Sweet Potato Muffins

You can just call me the muffin woman.

Last week it was lentil muffins, and this week, you can bet your cute little bottom I’m making sweet potato muffins!

The other day I met nutritionist and cookbook writer Ricki Heller from Diet, Dessert and Dogs for lunch.  I took the opportunity to buy her incredible recipe book called Sweet Freedom.  The book is filled with mouth watering dessert recipes made without Wheat, Eggs, Dairy or Refined Sugar.

Say what? No butter?  I’ve always been a traditionalist with my baking.  But lately I’ve been finding I react poorly to gluten and wanted to do a healthier spin on my usual baked goods.  So I was very excited to dig into Ricki’s book and make her sweet potato muffins!

Some fun new ingredients to play with

To make the muffins gluten-free, I subbed the spelt flour for gluten-free flour and was on my merry way.

Now I have to be honest.  My forehead was sweating.  As I mixed together sucanat and sweet potato into a bowl I thought ‘How the hell are these going to taste good?’ I remembered my friend saying “All gluten-free baked goods taste like sand.”

But I mixed in my ingredients with love and hoped for the best.

I should have known that any recipe written by Ricki, even when altered, is flawless.

The muffins puffed out more than any other muffin I’ve ever made.  They were moist, sweet and decadent.  “How the…” I decided not to ask questions.  They were good.  Real good.

My man ate one, my co-workers ate more than one, and everyone was happy and feeling groovy without refined sugar, gluten, dairy or eggs.  I was over the moon.

I made a few alterations to Ricki’s original recipe which can be found here.  The original recipe is probably even more delicious, but I am incapable of following recipes without altering them and wanted to make six big muffins without chocolate this time around!

[box]Sweet Potato Muffins

*Recipe for 6 muffins

• 1/2 cup Sucanat (unrefined evaporated cane juice)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 2 tsp. milled chia seeds
• 2 Tbsp. almond milk
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup pureed sweet potato (I used canned)
• 1 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp all spice
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).  Spray muffin tin with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the Sucanat, oil, flax, milk, vanilla and sweet potato. Allow to sit while you mix the dry ingredients, or for at least 2 minutes.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, spices, salt, baking soda and baking powder.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to mix.
4. Fill the muffin tins, if you are making 6 like I did, put a little water in empty muffin tins so they don’t burn.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool completely and remove from tins.  [/box]

Tagged as: dairy free, Dessert and Dogs, Diet, egg free, gluten-free, Ricki Heller, sugar free, Sweet Freedom, sweet potato, Sweet Potato Muffins, sweet potatoes, vegan