Last week, a student arrived to school a few hours late. He had been at an appointment. I told him about the writing project that he should start working on, and continued my who-needs-help? walk around the room.
About 20 minutes passed. I turned around and found my little late friend standing right next to me. He looked at me and said (so sweetly that you might melt), “Mrs. Ostrom? …. I need some help.”
I asked him what exactly he needed help with, and he thought for a minute. “I can’t see. It’s too blurry.” This little guy wears glasses, but at this particular time, he wasn’t actually wearing the glasses. After doing some investigating, finding out that his glasses were actually in his pocket, and getting them back on his face, I dismissed him back to his table to keep working.
How cute. Case closed.
Or was it? Later that day, we were in the library checking out books. This same friend wasn’t acting like his usual self, so I approached him to help him find a book. We chose one together (sort of) and I opened it so we could read a page together. The first line read, I wish, I wish.
“I…” he read. I gave him a puzzled look. I knew that he could read the word wish, and at this point he did have his glasses on. I put the book down and looked at him, and then pulled his glasses down and leaned in to have a good look at his eyes…
His poor little eyes were completely overtaken by huge, dilated pupils!
Lesson learned: always ask what kind of appointment the student has been at. Or always check students’ eyes. You never know who’s been getting their pupils dilated.
Ironically, these sweet potato muffins are actually good for your eyes (cue weak segway).
These muffins were so unique! The tops were big and puffy, and the outside (after being coated with butter and sugar and more sugar) were the perfect amount of sturdy and crunchy. These are the type of muffin tops that are just begging to be broken off in pieces and dipped in milk or coffee. And the kind that you might hide, because 6 of the muffins are missing their tops.
Luckily, when you make a whole batch for two people, and there’s only one of you in the kitchen… you can get away with that sort of thing.
Sweet Potato Muffins
Total Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 12 1x
Description
These simple sugar-dusted sweet potato muffins are a perfect way to bring sweet potatoes into your breakfast! Soft, sweet, and SO good.
Ingredients
Scale
For the muffins
- 2–1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1–1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- 1/2 cup sweet potato puree (from 1 baked potato)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
For the topping
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 4 tbs. butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and ground nutmeg. Set aside.
- In another bowl, combine whole milk, buttermilk, sweet potato puree and vanilla extract. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer, until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Alternately mix in dry and wet ingredients into the butter, starting and ending with the dry; mix only until each addition is incorporated. Don’t overmix!
- Coat a muffin pan with nonstick spray and fill muffin cups close to the top. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.
- Melt butter and brown sugar in a saucepan; let cool for a few minutes to thicken. Mix up the cinnamon and sugar.
- Roll the top of the muffin in the caramel mixture and then dip it in the sugar.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: sweet potato muffins, muffin recipe, sweet potato recipe
Notes about this recipe:
The batter is thick. It works well to use an ice cream scoop to put the muffins in the pan, especially one with the little button to scrape the batter out. It creates really nice muffin tops. I dipped my baked muffins in the sugar mixture twice for extra crunch.
Finally, I recommend topping with butter and any fruit preserves. I used fig preserves – it was fantastic!
