Sweet potato muffins

You must be wondering... What's the sweet potato doing in some muffins?? Let me tell you, it plays such an important role...!

As soon as sweet potatoes start to heat up during cooking, a special enzyme particular to sweet potatoes goes to work. This enzyme breaks down the tasteless, chalky starch into maltose – in other words, the starch becomes sugar. Maltose is only about a third as sweet as table sugar, but that’s plenty sweet for us!

Sweet potatoes are incredibly rich in vitamin B6, C, potassium, fibers and beta-carotene, the antioxidant responsible for the vegetable's orange color.

In fact, one cup (200 grams) of baked orange sweet potato provides more than seven times the amount of beta-carotene that the average adult needs per day.

Beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A in your body and used to form light-detecting receptors inside your eyes.

The fiber content in sweet potatoes can help prevent constipation and promote regularity for a healthy digestive tract. Sweet potatoes contain choline, a nutrient that helps with muscle movement, learning, and memory. It also supports the nervous system.

Ok, enough scientific data and biology, let's move on to cooking and this moist, flavorful and delicious muffin recipe that I'm sure you'll love!

Ingredients

(For 10-12 muffins)

1 medium sweet potato

75ml plant milk

3 eggs

50g coconut sugar (optional, if the sweet potato is not sweet enough for you :)

75g oat flour

15g coconut oil

a handful of raisins (about 15-20 grams)

chocolate drops

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

a pinch of salt

vanilla extract

Step one:

Wash and prick the sweet potato. Bake it for 30-40 minute at 170 degrees in a preheated oven.

Tip: For a faster option, dice your sweet potato and boil it on a steam bath for 5-10 minutes. Up to 92% of the nutrients can be retained by limiting the cook time, such as boiling in a pot with a tightly covered lid for a few minutes.

Step two:

After cooled, peel it with your hands. Blend it with the milk until you obtain a puree. My mixture weighted 150g from the peeled potato plus 75ml from the milk. 225g in total.

Step three:

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg whites with a good pinch of salt until they're stiff, using a high speed mixer.

Step four:

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until they're fluffy and the color is lighter.

Incorporate in the sweet potato mixture, coconut oil and vanilla extract.

Step five:

Pour the egg yolk mixture over the stiff egg whites and mix with a silicone spatula until you obtain a homogenous mixture.

Step six:

Sift in the flour and baking powder. Slowly fold them with the same spatula. Add the raising and chocolate chips. Give them a final mix.

Step seven:

Pour the batter in cupcake liners or silicone molds (as I did) in order to to get them out of their shape more easily and not to waste any paper. Bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees.

Let cool and enjoy!

Yasmina