Cakes & Bakes: Sweet potato muffins

Often when we visit Justin’s parents, we’re waved off with a food parcel. It usually consists of chocolate, biscuits and fruit & veg. Sometimes they’re items that were part of multi-buy offers which would be too much for them to consume before going off.

Last week, said goody bag included half a dozen sweet potatoes. Strange, we know. We didn’t have them down as sweet potato fans; we don’t buy them too often ourselves either.

I’ve used some of them this week to make a batch of sweet potato muffins. I’d never tried making them before and I didn’t know what to expect.

I thought they’d be  quite heavy and filling, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The addition of both baking powder and bicarbonate of soda meant they were light and airy.

A little sprinkling of demerara sugar just before they went into the oven gave them a nice, crunchy top.

These sweet potato muffins are just the right size for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up with a brew!

Now, what to do with the rest of the bag of sweet potatoes… any suggestions?

If you’d like to save this recipe for later, you can pin it from here.

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Sweet potato muffins

Course Tea

Cuisine American

Keyword muffins, sweet potato

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
• 200 g/7oz flaked almonds
• 200 g/7oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 120 ml/4 fl oz vegetable oil
• 80 ml/3 fl oz water
• 200 g/7oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC/355ºF/Gas mark 4
• Grease a 12-hole muffin tray or two 6-hole muffin tins or line with paper muffin cases
• Bake the sweet potatoes, skin on, for about 20 minutes until soft and cooked. Allow to cool before scraping the flesh out of the skins and mashing until all the lumps are removed
• Toast the flaked almonds, shaking a couple of times to get a uniform colour. This takes 5-8 minutes
• In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the sugar, eggs, oil and water until the sugar has dissolved
• Add the cooled, puréed sweet potato
• In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, bicarb, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the centre
• Pour the wet ingredients into the well of the dry and combine well
• Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, sprinkle a little demerara sugar on top of each and put in the oven
• Bake for 20 minutes before allowing to cool on a wire rack
• They can be eaten warm or cold and can be stored in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 5 days

Notes