Sweet Potato Muffins
I feel like sweet potatoes are one of the trouble makers of the Thanksgiving table for me. Honestly I’m not a giant fan of sweet potatoes in the first place so I’m sure that’s at least part of the problem. Now I’ve had other Thanksgiving dishes that I didn’t love grow on me namely pumpkin pie, but it just hasn’t happened with sweet potatoes. And I think that many sweet potato lovers will agree with me that the traditional American sweet potato casserole is just not good. I know some of you out there are seriously hating me right now for dissing the casserole, but I’m sorry it’s really just a terrible dish.
Despite my lack of love for the sweet potatoes it just doesn’t feel right not to have them on the Thanksgiving table. So for a few years now my Mom and I have been trying to come up with new and hopefully tastier ways to keep sweet potatoes on the family Thanksgiving menu without resorting to the dreaded casserole. The most success we’ve had so far was with a sweet potato strudel. For me it didn’t work, still too casserole, still too sweet potato. My Dad on the other hand loved it, so at least the sweet potatoes got eaten that year!
This year I’ve been playing around with sweet potato muffins. And I’m pleased to announce I actually love them! So much so in fact that a test batch became my breakfast for a week.
These muffins are not super heavy on the sweet potato flavor, though it is definitely discernible. However what I like best are the way the spices complement the sweet potato and balance it’s flavor. And while these muffins do have some sugar they really don’t read as incredible sweet. I actually wanted to dial down the unhealthy factor on these muffins without loosing flavor so my final version includes some whole wheat flour and white flour. The whole wheat adds a nice texture if you pick a grainier flour. Though if you want to avoid that, or don’t care for the taste of whole wheat flour feel free to substitute all white flour.
I think that if your looking for a change for your Thanksgiving table or just a new breakfast recipe you’ll really enjoy these muffins, so enjoy!
PrintSweet Potato Muffins
Yields 12 regular sized muffins.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of mashed sweet potatoes (You will need 1–2 fresh sweet potatoes depending on the size to get 1 cup of mashed sweet potato.)
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 and 1/2 cup white flour
- 1 stick of butter softened
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup of pecans
Instructions
To Prepare the Sweet Potatoes
- 1. To prepare the mashed sweet potatoes, Set a small pot of water to boil. Meanwhile peal the fresh sweet potatoes. Place the sweet potatoes in the pot and cook until completely tender. Drain and mash the potatoes using a fork or potato masher.
For the Muffins
- 1. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and set aside 12 cup regular sized muffin pan. In the mixing bowl of a large stand mixer combine mashed sweet potatoes, whole wheat flour, white flour, butter, sugar, salt, baking powder, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Mix until well combined. Pause and scrape down sided of bowl with a rubber spatula at least once.
- 2. Fold in pecans.
- 3. Distribute batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Each cup will be about 3/4 full. Bake on 350* for 45 min. or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 min before removing muffins from the pan.
Notes
- If you love sweet potatoes and want to bump up that flavor omit one egg from the recipe, add an extra 1/2 cup of sweet potato, and use only 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and nutmeg.
These are great! I made these last night for my 2 year old who has been on a food strike & he couldn’t resist them. I put them in a ziploc bag in the pantry closet & he keeps going back for more. :)
Christina,
Awesome. Very glad to hear they are helping to end the food strike! My two year old Tristan does the same thing from time to time. It’s always a relief to find a food that breaks the streak.
These muffins are so good; also make these with pumpkin instead of sweet potato. I will be serving these with a bit of cream cheese frosting for Thanksgiving. Thanks
Evelyn,
Glad you like the muffins! They sound very festive with the pumpkin. Yum!
My muffins came out quite overdone. Is the 45min a typo?
Hey Amy, sorry your muffins came out overdone. 45 minutes definitely worked in my oven, also from the feedback I’ve had from others it worked for them as well. However, that being said, there are a few factors here that could be the problem. The first thing that comes to mind- all ovens definitely aren’t calibrated accurately or the same. To be honest when I wrote this recipe I was definitely working with an older oven. So it could be off. It’s also possible your oven is off or has hot spots. Or perhaps one of us had a wetter sweet potato mixture or more sweet potato then the other. For example- if you just used a single sweet potato or two sweet potatoes rather then measuring a perfect 1 cup. Which is something I would totally do myself.
My suggestion would be to reduce your temp to 325* or to reduce you baking time/check a little more frequently. Again so sorry that your muffins ended up turning out poorly!
I will also update the recipe to reflect your feedback suggesting people check their muffins a little sooner and only continue baking if they aren’t done- so thank you for sharing your experience.