Sweet Potato Blondies

Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.  The smell of fall.  The perfume of the holidays.  These days it seems as though all one need to do to quantify any thing as a holiday treat is to add these spices in one combination or another.

You know what?  It works.

Something about that combination conjures up all the cozy, warm memories of autumns gone by.  The warmth of ginger and cinnamon certainly help me mentally prep for that first snow fall!  (We did see our first flakes already, as the East Coast braced for Sandy and Hawaii headed inland for the tsunami warning.  I'll glad take a little snow over those events any day.)

The earthy sweetness of pumpkins and sweet potatoes meld so well with these spices;  try as you might I doubt we'll ever pull away from the combination.

This bar recipe conjurse up memories of the sweet potatoes my family always made for the holidays.  I was well into college before I learned you could eat sweet potatoes other ways besides slathered in brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkled with marshmellows, pecons and the occasional raisins.  It was truly dessert parading as a vegetable.  But it was the holidays.  These bars make no attempt to be something they are not.  Sweet, cinnamon-y and chewy.  Here sweet potatoes are allowed to be the full fledged dessert they always dreamed of being.

adapted from Susan at OurTableEats

yeilds 18-20 bars

The Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 cup butter, melted (1 stick)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla

Maple drizzle:
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1/3 powdered sugar 

The Process:
Wrap the sweet potatoes in foil and bake in a 350 oven for 60-75 minutes or until soft.  Or, pierce the potatoes all over and microwave on high at 3 minute intervals until soft.  Set aside until cool enough to handle.

Preheat the oven to 350.  Oil one 9x13 baking dish for thicker bars, or two 9x9 pans for thinner bars.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, bkaing soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.  Mix unitl combined.

In a second bowl, whisk together butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla.  Remove about 2 cups of flesh from the cooked sweet potatoes and add to the egg mixture.  Whisk until smooth.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring until just incorporated.  

 Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking pans.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edged are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  ALoow to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes.  Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile prepare the glaze by adding the syrup and powdered sugar to a zip top bag and massaging until well combined.  Once the blondies are cool, cut into bars.  Snip the corner off of the glaze bag and drizzle the glaze over the tops of the bars.