Sweet Potato Muffins

It may be a weird time of year to be posting this, but I’ve got another great recipe for you muffin lovers out there.

This easy muffin recipe was inspired by the fluffy texture and fantastic flavour of my Sweet Potato Souffle Recipe... and sweet potato pie.

These are some of the best muffins I’ve made. The naturally sweet flavor of the sweet potatoes works SO well with the maple syrup, brown sugar, and spices that I use - not entirely unlike my Maple Spiced Pumpkin Muffin Recipe.

Full disclosure: I’m a creature of habit, so it did take a concerted effort to ensure that these muffins didn’t turn out TOO close to those ones.

While some of the flavour profile is obviously similar, I went more “out there” with the muffin-making process.

I crowned this sweet treat off with a delicious pecan streusel - like the souffle.

While I’d briefly considered including some form of marshmallows - as a nod to my husband’s love for a sweet potato / mini marshmallow casserole, I ended up going with a vanilla glaze.

I figured it’s a good way to cap it all off with a bit of the sweet vanilla flavour, without any weird ingredients, or really fussy techniques.

Make no mistake - they’re still easy muffins to make, they just involve a couple extra steps.

So, the next time you’re looking for a fantastic seasonal muffin recipe, be sure to give this a try!

Honestly though, it’s become one of my husband’s favorite things to have for breakfast ANY time of year.

Ingredients

This recipe may look like it takes a ton of ingredients - between the delicious muffins, streusel topping, and the drizzled glaze over top... but they’re generally all really simple ingredients.

You’re likely to have most of the basic ingredients on hand!

A few notes for you, though:

Sweet Potatoes

I like to start out with real sweet potatoes. This sweet potato muffin recipe is a great way to use up leftover sweet potatoes, as long as they haven’t been doctored up with fats and seasonings first.

Personally, I like to throw on a couple extra when roasting them up for something else, like my Sweet Potato Gnocchi - IMHO you can never have too much sweet potato on hand!

Can’t get your hands on real sweet potatoes for whatever reason?

You can use canned sweet potatoes in place of sweet potatoes - just drain well, pat down with a paper towel, and blitz in a food processor.

You could also use canned sweet potato puree - or even pumpkin puree - in a pinch.

All-Purpose Flour

Generally, I’ll only make this recipe with all purpose flour. There’s just so much going on with it, I don’t even bother trying to sneak extra fiber in or whatever.

Once you’re adding a streusel and glaze, it’s hard to convince yourself that these are healthy sweet potato muffins, just by adding a bit of whole wheat flour, IMHO.

That said, you can swap out ⅓ - ½ of the white flour for whole wheat flour, if you like.

Any more than that, and you’ll start affecting texture and moisture absorption.

Fat

You can make all 3 parts of this recipe with butter - both melted and not - or use part butter, part oil.

I like to use butter in the topping and the glaze, and use vegetable oil in the muffin itself - it makes for nicely moist, fluffy muffins, even when cold.

Butter in the batter tends to make for muffins that are a bit more dry when cold - not a big deal if you’re reheating, though!

You can use a liquid coconut oil, MCT oil, or avocado oil instead of vegetable, if you’d like. I generally wouldn’t recommend olive oil, as I find it too pungent for this particular recipe.

Sweeteners

Maybe it’s a bit extra, but this recipe requires 2 different sweeteners, minimum - with a third, if you’re doing the glaze!

I use a bit of brown sugar and maple syrup to add the right amount of sweetness - and accentuate the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes themselves - in the muffins themselves.

Then, Confectioners / Icing / Powdered Sugar works best when it comes to making glazes.

Milk

You can use any kind of milk or milk substitute you like.

For the past while, we’ve actually been using unsweetened almond milk in this recipe - it works well, tastes great, and cuts down our dairy consumption in a painless way!

This is also great with other plant based milk substitutes - cashew milk, flax milk, and oat milk are some of my favourites to bake with.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Chopped Pecans
Large Eggs
Pure Vanilla Extract
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Nutmeg
Baking Powder
Salt

... I just don’t have anything to add, as far as these last few ingredients go!

How to Make Sweet Potato Muffins

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

To Make Sweet Potato Puree:

Preheat oven to 400 F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Wash sweet potatoes, use a fork to pierce each all over.

Arrange sweet potatoes on the baking sheet, with room between each.

Roast until quite tender. Baking time will depend on the size of the sweet potatoes, expect anywhere between 45-65 minutes.

Remove cooked sweet potatoes from the oven, allow to cool enough to handle. Slice each sweet potato in half, scoop out the flesh into a large mixing bowl.

Mash sweet potatoes, then allow to cool to almost room temperature.

Pecan-Streusel Topping:

In a small bowl, mix together pecans, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Add melted butter, combine to form a crumbly topping. Set aside.

Sweet Potato Muffins

Preheat oven to 375 F, grease a muffin pan or line with paper muffin liners. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, spices and salt, set aside.

In a blender or food processor, process sweet potato puree, eggs, milk, maple syrup, oil and vanilla until smooth.

Add sweet potato mixture all at once to the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened (batter should be slightly lumpy.)

Divide sweet potato muffin batter into the muffin tin cavities, filling each cup almost full - I like to use an ice cream scoop to spoon batter into the muffin cups.

Sprinkle streusel topping over muffin batter in cups.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until golden brown and a knife or wooden toothpick or inserted in centers comes out clean.

Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan, finish cooling - almost to room temperature - on a wire rack.

Vanilla Drizzle

In a small bowl or measuring glass, whisk together the butter, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth.

Add about half the powdered sugar, a little at a time.

Once half of the powdered sugar is incorporated, add 1 tablespoon of water, whisking until smooth.

Add remaining powdered sugar, whisking until smooth. You want it VERY thick, but you can add extra water if you need.

Note: I like to microwave the glaze for 10-15 seconds to thin and smooth it, for a really thin drizzle

Leftovers

Once fully cooled, muffins can be transferred to an airtight container for storage in the fridge - We’ll usually use a freezer bag.

Muffins will be good for about 5 days or so, best when served reheated at least to room temperature.

More Muffin Recipes!

Are you a fellow fan of muffins? I have some more marvelous recipes for tender homemade muffins!

All-Bran Muffins
Banana Nutella Muffins
Banana Nut Muffins
Blueberry Apple Muffins
Breakfast Corn Muffins
Cardamom Pear Streusel Muffins
Carrot Cake Muffins
Cranberry Orange Pistachio Muffins
Cream Cheese Stuffed "Everything" Muffins
Eggless Banana Muffins
Eggnog Muffins
Gingerbread Muffins
Gluten-Free Banana Muffins
Gluten Free Blackberry Muffins
Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins
Healthier Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Maple Pumpkin Muffins
Nutmeg Coffee Cake Muffins
Orange Almond and Date Muffins
Peach Cobbler Muffins
Pina Colada Muffins
Red Velvet Muffins

Also, be sure to check out our Breakfast and Brunch Recipes section for all kinds of great recipes!

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