What to Make: Sweet Potato & Hazelnut Brownies

Sweet Potato & Hazelnut Brownies

Serves 9

Prep: 20 Minutes

Cook: 40-45 Minutes

Ingredients
100g butter, plus extra for greasing
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
150g plain (semisweet) chocolate, cut into squares
90ml maple syrup
2 medium eggs
a few drops of vanilla extract
50g ground almonds
50g plain flour
? tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
100g halved hazelnuts
50g dried cranberries
cocoa powder or icing sugar, for dusting

Method
Preheat the oven to 180?C/gas mark 4. Butter an 18cm square shallow cake tin and line with baking parchment.

Cook the sweet potato in a pan of boiling water for about 15 minutes until tender. Drain well and mash until smooth. Set aside to cool in a bowl.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. Stir in the maple syrup.

Add to the cooled sweet potato mash and mix well. Beat in the eggs and vanilla and then stir in the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in the hazelnuts and cranberries, distributing them evenly throughout the cake mixture.

Pour into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until crisp on top but still soft and squidgy in the middle.

Leave to cool in the tin before cutting into squares. Serve dusted with cocoa powder or icing sugar.

Extracted from The Sweet Potato Cookbook by Heather Thomas (Ebury Press, approx €11.50).