Vegan sweet potato cheesecake thumbprint cookies with dark chocolate drizzle

Hey hey hey! June Baby be back in school, and she has homework now. Also she has to get out of her pajamas for several hours at a time and actually do shit, which is all quite tortuous considering how I spent my (painfully short) summer.

So you can understand why I haven’t been cranking out the goodies lately. Nor have I been reading any food blogs, which gives me tremendous guilt and I am sorry to all of you fellow bloggers who have unfairly been robbed of my presence in your comments section. Don’t take it personally. I love everyone. Or, at least, that’s what I tell myself. With school and all. You do what you gotta do.

As for positive developments, know that June now has her entire so-called “advisee group” wrapped around her little finger in regards to our “morning snack” (yes yes I know we’re all pre-schoolers). In lieu of Dunkin Donuts and cold bagel slices, we have these simply sublime homemade cookies to nosh on a few hours after shoving cereal down our gullets in the dark of the morning. Ain’t that fine?

Just as fine as my chocolate-drizzling abilities.

One of the last recipes I saw before my self-imposed dark age of blog-reading was this cookie variation from the Recipe Critic. My first thought was, damn those components! So many components! I just love components, you know me. The more the merrier. My second thought was that le Recipe Critic didn’t actually come up with the recipe herself—it was copied verbatim from Bakeaholic Mama, which is not to be unexpected in the blog world. Sadly, Bakeaholic Mama did not photoshop her pictures to hell and back and as such her cookies were not the artificially bright orange that you see 1) on the Recipe Critic’s blog post and 2) here.

However, I wasn’t interested in copying the exact recipe (as one would expect), so I decided to substitute pumpkin with the world’s greatest squash, sweet potato! I then sought out a cashew-based cheesecake filling and added on a little bit of chocolate. Because we all know how it is with sweet potato and chocolate.

But as I went to roll of dat tasty, tasty cookie dough with the cheesecake filling, I realized it was far more difficult to stuff a cookie than I had anticipated (at least, with something as loose as this cashew mush). So I switched the whole thing up and made basic thumbprint cookies. A whole lot easier and just as delicious. Then I let it all cool off and topped it with melted chocolate. Because that is how you improve things, people: you top it with melted chocolate.

The result? Pure awesomeness, obviously, and I’m offended you even had to ask. 

Um, well, I mean...sorry. Here, have some cookies.

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Sweet potato cheesecake thumbprint cookies with dark chocolate drizzle

Ingredients

Cookie dough (adapted from Bakeaholic Mama)

8 grams • chia seeds • 1 ½ teaspoons

234 grams • all-purpose flour • 1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons

3 grams • baking powder • ¾ teaspoons

2 grams • salt • ¼ teaspoon

1 gram • cinnamon • ¼ teaspoon

113 grams • nondairy margarine, softened (substitute up to half coconut oil) • ½ cup

100 grams • granulated sugar • ½ cup

54 grams • light brown sugar • ¼ cup

125 grams • sweet potato puree • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons

4 grams • vanilla extract • 1 teaspoon

Cheesecake filling (adapted from Tasty Yummies)

85 grams • cashews, soaked for six hours and drained • ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons

14 grams • liquid coconut oil • 1 tablespoon

30 grams • fresh lemon juice • 2 tablespoons

40 grams • maple syrup • 2 tablespoons

22 grams • water • 1 ½ tablespoons

8 grams • vanilla extract • 2 teaspoons

For topping

Dark chocolate to taste

Instructions

Start by combining chia seeds with 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Place margarine (and coconut oil if using) in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Beat until light and fluffy. Add both granulated sugar and light brown sugar, then cream until thoroughly combined. Add sweet potato puree, vanilla, and chia seed mixture; combine once more. With mixer on low speed, spoon in flour mixture just until a dough forms. Place dough in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.

To make cheesecake filling, place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Once dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a few baking sheets with parchment paper. Make balls of dough about one to two tablespoons in size. Make an indent with your thumb in the center of each ball of dough and fill it with the cashew mixture.

Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes or until they are just beginning to firm up and the tops beginning to crackle. Let cool on baking sheets for about five minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Cool completely before topping with chocolate.

To finish, melt dark chocolate in a saucepan on low heat. Use a fork to drizzle over cooled cookies. Let the chocolate harden. Munch.

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Look, stacked cookies. Eh?

As you can see, it is impossible for me to form a coherent thought given this terrible lack of caffeine and sleep early in the school year. I beg your forgiveness. I even offer these cookies.

Hopefully they are enough.