25 Years ago we visited Colonial Williamsburg and ate at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern. The bread basket included delightful little sweet potato muffins. I purchased the Williamsburg Cookbook just to get the recipe. I started making these muffins for every holiday dinner, and now they’ve become one of our own family traditions.
INGREDIENTS
1 large sweet potato
1/2 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped raisins
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (350 if using a convection oven) Spray muffin tin with non-stick coating or line with cupcake papers.
Prick the sweet potato with a fork and microwave on high for about 3 minutes. Remove from oven and check whether it is tender all the way through. Continue to microwave in 15 second increments until potato is done. Immerse in ice water to cool it. Peel it and mash the flesh.
Sift the flour with the baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs and the sweet potato pulp. Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk and the chopped nuts and raisins. Mix just until blended. Do not beat or overmix.
Spoon into the prepared muffin tins filling each tin completely full. Bake at 375 degrees for about 18 to 20 minutes, or until top springs back when touched.
The White Oak Inn
http://www.whiteoakinn.com
Yvonne Martin
Bed and Breakfast Foodie
Yvonne, I was just searching for this recipe and found you had posted this today. It is nearly the same as others I have found except – yours calls for twice as much baking powder. All the other recipes call for 2 tsp. rather than 4 tsp. Have you had luck with the 4 tsp.? Another recipe poster said her sweet potato muffins always fall flat – I was wondering if the amount of baking powder might be the reason. Thanks!
These are not going to be sky-high muffins, but they will rise. Most muffin batters call for about 1 teaspoon of baking powder per cup of flour, but this one is double that amount and then some. I've found that any batter with heavier ingredients such as whole grain flours, oatmeal, carrots, pumpkin, or sweet potato needs extra leavening to compensate.
How many muffins does this recipe make? Have you ever made them into mini muffins?