Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Mbatata Cookies
Soft, lightly spiced biscuits made from mashed sweet potato, a homey Malawian teatime treat.
Malawian · easy · serves 8
prep 20 min · cook 15 min
~220 cal · 3g protein · 39g carbs · 6g fat · 2g fiber · 14g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Mbatata is the Chichewa word for sweet potato, a crop that grows readily across Malawi and finds its way into everything from porridge to snacks. Mbatata cookies, sometimes called sweet potato biscuits, turn the humble tuber into a gentle, tender teatime treat that has become a recognizable taste of Malawian home baking.
Mashed sweet potato is mixed into a simple dough with flour, butter, sugar, a handful of raisins, and a whisper of cinnamon and nutmeg, then rolled and cut and baked until just set. The sweet potato keeps the biscuits soft and moist and lends a natural sweetness and warm color. Served with tea, they are the kind of unfussy, comforting sweet that a Malawian grandmother might have waiting in the tin.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
1 cup sweet potato, cooked and mashed
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup raisins
Instructions
1
Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the mashed sweet potato until smooth.
2
Mix in the flour, baking powder, and spices to make a soft dough, then fold in the raisins; add a spoon of flour if it is too sticky to handle.
3
Roll out gently on a floured surface and cut into rounds.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep the dough soft rather than dry; overworking it makes the biscuits tough instead of tender.
4
Bake at 375F until just set and lightly golden at the edges, about 12 minutes.
5
Cool on a rack and serve with tea.
Malawian home baking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lilongwe. The relish that goes with nsima is called ndiwo and it can be almost anything: pumpkin leaves cooked with groundnut flour, beans, or dried usipa from the lake. Chambo, the prized tilapia, is under real pressure from overfishing and is no longer the everyday fish it once was.
🗺️
Malawi. Ndiwo is the word for the relish, and it does the work of making nsima into a meal: pumpkin leaves or cassava leaves pounded and cooked with groundnut flour, or beans, or fish. Nsima is turned with a wooden spoon until it is stiff enough to hold a thumbprint, and a piece is used to scoop.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Malawi
Grilled Chambo with NsimaLake Malawi's prized chambo fish, grilled whole, with nsima and a tomato-onion relish.
ZitumbuwaMalawian banana fritters: very ripe bananas bound with a little cornmeal and deep-fried into sweet, golden, craggy morsels.
MkhwaniTender pumpkin leaves simmered with groundnut flour into a creamy green relish, eaten with nsima across Malawi.
Browse all Malawi recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Rolling pin.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Mbatata Cookies?
Soft, lightly spiced biscuits made from mashed sweet potato, a homey Malawian teatime treat.
Where does Mbatata Cookies come from?
Mbatata Cookies is a Malawian dish from Lilongwe, Malawi.
Can Mbatata Cookies be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mbatata Cookies recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Mbatata Cookies safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Mbatata Cookies take to make?
About 35 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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