Sweet Potatoes in the Spring?

I have always associated sweet potatoes with the Fall. They are a Thanksgiving staple at my parents house. So imagine my surprise when they turned up in my CSA share this week. Sweet potatoes in the spring? What am I going to do with sweet potatoes at the end of May? My first inspiration was to make a pie, but that required two cups of mashed sweet potatoes and alas my share only supplied one. I settled on cookies. This left me searching for recipe inspiration. I found a recipe on the internet for pumpkin cookies, made a few adjustments here and there and ta-da.



Honey Sweet Potato Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes or yams
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
powdered sugar, for dusting

Preparation:

-Cut the sweet potatoes into large chunks, place them in a pot and cover with water. Bring the potatoes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until they are tender. Drain and set aside to cool.
-Once the sweet potatoes are cool you can easily peel away the skins. Mash them well (using an immersion blender works well but if you don’t have one a regular potato masher will work.
-Sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
-Cream together the butter and the sugars. Beat the egg and honey into the creamed butter and sugar. Stir in the mashed sweet potatoes and the milk.
-Stir in the flour and spices making sure that everything is well combined.
-Chill the batter in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or up to two days.
-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Drop or pipe the batter onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment and bake 9-11 minutes. After the cookies have cooled dust with powered sugar.

The texture of the finished cookie is soft and cake like. A nice change on the traditional little cookie.