Sweet Potato Muffins

I wanted to drop in and share a quick recipe. A few weeks ago I realized that I was eating the same things over and over. I decided to actually attempt to meal plan a bit and just generally change things up.

A few years ago I went on a cookbook buying spree. This weekend I was paging through one of my purchases, Good to the Grain (gorgeous! by the way), and I stumbled across these Sweet Potato Muffins. Since I love sweet potatoes and I am always looking for something I can grab as I head out the door, they seemed perfect! And I after cooking and eating them, I can confirm they are.

As is usual when I'm cooking, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. My buttermilk was made from regular milk and vinegar (a quick cheat because the grocery store didn't have buttermilk).

I also wasn't going to hunt down medjool dates. The dates are often used in natural baking as a source of sweetness. Instead, I just sprinkled a little carbinado sugar on top the muffins for a little crunch.

I'm already thinking up ways to make these savory (bacon anyone?), but as they aren't overwhelming sweet (only 1/2 cup of sugar total) and have a nice bit of spice, I'd make these muffins again. I highly recommend heating them up or eating them fresh out of the oven. Let me know if you try them out!

One last tip, my batter was pretty thick and I ended up with air bubbles that caused my muffins to deflate after cooling. Just tap your pan against your counter a couple times before you put it in the oven to avoid this yourself.

Sweet Potato Muffins
adapted from Good to the Grain

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon all spice
2 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted cold butter
2 small or 1 medium sweet potatoes, about 3/4 lb.
1/4 cup sugar (or raw sugar)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup plain yogurt or kefir
6 large medjool dates, pitted and chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roast sweet potatoes on a baking sheet covered with parchment or foil. Roast for 1-1.5 hours, depending on their size. The bottoms should be dark, almost burnt looking, and the juices should caramelize. After they have cooled, peel them and leave them whole.

Lower the oven to 350 and grease your muffin pan. Use muffin liners if you wish, though they stick sometimes to the paper cups.

Sift the dry ingredients together. In a small bowl, mix the buttermilk and yogurt.

Add the butters and the sugars to a medium sized bowl and mix either with a standing mixer or by hand. Mix until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and just half of the sweet potatoes (yes! just half!) and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. On low speed, add the dry ingredients until they are just partly combined. Follow this up by adding in the buttermilk mixture and mix until combined.

Add the dates and separate them over the surface so they don't all clump together. You want them spread throughout the batter. Next, add the remaining sweet potatoes and mix until only barely combined- you want pockets of sweet potato in the batter. Scoop the batter into 10 muffin tins, skipping every other muffin cup if you want to keep the tops from touching as they bake.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the bottoms are dark and tops are springy to the touch. The author of the cookbook suggests placing the muffins on their sides to cool, as pictured above. They can be stored for 3 days or frozen for future enjoyment.