This post may contain affiliate links which cost you absolutely nothing, but may provide me with a commission.
Those of you who have been following this blog for a few weeks know that Stephan and I bought a box of sweet potatoes in early November at Powell’s Farm Market in North Carolina. Thankfully, sweet potatoes keep for a LONG time, which is good because it seems like no matter how many potatoes we use, the box never seems to get any emptier. It’s a magic box of sweet potatoes! Now could I have a magic box of money that never gets any emptier?!? Please?
Anyway, the other day, I decided to make a batch of sweet potato muffins to use up a couple of the small ones. I’ve had the recipe for years–it’s based on the recipe from a certain living history museum that I worked at for ten years, eight months, and nine days of my life…not that I counted or anything… *cough*
I’ve tweaked it to suit my taste and you can too. Don’t like raisins? Use dried cranberries. Don’t have pecans? Use walnuts. Don’t like or can’t have nuts? Leave them out. Don’t have pumpkin pie seasoning? Use nutmeg, cloves, allspice–whatever sweet spices that you like and have on hand (although if you use cloves, use half the amount). It’s pretty versatile. I also used an extra large muffin tin, but you can use a regular tin and get smaller muffins, but more of them. You can also double the recipe if you want tall bakery-style muffins in those extra large tins. I was just going for flavor instead of making them fancy, but you do whatever makes you happy!
Start by boiling a couple small sweet potatoes and letting them cool. When soft, peel and mash them, then set them aside. In a mixing bowl, cream 1/4 cup of butter with 1/2 cup sugar, then add the mashed potatoes. In a separate bowl, combine 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie seasoning. Add this mixture alternately with 1 large egg and 1/2 cup milk (whatever kind you like). When it’s just blended, mix in 1/4 cup chopped pecans and 1/4 cup raisins. Don’t overmix or the muffins will be tough.
Spoon into greased muffin tins and top with chopped nuts, coconut, cinnamon sugar, or anything else that you want–or just leave plain on top.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the muffins are done and starting to pull away from the edges of the pan.
As I said, if you want taller muffins, double the recipe or use smaller tins. Either way, the muffins will be moist and yummy, and won’t last long!
Recipe:
2/3 cup mashed sweet potato
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon each: salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup each: chopped pecans and raisins
Grease muffin tins and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook, peel, and mash sweet potatoes (or just use canned ones) and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar, then add the egg, half of the dry ingredients, the milk, and the rest of the dry ingredients. Stir in the nuts and raisins and spoon the mixture into the muffin tins. Sprinkle with additional nuts, cinnamon sugar, or whatever you like. Bake 25-30 minutes and enjoy!
What’s you favorite way to use sweet potatoes? Let us know in the comments below!
