Chocolate Sweet Potato Torte

YES, there’s sweet potato in it and NO, you won’t even know it’s there. The sweet potato adds an incredible texture to this wheat-free dessert. It’s sooooo decadent and fudgy but it’s gluten free and delicious!

Ingredients
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato
1¼ cups sugar, divided
1 cup almond flour (you can buy almond meal at Trader Joe’s)
½ cup unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs
¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tbs vanilla soy milk

Here’s what you do:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, blend sweet potato, ¾ cups sugar, almond flour, cocoa and salt with electric mixer until smooth. Separate the eggs, placing whites in a separate bowl. Add yolks to sweet potato mixture and mix to combine.

Beat egg whites with electric mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Add remaining sugar, beat 2 minutes more or until stiff, glossy peaks form.

GENTLY fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into sweet potato mixture and then gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely.

Over low heat, melt chocolate in double boiler or in heat-proof glass bowl over simmering water in stock pot (don’t let the bowl touch the water). When chocolate has melted, remove from heat and add soymilk until combined. Spread over top of cake and let stand until chocolate sets.

Sweet Potato Ham Muffins

This recipe rocks my world. Seriously. Back when I actually dressed up and wore shoes to work, I'd visit my favorite little coffee shop once every other week (I was on a budget). They used to sell a variety of scrumptious-looking breakfast items, but since I was never a “sweets for breakfast” kind of girl (I even salt my oatmeal), I zoned in on their savory ham and cheese muffins. One bite though and you knew they weren’t healthy, so I was determined to change that. Flash forward 7 years later, and well, here you go.

Ingredients
3 cups whole-wheat flour, spooned and leveled
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or mix of cinnamon, ginger, and allspice)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 large eggs and 1 egg white
3/4 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup raw cane sugar
1 cup diced ham

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tins with olive oil spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and baking soda; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk sweet potato puree, yogurt, eggs, buttermilk, and sugar to combine. Add reserved dry ingredients. Add ham. Mix just until moistened (do not overmix).

Divide evenly and spoon batter into muffin tins. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.

A note on the mashed sweet potatoes: I usually take either one REALLY BIG one or two average-sized ones, peel them, dice them and boil until soft (about 10 minutes). I mash them with an immersion blender or just a fork. The texture can be as smooth or lumpy as you’d like.

This is a semi-sweet, but also savory muffin. It's like Christmas dinner in a muffin.