Sweet Potato Muffins

Simply because these will likely be breakfast tomorrow, and have become my favorite breakfast muffin since I found the recipe in Runner's World magazine a couple of years ago, I'll post this up now.  I've increased the amount of sweet potato to keep the muffins moist, and topped them with cane sugar for a delightful crunch.  Bake several sweet potatoes at once, ahead of time, and refrigerate or freeze until you're ready to bake them up into these wonderful, good-for-you, perfect-before-a-morning-run, muffins. 

2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (preferably pastry flour)
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 ¼ cup pureed or mashed cooked sweet potato
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk

(*optional- ¾ C chopped walnuts)

raw cane sugar

Heat oven to 375° F. Grease 12 muffin cups or add paper liners. 

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, and salt. 

In a bowl, whisk butter, oil, sweet potato, egg, and buttermilk. Fold wet mixture into the dry; stir until just combined. 

Fill muffin cups three-quarters full. Top each with a sprinkle of raw cane sugar.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. 

Banana Nut Variation Reduce sugar to 1/2 cup. Replace sweet potato with 1 cup mashed, very ripe banana; add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts to the batter. 

Pumpkin Coconut Variation Replace sweet potato with 1 cup canned pumpkin; add 1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut to the batter.

(I once used the leftover sweet potatoes from Thanksgiving- they were already sweetened and further moistened and I put in a bit more than called for here, which resulted in much moister muffins.  I’ve also added a ¼ C of apple butter to the batter which does not change the flavor but moistens them some. )