet potato. Also used pumpkin pie spice instead of Cinnamon. Instead of cookies, I made cookie bars. I added pecans as well.. Baked for 28 min and these are so good. I can’t believe these are gluten free. I was praying they wouldn’t be bone dry as some gluten free baked goods can be. But these were excellent. Thank you for sharing this great recipe.
Hi Kimberly! Wow, these substitutions and adjustments are so helpful – thank you for sharing them here! I’m sure it will be helpful to others in this community who want to make these sweet potato cookies as pumpkin cookies instead, or as a batch of pumpkin or sweet potato cookie bars. We’ll have to give your delicious ideas a try as well! 🙂
These cookies came out great. I was searching for a taro cookie recipe made with real taro, not taro powder. I found your recipe and used 1/2 cup of homemade taro root puree instead of the sweet potato puree. Everyone loved them. Definitely will make again. Thank you for the great recipe!
Hi Gretchen, thank you so much for trying out our sweet potato cookie recipe and sharing this delicious idea with us! Knowing the recipe works with taro puree will surely be a great tip for others in this community. Adding taro sounds amazing flavor-wise, and I bet your cookies turned out gorgeous in color too 🙂 brilliant!
I would love to make this recipe because I love sweet potatoes; however, the conversion of cups into grams is always a real nightmare, in this case especially concerning the sweet potato puree 🙁 Would it be possible to give the measurements in grams as well as in cups? I’m sure all the Europeans would be extremely grateful!
Hi Kira, great question! We don’t typically write our recipes in grams, but here’s my best conversion for this sweet potato cookies recipe in grams 🙂
225g butter, softened
128g light brown sugar
128g granulated white sugar
100g sweet potato puree
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
300g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
I hope this helps!