Fall in love with these decadent sweet potato cookies, topped with a luscious swirl of cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Their pillowy soft texture and rich flavors are the perfect balance of sweet and spice, making them a standout dessert for any occasion!
Pumpkin desserts get all of the love during the fall season (not that I’m complaining)! While I do love me some pumpkin, sweet potatoes are also pretty autumnal in their own right. When I first served these cookies for friends, everyone was shocked to learn they got their orange hue from sweet potatoes and not pumpkin. But trust me – there were no complaints! These soft frosted fall cookies practically flew off the plate and I knew I had a winner. Check out what makes them such a hit:
- Soft and Spiced: Like my pumpkin whoopie pies, these easy sweet potato cookies are incredibly soft, fluffy, and cake-like with the perfect amount of spice.
- Easy to Make: You can whip these up in under an hour, making them perfect for a quick fall dessert. No need to spend hours in the kitchen to get bakery-worthy cookies!
- Creamy Frosting: The sweet and fluffy cinnamon cream cheese frosting is the real cherry on top – it’s creamy, slightly tangy, and adds a luscious layer of flavor.
- Party Favorite: They’re great for fall gatherings, holiday parties, or even just a cozy night in. You can easily make them ahead of time for events, and they’ll stay moist and delicious!
Looking for more sweet potato dessert ideas? Try my sweet potato pie and sweet potato cake recipes!
Key Ingredients
Below you will find helpful notes for key ingredients used to make this sweet potato cookie recipe. Scroll down to the recipe card for full ingredient list and exact amounts!
- Sweet Potatoes: If you can find it, canned sweet potato puree is great. However, it can be hard to find, so I often use canned sweet potatoes in syrup. Just drain them and mash them! However you can also use mashed sweet potatoes, I recommend baking them or cooking them in the instant pot before mashing so they are moist like the canned version.
- Oil: You can use melted and slightly cooled butter instead, but the canola or vegetable oil will produce moister cookies.
- Flour: Fluff the flour, then measure it by spooning it into a measuring cup. Don’t dip the cup straight into a packed bag of flour – that results in using too much flour!
- Sugar: I used granulated sugar, however dark or light brown sugar are great too for a hint of molasses flavor.
- Cream Cheese: Let the cream cheese soften at room temperature before you use it in this recipe. That way, it will whip up nicely.
- Powdered Sugar: You will need several cups – the exact amount depends on how firm you want the frosting to be.
These sweet potato cookies with cream cheese frosting may look like they take some work, but I promise they are very easy. You don’t even have to chill the dough and you get to take out some aggression banging the baking sheet onto the counter! Below is a quick recipe overview, but please scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions and to watch the step-by-step video.
- Make the dough. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the mashed sweet potatoes, butter, and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture to form a soft cookie dough.
- Bake. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheet. Hold the cookie sheet on each side and firmly bang it onto the countertop a few times to flatten the cookies. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
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- Make cream cheese frosting. Beat together the frosting ingredients, except the sugar, until well combined. Add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
- Frost the cookies. Once the cookies are completely cool, frost each one. Dust with cinnamon on top if desired. Enjoy!
Do You Need to Refrigerate Cream Cheese Frosting?
Yes, and no. I usually recommend keeping anything frosted with cream cheese frosting in the refrigerator, and it’s a good way to keep your frosted items fresh for longer. However, if you’re going to serve and eat the cookies within a few hours, you can keep them at room temperature instead.
Chef’s Tips and Variations
- Use A Cookie Scoop: To get round edges, it is super important to use a cookie scoop to scoop this dough. It’s a super soft dough, not one you can roll with your hands.
- Add Nuts: Sprinkle chopped walnuts or pecans into the cookie batter before chilling it for a lovely crunch.
- Pumpkin Spice: Cinnamon and nutmeg make a simple spice profile for this recipe, but feel free to substitute pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice instead for a more complex flavor.
- Frosting: If you’re not a fan of cream cheese frosting, try a simple vanilla glaze or even maple icing to switch things up. My glaze on these old fashioned iced oatmeal cookies would also be great! Let the glaze dry and they are good to go – and easier to store, too.
- Sweet Potato Marshmallow Cookies: Take a cue from my favorite sweet potato casserole recipe, and frost your cookies with marshmallow fluff for that classic Fall flavor combination. You can even toast the marshmallow fluff with a kitchen torch for a special touch!
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Cookies:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 ½ cups mashed sweet potatoes, or use a 29 oz can of sweet potatoes in light syrup, drained and mashed
- 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar, or brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, plus more for garnish, if desired
- 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar, add until desired consistency/firmness
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together sweet potatoes, oil, and granulated sugar. Add egg and vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture in two batches, beating until well combined. I find this easiest with a hand mixer, but you can use a whisk and a little elbow grease.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (about 1 tablespoon of dough), drop the dough onto prepared cookie sheets leaving room for spreading. Firmly hold the cookie sheet on each side and bang it on the countertop (or a towel on the countertop) a few times to flatten the cookie dough. Using a cookie scoop is important to keep them round and even as this dough is *very* soft.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until tops are set. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
Frosting:
- Beat together cream cheese, butter, cinnamon and vanilla until well combined. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
- Generously frost on top of each cookie and dust with extra cinnamon if desired. Serve immediately and store any leftovers in the refrigerator.
Notes
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I just noticed after starting to prep my mixtures that the measured amount of butter is missing from the cookie dough portion of the recipe. I also see a heading for ‘Video’ but it’s not appearing. I really wanna make these cookies! Please help and thank you.
Hi Chaddles, my apologies – in the directions it should have said oil – not butter – to be added in to the cookie dough. You can use melted butter in place of the oil, however when I retested this recipe I found that oil made for a moister cookie. So I updated the recipe to use oil instead!
As for the video not appearing, if you have an ad blocker turned on, you will not be able to see the video.
Hope this helps!
There is a note that preparations instructions were updated. Which are the correct instructions? Written or the video?
Looks yummy!
Hi Bonnie! Follow the written recipe directions in the post as they are the most up to date!
This looks nothing like what u pictured
I followed recipe exactly like u stated
Hi Maw, I believe you followed most of the directions, but it looks like you likely missed step #5. You need to firmly bang the cookie sheet on a countertop before baking to flatten the cookie dough. Otherwise, yes, they will turn out puffy like your photos.
My husband named them Dangeous, best cookie he ever ate.
I just made these, and OH MY GOODNESS, they were sooo good!!! I did make a few tweaks- I cut the recipe in half and used 1c of mashed sweet potatoes (regular boiled, not canned) and 1c of flour, but all I can say is WOW! They are pillow soft, full of flavor and not too sweet. The icing complements the cookies so well. I’ve convinced myself that these are a vegetable and that I can eat them for breakfast. They were perfect with my coffee this morning, it’s officially Fall Thanks so much for this recipe!
Do you think these would tase okay with fresh sweet potatoes?
I want to eat this by the spoonful! It looks so good!
Now this is my favorite cookies recipe. This looks amazing! I cannot wait to give it a try. Thank you for sharing this great recipe. YUM!
These cookies look amazing! Love how soft and fluffy they are!