These Sweet Potato Muffins are made with real sweet potatoes that have been roasted and pureed. They're topped with a delicious cinnamon streusel and finished with an icing drizzle. They make for the perfect fall or winter breakfast or afternoon coffee snack!
Jump to:
- ❤️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
- 🗒 Ingredients
- 🍠 How to Make Homemade Sweet Potato Puree
- 🥫 Can I Use Canned Sweet Potato?
- 🎃 Can I Use Canned Pumpkin?
- 🧁 How to Make Sweet Potato Muffins
- 🥣 How to Make Cinnamon Streusel Topping
- 🥛 How to Make Icing
- ⏲ How to Store Muffins
- 👩🍳 More Sweet Potato Recipes
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
When it comes to orange veggies, I do not discriminate. Especially in the fall. I'll take all the pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and squashes I can get my hands on.
But sometimes I do feel like pumpkins unfairly get all the love. And let's face it, when we're baking with pumpkin, most of us are using canned pumpkin. There's nothing wrong with that; but sometimes I like cooking and baking with fresh orange vegetables.
And, in my opinion, cooking with fresh sweet potatoes is a whole lot easier than with fresh pumpkin.
These sweet potato muffins are made with fresh sweet potatoes that have been roasted and pureed. But if you want to use canned sweet potatoes, you can... You can even use canned pumpkin if you want!
❤️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
Theres SO much to love about this sweet potato muffin recipe. My favorite thing is that they're made with actual sweet potatoes and are so vibrantly orange and pretty.
But I also love that they're so easy to make. Roasting and pureeing the sweet potatoes is the hardest part, but after that, it's just mixing ingredients and baking. They're also a great way to use leftover sweet potatoes that you don't know what to do with.
Of course, I'm also a big fan of the fact that these sweet potato muffins are absolutely delicious! They're packed with fall flavors and warming spices that will take you right through winter.
They have an awesome crumb topping and an optional icing drizzle.
I'm not going to call them healthy sweet potato muffins (they do have both brown and white sugar for sweetness), but they do have some betacarotene in them!
🗒 Ingredients
The ingredient list for these muffins may seem a bit long, but I'm willing to bet you have most of the ingredients in your kitchen already. Most of them are spices and basic ingredients.
Here's what you need (please see recipe card below for ingredient amounts and full instructions):
- Sweet potatoes (you don't need to peel them!)
- Milk (I recommend whole milk)
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Ground cinnamon
- Salt
- Ground nutmeg
- Ground ginger
- Ground cloves
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Large eggs
- Vegetable oil
- Vanilla extract
If you don't have all of the spices, you can substitute with 3 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice... The flavor won't be exactly the same, but it will be close enough!
For the cinnamon streusel topping, you'll need:
- All-purpose flour
- Light brown sugar (you can substitute with dark brown sugar if that's all you have)
- Ground cinnamon
- Butter (I recommend unsalted)
And for the icing:
- Confectioners' sugar
- Milk
- Salt
🍠 How to Make Homemade Sweet Potato Puree
Like I mentioned, I use real sweet potatoes for these muffins... I just roast them and then puree them!
Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees and lining a baking sheet with foil.
Place sweet potatoes on baking sheet and pierce all over with a fork.
Bake potatoes for 45-60 minutes, until skin is wrinkled and potatoes are fork tender. Remove from oven and lower oven temperature to 375 degrees.
When potatoes are cool enough to touch, peel skin off them and place them in a blender or food processor with 1 tablespoon milk. Process until smooth.
Measure out 2 cups of puree and then remove 2 tablespoon from it (you can eat or discard the 2 tablespoon as you won't need it).
🥫 Can I Use Canned Sweet Potato?
You definitely can! I love roasting my own, but in a taste test, I'm not totally sure I'd be able to taste the difference between fresh and canned.
The amount of sweet potato puree in a 15 oz. can is about 2 cups minus 2 Tbsp, so it's the exact amount of the puree I have you use if making from fresh potatoes.
🎃 Can I Use Canned Pumpkin?
Yup! You just can't call these sweet potato muffins if you do 😉 Again, sweet potato and pumpkin are so similar that I'm not totally sure I could tell the difference.
I've actually made this exact recipe with canned pumpkin and it tasted virtually the same.
🧁 How to Make Sweet Potato Muffins
Now it's time to make the muffin batter! This is a super easy process and now that your sweet potatoes are pureed, this will just be like making any other muffins.
In a medium bowl, combine flour with baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, salt, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and ground cloves.
In a separate large bowl, add sweet potato mash, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, remaining milk, and vanilla.
It's a lot of ingredients, but every single one adds some sort of deliciousness to the batter.
Stir together until well combined.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just combined, taking care not to over-mix.
Line 16 standard-size muffin cups with muffin liners and spoon batter into each (I like to use a large cookie scoop or ice cream scoop) almost all the way to the top.
Sprinkle cinnamon streusel over each (I'll show you how to make it below).
Put muffin pan in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean.
Let cool in tins for a few minutes before moving to a metal rack to cool completely.
🥣 How to Make Cinnamon Streusel Topping
The cinnamon streusel topping takes an already delicious muffin to whole new levels! If you want a super quick and easy muffin, you don't have to make it, but it really does make these muffins extra special.
Plus, it's so easy to make!
To do so, whisk together flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Using a pastry cutter, a fork, or your fingers, cut butter into flour mixture until pea-size clumps form.
That's it! Your streusel topping is ready.
🥛 How to Make Icing
The icing is optional, but also super fun and makes the muffins an extra sweet treat (if you want the muffins to have less sugar, you can certainly leave it off). All you have to do is whisk together confectioners' sugar, milk, and salt in a small bowl until well combined.
And then drizzle it over those freshly baked sweet potato muffins.
I think I'm in heaven! These muffins are perfectly moist and packed with delicious cinnamon fall flavor.
If you're a fan of orange veggies, you're going to love these. But honestly, you could serve these to a vegetable hater and they'll also love them.
They might wonder why they are so vibrantly orange, but they'll be all in once they take a bite and discover the awesome fall flavors and light and fluffy texture.
⏲ How to Store Muffins
You can store these sweet potato muffins in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. I recommend putting a paper towel on the bottom of the container to absorb any moisture.
If you want to keep them longer, you can also freeze them by putting them in a large Ziplock bag. They should keep for 3-4 months in the freezer.
BUT... will they even last 4 days in your house?? These are the perfect muffins for sharing with friends and neighbors, so any time I make a batch, we eat a few and we share a few and they're gone in no time at all!
👩🍳 More Sweet Potato Recipes
Want more recipes that incorporate delicious sweet potatoes into them? I have quite a few ready for you! But also remember that you can replace pumpkin puree with sweet potato puree in most recipes. Here are some of my favorites:
- Sweet Potato Chili
- Ginger Coconut Whipped Sweet Potatoes
- Smashed Sweet Potatoes
- Sweet Potato Curry Dip
- Sweet Potato Biscuit Ham Sandwiches
- Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup
- Sweet Potato Ice Cream (seriously, it's SO good!)
- Sweet Potato Pie Trifle (from Grandbaby Cakes)
I think sweet potatoes are especially delicious in the fall and winter, but you can really enjoy them all year round.
Once the cold weather hits, one of my favorite things is a sweet potato muffins alongside a mug of hot coffee. Some days I'll enjoy them for an extra special breakfast, but I often make them my afternoon treat.
Do you enjoy sweet potatoes or pumpkin more?
📖 Recipe
Sweet Potato Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs sweet potatoes (about 2 large)*
- ¼ cup + 1 Tbsp milk, divided
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon Streusel
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoon chilled butter, cut into pieces
Icing
- ½ cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil. Place sweet potatoes on baking sheet and pierce all over with a fork.
- Bake potatoes for 45-60 minutes, until skin is wrinkled and potatoes are fork tender. Remove from oven and lower oven temperature to 375 degrees.
- When potatoes are cool enough to touch, peel skin off them and place them in a blender or food processor with 1 tablespoon milk. Process until smooth. Measure out 2 cups of puree and then remove 2 tablespoon from it (you can eat or discard the 2 tablespoon as you won't need it).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, salt, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, and ground cloves.
- In a separate large bowl, stir together sweet potato puree, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, remaining ¼ cup milk, and vanilla until well combined.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just combined, taking care not to over-mix.
- Line 16 standard-size muffin cups with papers and spoon batter into each (I like to use a large cookie scoop) almost all the way to the top. Sprinkle cinnamon streusel over each.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean. Let muffins cool in tins for a few minutes before moving to a metal rack to cool completely.
- Once muffins are cooled, drizzle icing over them.
Cinnamon Streusel
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
- Using a pastry cutter, a fork, or your fingers, cut butter into flour mixture until pea-size clumps form.
Icing
- In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, milk, and salt until well combined.
Notes
- Store sweet potato muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. I recommend putting a paper towel on the bottom of the container to absorb any moisture.
- If you want to keep them longer, you can also freeze them by putting them in a large Ziplock bag. They should keep for 3-4 months in the freezer.
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Kristen says
Omg this is an amazing sweet potatoe muffin recipe I have ever made. I highly recommend this recipe.
Erin says
These are fantastic! So moist and flavorful. Better than anything pumpkin.
Sues says
So happy you enjoyed the muffins, Erin! Thank you for letting me know 🙂