Vegan Sweet Potato Caramel Chocolate Chip Blondies. Vegan, gluten-free and oil-free and just 8 ingredients!
You knew this was coming. Get ready for a lot of sweet potato caramel creations. Sometimes, when I get an idea in my head for a recipe, I think it will be simple. Reality sets in and 8 or so attempts later, it finally is what I envisioned.
Geez, combining the sweet potato caramel into vegan sweet potato blondies, proved to be more challenging than I expected. Texture wise was the biggest challenge. Ultimately, the magic mix was combining sweet white rice flour and oat flour. All oat flour made them completely fall apart. However, 50/50 of both rice and oat flours resulted in a deliciously, moist, fudgy bar. Incredibly delicious.
VEGAN SWEET POTATO BLONDIES
The best part is that these blondies are just 8 ingredients, including the caramel recipe! They are vegan, gluten-free, oil-free and downright delicious!
Regular brown rice flour will not work here, you need the glutinous white “sticky rice” flour. I order mine from online but Asian stores carry it as well. It works better than any egg subsitute.
The inspiration for this recipe?? Thanks to you all for making my Sweet Potato Caramel one of my most popular recipes ever. Seeing everybody’s amazing creations and uses with it on both Facebook and Instagram has been awesome. As I stated on Instagram, the ONLY thing better than my Sweet Potato Caramel is then baking sweet potato caramel into blondies and then drizzling more sweet potato caramel on top.
I really hope you all love these Vegan and Gluten-free Sweet Potato Caramel Chocolate Chip Blondies! Come back and leave me feedback on here. Each time you guys make a recipe of mine and leave me feedback, it makes my day. Also, tag me on Instagram @thevegan8 and make sure to use hashtag #thevegan8, so I don’t miss any notifications.
Sweet Potato Caramel Chocolate Chip Blondies
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Caramel (This will make plenty for both the blondies and extra for drizzling)
- 1 cup cooked/mashed sweet potato You'll need 1 large potato
- 1 1/2 cups "lite" canned coconut milk
- 1 cup coconut sugar don't sub w/another sugar as this is what really enhances the caramel flavor
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
To make the blondies
- 1 cup of the prepared sweet potato caramel
- 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons roasted creamy almond butter
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 1/2 cup sweet white "sticky rice" flour not brown rice flour (I use Bob's Red Mill, but Asian stores carry a "glutinous" rice flour as well, just make sure the only ingredient is rice, no water)
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar crucial to the caramel flavor
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4-1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
Note
- I tested this recipe multiple times and have posted the best version above for both taste and texture so please do not sub the flours. The white rice is essential as it gives both the fudgy texture, as well as a major binding ingredient. All oat flour will make the bars fall apart. I order my white rice online, but it can also be found at some grocery stores and in Asian markets labeled "glutinous". If you can't tolerate oats, you can try subbing with another flour, but honestly I cannot vouch for the taste/texture, as oats don't leave an aftertaste and they also help the bars to rise. Alternatively, if you aren't gluten-free, I think subbing just the oat flour with regular all purpose flour or white whole wheat flour would probably work. Let me know if you try it!
Instructions
- You will need to make the sweet potato caramel the day before so it can thicken overnight in the fridge. Then making the blondies comes together crazy quick in about 10 minutes prep.
- To make the caramel, roast the potato at 405 degrees for about an hour or until extremely tender, almost mushy. Let it cool for awhile and then peel the skin and mash completely with a fork. Measure out a cup of mashed potato, making sure it is full with no gaps and make sure to level off with your finger. Add it to a food processor.
- Add the coconut milk, coconut sugar and salt and process until completely smooth. Add to a pot and turn heat to medium-low. Once it comes to a boil, let it boil about 10 minutes untouched. This is a lot, so it needs to really cook to thicken up. After about 10 minutes (I set my timer) whisk really well and remove from the heat. Whisk in the vanilla and pour into a container to chill in the fridge overnight for 8 hours, it should be much thicker by then.
- For the blondies, preheat an oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8x8 square pan with nonstick spray (very important so they don't stick!) Then, simply combine only 1 cup of the prepared caramel, almond butter and vanilla into a large bowl and stir well. In a small bowl, combine the oat flour, rice flour, coconut sugar, salt and whisk. Stir in the chocolate chips. Add to the wet ingredients and stir until completely mixed.
- Pour into the prepared pan and spread out the batter evenly to the corners, it will be thick. Add extra chocolate chips on top if desired. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is shiny and firm and the edges have pulled away from the pan. Let completely cool before carefully cutting to ensure they don't fall apart, about an hour. Drizzle extra caramel all over the top (you will have plenty leftover). If you store them at room temp, they will stay fairly soft and in the fridge, they will become very firm and chewy. Either way works according to your preference. I store mine in the fridge and then let them sit at room temp for a little bit before eating one.
For the ultimate restaurant style dessert, warm up a blondie, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzle warm caramel sauce on top. SO GOOD.
Notes
Of course, after you make the blondies, if you want to make this an over-the-top-restaurant-style dessert, add a scoop of java crunch vanilla ice cream on top and drizzle more caramel sauce on top! P.S. that ice cream is another new recipe coming as well and it is the bomb.
This sent me into complete euphoria.
These look fabulous! I am following the McDougall plan which bans the use of coconut products. Is there something I could use in place of that?
Hi Amelia! Do you have access to the Elmhurst milk brand? They are sold at Kroger and Sprouts and at some select Walmarts. They make a really creamy almond milk that would probably work well here. Or you could try a quality oat milk that is really creamy like the original Oatley. Just make sure to not use a low-fat milk for best results. Soy might even work. The Westsoy brand is just soy beans and water and is creamy. I’ve not tried any of these personally, but that is my suggestions that I can think of.
I started making these for Sunday dessert and discovered I was out of coconut sugar and almond butter. Not wanting to disappoint my husband, I decided to chance some substitutions. I used date sugar and pecan butter. They were absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to try them again with the right ingredients.
Thanks for the recipe.
Wonderful, so glad to hear it! Those are both very similar, so yes, can see how they’d work perfectly!
Another homerun! Brandi’s recipes are amazing! I will be making this on a weekly basis! Yummers!
Can I use regular full fat coconut milk?
ais it okay to steam the sweet potatoes instead of baking?
I think that should be ok. It may make the sauce a bit runnier becatse of the extra water content though.
These are insanely delicious!!! The hit of Christmas!