Sweet Potato Muffins

Now is the time of year when visiting hordes of tourists are pouring into Maine, crossing the Piscataqua and climbing ever higher up I-95. And who can blame them? The days are long and green with lots of sunshine, sweet air, a cool breeze and gorgeous vistas of farmland, hills and sea. Winding roads take you past fast moving rivers, pines trees, local blueberries, and shingled lobster shacks. At night the sky is clear enough to see all the stars you recognize as well as some you don’t and the temperature drops into the 50′s so that sleeping is a dreamer’s delight. Strolling, biking, swimming, hiking, browsing, eating, drinking, and lying on your back on a blanket under a tree are all ordinary ways to pass extraordinary time in Vacationland. It’s August and we are out and about, enjoying the natural beauty and the abundant resources of our semi-adopted home.

I love high Summer here. How can you not? Especially knowing, always aware, that winter is around the corner. Maybe not soon, but it is coming someday. So you take full advantage of the season. But August is also a traditional time to get out of town. Take the month off. Go traveling. Last year I was soaking up the Sonoman sun, on the last great girl’s trip with my best friend before children and marriage and who knows what next. We visited vineyards and kayaked rivers. We had fabulous dinners, picnic lunches and breakfast on the Healdsburg green. There’s a terrific bakery there where we had these really great muffins. Yes, muffins. Was this too much buildup for a muffin? A little anticlimactic? Maybe. But I swear to you, it’s a good muffin. I believe this is my best version yet.

Sweet Potato Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1 cup mashed, baked sweet potato
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and prepare muffin tins. In a large bowl whisk together dry ingredients. Stir in the sweet potato, applesauce, brown sugar, milk, egg, and vanilla until just incorporated. Gently fold in walnuts. Bake for 20 minutes.

Tagged as: healthy, muffins, vegetarian

About the Author: Jillian Bedell

Jillian grew up in Connecticut, went to university in Boston, college in New Haven, did some post-grad soul searching in New York, exiled herself to Mexico, married her longtime sweetheart, and lived in a house on the ocean. She suspected Maine might be the perfect place to raise a family, so she came back home to New England two years ago. Now a mom to Violet Maeve and living in Rockland, where she hopes to settle for a good, long while, Jillian reads, writes, walks, and practices Nia, when not watching Malcolm photograph sandwiches.