Easy Sweet Potato Muffins Recipe

These easy sweet potato muffins come together quickly with simple pantry ingredients and one cup of mashed sweet potato. Lightly spiced and just sweet enough, they work as a grab-and-go breakfast, an afternoon snack, or a simple addition to a fall meal.

The recipe is straightforward enough for beginner bakers but good enough that experienced bakers will keep coming back to it. If you’ve got leftover sweet potatoes sitting in the fridge, this is exactly where they should go.

Basic Ingredients

There’s nothing fancy here and you like already have everything you need in the pantry if you do any regular baking.

You will need to cook and mash a sweet potato. I simply boil chunks in water and use a potato masher for this process. You could easily use a food processor or even use pureed baked and leftover sweet potatoes, if desired.

The recipe was not tested with mashed sweet potatoes that had milk and butter added. That might work but it might not, I can’t guarantee the results.

You could substitue some of the white flour with whole wheat flour if you’d like to add some whole grain. 

Spice Choices

I added cinnamon because it is easy and generally always on hand. However, you could skip it if it isn’t your thing.

Feel free to use a different spice or mixture of spices if desired. Pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, cloves, all work.

Optional Additions

While the recipe makes a delicious muffin just as written, you can make it a bit more substantial with added ingredinets if you like. Consider adding in:

• 1 Cup chocolate chips
• 1 Cup chopped nuts
• 1 Cup of raisins or dried cranberries

You could easily add a streusel topping as well. 

How to Store

Keep any baked and cooled muffins in an airtight container where they should stay fresh for up to 4 days at room temperature.

These muffins freeze extraordinarily well, so feel free to make a double batch, if desired. 

To freeze, simply place the muffins into freezer bags or containers and freeze. Let frozen muffins thaw on the counter prior to serving. Use up any frozen muffins within 6 months for best flavor and texture. 

Troubleshooting

The muffins are dense or gummy. This usually comes down to too much sweet potato or overmixing the batter. Measure the sweet potato carefully and stir the batter only until the dry ingredients are just incorporated. A few streaks of flour are fine when you stop stirring.

The muffins are dry. Overbaking is the most common cause. Start checking at 22 minutes. Every oven runs a little differently, and muffins can go from done to dry quickly. Pull them when a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

The muffins didn’t rise well. Check the age of your baking soda and baking powder. Both lose potency over time and are worth replacing if they’ve been sitting in the cabinet for more than a year.

The muffins stuck to the pan. Greasing the pan well before filling is important here. You can also use muffin liners if you’ve had sticking issues in the past. Let the muffins cool in the pan for the full 5 minutes before trying to remove them.

The tops are too dark before the centers are done. Tent the muffin tin loosely with foil and continue baking until a tester comes out clean.