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This sweet potato muffins recipe is deliciously moist and cinnamon spiced! It’s ideal as a cozy side dish, breakfast or snack.
There’s nothing better than a baked sweet potato, but what about turning this bright orange root vegetable into a baked good? Try these Sweet Potato Muffins! Adding mashed sweet potato to baked goods makes them deliciously moist. These tall, fluffy muffins are perfectly cinnamon spiced and the ideal side dish for a fall meal. They’re also great for snacks or breakfast, slathered with a bit of nut butter! They even made our 4 year old realize he liked sweet potatoes.
Ingredients for sweet potato muffins
These sweet potato muffins use mostly common baked good ingredients you probably already have on hand, outside of the sweet potato. You’ll also need applesauce, which helps to keep the muffins extra light and fluffy. Here’s what’s in these sweet potato muffins:
- Mashed sweet potato
- All purpose flour
- Cinnamon
- Baking soda, baking powder and salt
- Eggs
- Milk
- Brown sugar
- Neutral oil (like grapeseed, organic vegetable or organic canola)
- Unsweetened applesauce
All you have to do? Cook the sweet potato, mix the dries with the wets, bake and enjoy. We’ve customized the muffin batter to make tall, fluffy muffins: because no one likes a stubby muffin! They’re great for fall dinners (like Thanksgiving or Christmas), or quick mornings with a slather of nut butter.
Three ways to cook a sweet potato
There are a few ways to cook the potato for these sweet potato muffins. The most ideal way? Muffins are a great way to use leftover roasted sweet potatoes. But you can cook them up especially for this recipe. Here’s what to know about each method:
- Steamed: This takes a little longer, about 30 minutes, but comes out with the perfect moist potatoes. Go to Steamed Sweet Potato.
- Quick baked: How to bake potatoes quickly? Cut them in half! This method saves loads of time in the oven. Go to Baked Sweet Potato.
Important: We don’t recommend using our Microwave Sweet Potato method here: the sweet potato can come out very dry and make for a very thick dough (depending on the age of the potatoes and the power of your microwave). Because of the variability, we suggest using either steamed or baked sweet potatoes.
Variations and mix-ins
These sweet potato muffins are perfect as is: tall and fluffy with a sprinkle of sugar on top! But want to vary them? Here are some tasty mix-ins and variations:
- Nuts: Add ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts to the batter, or sprinkle about ⅓ cup on the tops, split between the muffins
- Chocolate chips: Why not? Add ½ cup dark chocolate chips to the batter
- Drizzle: Drizzle with 1-Minute Powdered Sugar Icing
- Cinnamon: Use 1 tablespoon cinnamon instead of 2 teaspoons for a more intense flavor
- Cardamom: Use 1 teaspoon cardamom and 2 teaspoons cinnamon for spiced intruige
- Dairy free: Use non-dairy milk like oat milk (for vegan, you can try with a flax egg, but we have not tested this variation)
- Bread: Make the same batter into Sweet Potato Bread! Bake it in a loaf pan at 350 for 45 minutes, then add foil on top and bake another 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Storage info for sweet potato muffins
How to store sweet potato muffins once you’ve baked them up? Here are best practices:
- Room temperature: Store up to 4 days in a sealed container with a paper towel on the bottom and top. This helps to keep the tops from becoming moist and sticky.
- Refrigerated: Store refrigerated up to 1 week or more. This tends to dry out the muffins a bit, but helps them to store longer.
- Frozen: Place in a sealed container and freeze for up to 3 months.
More sweet potato recipes
Are you sweet potato obsessed? (We are.) Here are a few more tasty sweet potato recipes to try:
- Try delicious classic Roasted Sweet Potatoes or Sweet Potato Soup
- Make a Baked Sweet Potato, Steamed, or Microwaved, and load it up for Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
- Make Mashed Sweet Potatoes or Sweet Potato Puree
- Opt for a fresh and tasty Sweet Potato Salad or Sweet Potato Curry
- Make fan favorite Easy Sweet Potato Wedges or Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas
This sweet potato muffins recipe is….
Vegetarian. For dairy-free, use oat milk or other non-dairy milk.
Sweet Potato Muffins
This sweet potato muffins recipe is deliciously moist and cinnamon spiced! It’s ideal as a cozy side dish, breakfast or snack.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
- Category: Muffin
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Baked
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed sweet potato (1 medium sweet potato)
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup milk (or non-dairy milk)
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup neutral oil (or substitute melted butter)
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- Granulated sugar, for the topping
Instructions
- Cook the sweet potato: Make a or Steamed Sweet Potato (30 minutes), Quick Baked Sweet Potato (35 minutes), or Boiled Sweet Potato (peeled first; 15 minutes)*. Scrape the flesh out of the skin and use a fork to mash it in a bowl. Measure out 1 cup of puree. While the potato cooks, preheat and prep the batter.
- Preheat: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Add 12 muffin cups to a muffin tin.
- Meanwhile, mix the batter: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and kosher salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, then the milk, brown sugar, sweet potato puree, oil and applesauce. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Fill the muffin cups evenly (there will be a good amount of batter, which makes for tall muffins). Sprinkle the tops with granulated sugar.
- Bake: Place the tray in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins and place them on a cooling rack to fully cool. Store up to 4 days in a sealed container with a paper towel on the bottom and top, refrigerated up to 1 week or more, or frozen up to 3 months.
Notes
*We don’t recommend using our Microwave Sweet Potato method here: the sweet potato can come out very dry and make for a very thick dough (depending on the age of the potatoes and the power of your microwave). Because of the variability, we suggest using either steamed, baked or boiled sweet potatoes.
I made these muffins this morning. I used some sprouted einkorn flour that I had made instead of the oats, I replaced the sugar with allulose and added a few dark chocolate chips. They still turned out great! I will definitely make them again. Thanks!
So glad to hear!
Not one to leave a recipe as it is, I substituted one cup of corn meal for the flour and added pumpkin pie spice. Definitely a keeper. Absolutely perfect!
I had leftover mashed sweet potatoes perfect for this recipe–pancakes were too labor-intensive. I doubled the recipe to match the sweet potatoes amount and make it worth the work. My edits: Subbed dairy milk with Joi plain unsweetened organic almond milk; used equal parts sunflower and EVOO; used 3/4 c homemade unsweetened applesauce I keep on hand (equal parts Honeycrisp and Granny Smiths with peeling, blended smoothly with a dash of cinnamon); 1/4 c plain low-fat greek yogurt. Also, I did NOT pack the brown sugar when measuring to better manage the sugar content of the muffins. To half of the batter, I added 1 c Thompson raisins. To the other, 1 c Guittard semisweet super chips (for my husband.) My husband I agree–these are the BEST muffins we’ve ever had. Moist, flavorful, and barely sweet. By any standards, I have an extremely low sugar intake–no sugar in tea or coffee, no candy or other sweets, no “athletic drinks” or soda ever. These muffins were perfect. My batter produced 21 muffins, which equals 1 T of brown sugar per muffin intake. I can deal with that. Stored half in the chest freezer for a rainy day. Will definitely keep this recipe in rotation for when I want a healthy treat or to change up my breakfast routine. These muffins were excellent! Thank you for such a healthy but tasty recipe!
We absolutely love this recipe. I’ve made them for my toddler for the last 2 years now. We freeze mini muffins and use them for our breakfast rotation or school snack. Modifications I make for him are using a 1:1 combination of oat flour and whole wheat flour rather than all purpose flour, reduce to 1/2 cup brown sugar, and use a toddler applesauce that also has carrots. After we heat them, we drizzle honey or add a fruit-only spread. They are delicious, healthy, filling, and have been a consistent favorite for our little one.
Can you boil the sweet potatoes? It seems much faster than the steam or bake methods.
Good point! We’ve updated the recipe to link to our boiled sweet potatoes method. Thanks for the comment!
Made the recipe just as written. Are so good! Not too sweet, moist and delicious.
I had extra baby food to use up, so I used 3 jars of sweet potato (4oz each) and 1 jar of apple (4oz). It was a little more liquid than was called for, so I reduced the milk to 1/3 cup. And wow, these turned out amazing!! So soft and a perfect amount of sweet.
Great tasting muffin! I will definitely make again. I didn’t have any applesauce so used a ripe pear and added 1/2 tsp. Of nutmeg. They froze really well and your suggestion of a paper towel to absorb moisture worked great. Kathy A.
These are delicious!! Perfectly moist. Next time I will add in walnuts or pecans! Made these substitutions based on the comments:
1 ripe banana instead of applesauce, pumpkin spice instead of cinnamon, 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup AP flour
Excellent recipe! I’ve made 2 batches, the first following the recipe exactly and adding pecans to the second batch because, unless you have a nut allergy, who doesn’t like pecans? Anyway, they are delicious with the right amount of sweetness. Whole family loved them.
I also cooked my sweet potatoes in my crockpot. Two fat potatoes took about 2 hours or so and they turned out very moist and soft.
Thank you for the recipe.
These are sooooo good!!! Do you think they could be made without the brown sugar?
Unfortunately not!
Made these this morning using leftover sweet potato and they were great! I substituted the brown sugar for maple syrup and added a bit of nutmeg and ginger. Perfect with coffee on a cold morning. Thank you!!
You can substitute allulose for the brown sugar with excellent results.
I came across your recipe for sweet potato muffins and I have to say it is one of the BEST muffin recipes I have tried – excellent texture and taste! I didn’t have any applesauce, but did have a bit more than the required sweet potato, so that worked out fine. In addition to the cinnamon, I added a little bit of ginger and a tiny bit of cloves. I have bookmarked the recipe and will be making these again for sure! Thank you for sharing this fabulous recipe!
Susan
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed.
This is one of my go-to winter muffin recipes. They’re great and very forgiving. I’ve made this recipe written as is, as well as tried making them with one or more modifications, such as using Swerve brown “sugar” in place of the real thing, replacing half the flour with crushed bran flakes, omitting the fat and using a little more yogurt and applesauce to replace it, and adding a couple scoops of protein. Oh – and most important – adding a cup of fresh or frozen cranberries! They’ve always turned out great no matter what I’ve done with them!
What can you substitute for the oil?
I wouldn’t recommend it for this recipe.
I’m wondering if you could post the nutritional values of the Sweet Potato Muffins, I made them last night and they were wonderful! Thank you,
Just added to the recipe card!
These are delicious! Used a banana instead of applesauce – can’t wait to make these again!
Can you replace the sugar for liquid stevia or Flavdrops?
We don’t have any experience with these ingredients so I’m not sure. Sorry!
Lovely recipe! I made 12 muffins and second batch 24 mini muffins–plus a bonus four full size! Used turbinado sugar instead of white on top.
They did spill over the top of my cups when they rose, though, so they didn’t look QUITE as lovely as your pictures.
What can I use to replace the applesauce?
You could try plain yogurt! We’d go with 1/3 cup then mix it with 2 tablespoons water to get a thinner texture that’s closer to applesauce. We haven’t tried it, so it’s at your own risk: good luck!
My muffins turned out very lumpy because the batter was super thick and didn’t settle in oven. Why would my muffins turn out like this with the directions/ingredients?
Hmm good question! How did you cook your sweet potato? Did you mash it very well before adding it to the batter, is it possible it could have been lumpy? I will follow up with you on email to troubleshoot!
Note to commenters: Katie and I investigated this offline and found that the batter came out thick because of the microwaved sweet potato method stated in the recipe. Because of the variability of microwaving, we’ve removed this as an option for cooking the sweet potato. The muffins with roasted sweet potato puree turned out great! Thanks to Katie for reporting this!
Wonderful recipe! I used the extra cinnamon and used a banana in place of apple sauce and they taste delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe – tonight was the first time I made these, but it certainly won’t be the last! Cheers, Sam : )
So glad you enjoyed!
great idea, already love sweet potatoes, have never seen them in a muffin before, very creative, thank you!