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Try sweet potatoes in muffins -- but no marshmallows

Recipe: Nutrient-rich little muffins are full of flavor

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED NOV 29, 2020

Muffins in pan — Flaxseed meal is the final touch.
(Photos: Kathy Morrison)

So maybe you have extra sweet potatoes around this weekend. They might even be roasted already. If so, you're halfway to making some great little muffins that will start the week off with a big dose of nutrients, especially vitamin A.

If the only sweet potatoes in the house are resting under a bed of marshmallows in a half-consumed casserole, well, go get some more fresh sweet potatoes. (They're in season, after all, and a good price.) These muffins are sweet enough -- as in not too much -- to enjoy without gooey topping.

Roasting the sweet potatoes is the ideal way to prepare them for this recipe, but I didn't want my oven tied up for so long, so I peeled and microwaved them, let them cool and then mashed them.

This produces a somewhat chunky mixture; if you want a perfectly smooth texture to your muffins, I advise pureeing the cooked potatoes in a blender or food processor.

The recipe here, adapted freely from one I found at goodinthesimple.com , makes 24 small, moist muffins. Cut the recipe in half (but use 2 eggs) to make just 1 dozen. Mix-ins such as dried fruit or toasted chopped nuts work well in this -- I used dried cranberries in half of my muffins. I'd avoid fresh mix-ins such as fresh blueberries, which would overwhelm the muffin with too much moisture.

Sweet potatoes — I cooked these five, and used all but 1/2 cup mashed.

Sweet potato muffins

Makes 24

Ingredients:

2 to 2-1/2 pounds orange- or red-flesh sweet potatoes, scrubbed

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup coconut oil or vegetable oil

1/4 cup unsalted butter

3 eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup mix-ins, such as dried cranberries, chopped nuts or unsweetened flaked coconut, optional

1/2 cup ground flaxseed meal, for topping, optional

3 bowls — All the mixtures are ready to combine.

Instructions:

Cook the sweet potatoes ahead of time, by baking them unpeeled at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes (depending on size) until soft. Alternatively, microwave them. To easily microwave: Peel the potatoes, cut into 1/3-inch slices, and place in a large bowl with 1/4 cup water.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, leaving a small part open to vent, and cook on high 8 or 9 minutes total. Stop the microwave at least twice to check for doneness and stir the sweet potato slices.

Let cooked sweet potatoes cool until ready to bake. Peel if roasted. Mash or puree as desired, per note above. Measure out 3 cups sweet potatoes and set aside while preparing the rest of the recipe.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Melt the coconut oil (which likely will be solid this time of year) with the butter. If using vegetable oil, melt the butter first and stir it into the vegetable oil.

In a medium bowl, stir together the eggs, then add the butter-oil mixture, both sugars and the vanilla.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, then add the 3 cups sweet potatoes and stir until combined. Don't overmix; ingredients should be just moistened. Fold in any mix-ins if using them.

Two muffins — Neither of these variations turned out too sweet.

Grease two 12-cup muffin pans with oil spray. Divide the batter between the cups, topping with a sprinkle of flaxseed if desired.

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. These muffins do not brown much, so don't use color as an indicator of doneness.

Remove pans from oven, let cool a few minutes and serve muffins warm.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

baking recipes gardening Sacramento backyard produce fall baking produce management sweet potatoes root vegetables muffins nutrients

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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