Healthified Sweet Potato Bars

Summer camp is kind of a crazy thing.  I mean, this is the first time that I'm dropping my kid off for any length of time with a bunch of college aged kids.  At least I HOPE they're college aged at this point.  To me, anyone younger than 21 looks like they should be in high school...  I suppose when I was five, I was riding my big wheel down the street and my mom probably wasn't too worried about it.  Now I'm slightly freaked out about dropping my son off with people who have all of our emergency contact info, name, rank, and serial number.  Guess we're going to be signing up for more, as the week of camp is coming to an end and big brother wants to stay there all day.  Would that I could, big man.

To distract him from the overwhelming sadness of leaving sports camp today, I bribed him with making his favorite dessert after lunch. 

These sweet potato bars are adapted from Pink Parsley, another awesome foodie blog.  I did the Chobani substitution (that I use with my oatmeal cookies) of cutting the butter in half using their conversion chart, reduced the sugar, added a little flax and subbed in some whole wheat flour.  The kids love them, as do I - especially as a snack with my afternoon coffee.

Sweet Potato Bars

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 T Chobani plain or vanilla greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1 cup whole wheat flour + 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup ground flax
• half of a 10.5 oz bag of mini marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Scrub the sweet potato and poke a few holes in the top with a fork. Bake 45 min to an hour, until it is cooked through and soft. Remove from oven, allow to cool until it is cool enough to handle, then peel and mash with a fork until smooth. Measure out 3/4 cup of the puree and set aside.

Decrease the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 inch baking dish with foil, and spray with cooking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, yogurt and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix in the vanilla and the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. With the mixer on low, slowly add the ground flax and flours, and mix until just incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the sweet potato puree.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 26-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Scatter the marshmallows over the top, being sure to cover the entire pan. Preheat the broiler, and broil the bars until the marshmallows are dark golden-brown. You may have to rotate the pan a few times depending on how evenly your broiler cooks. And watch it like a hawk; because as soon as the marshmallows start to brown, they can quickly burn and explode into the size of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.  I speak from experience...