Pineapple & Sweet Potato Muffins #MuffinMonday

These sweet muffins are packed with fruit--pineapple--and vegetable--sweet potato which add depth and character to a tender breakfast treat. Topped with maple sugar for crunch, this muffin is an all around satisfying snack.

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Welcome to Muffin Monday! I've been having so much fun baking muffins for the Detachment that I'm bringing a new one for you this month--a sweet potato muffin with pineapple in the batter.

The inspiration for this muffin came from the growers of these Stokes purple sweet potatoes--Frieda's. My first exposure to purple sweet potatoes came via the Mile Creek Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. I had so much fun combining orange and purple sweet potatoes in my Overnight Sweet Potato Monkey Bread and playing with the vivid colors to make my Mardi Gras Braided Bread that I searched all over my new city until I located some purple sweet potatoes at my local natural foods coop.

With a ready source of purple sweet potatoes I cast about for muffin inspiration and decided to go to the source--the Frieda's website. I liked the look of their pineapple and sweet potato muffins (but not the 1 cup of brown sugar in a dozen muffins) and was inspired to make these.

I've enjoyed sweet potato casseroles with pineapple, and I've enjoyed sweet potatoes with maple syrup--so it seemed like a good idea to crack open the jar of maple sugar chunks my girlie brought me to use as a topping on these muffins. I think the maple sugar adds a bit of crunch as well as some sweetness to these little treats.

I chose to make these muffins in mini muffin size because my spouse takes them to work to share with the rest of the class(es), but I'll include baking instructions for regular sized muffins in the recipe Notes. If you don't have a source for purple sweet potatoes please substitute your favorite orange yam.

I'm a visual learner and I chose to throw together a quick video showing how I mixed up these muffins. I used an immersion blender for the wet ingredients, then a whisk to incorporate the dry ingredients. It would be Best Practice to whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl before adding to the wet ingredients, but I'm the dishwasher so . . . here's my 1 bowl video.

Recipe Notes: No purple sweet potatoes? No problem. Feel free to use orange yams. I typically cook my sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot (on the rack with a cup of water for 25 minutes + Quick Release) or roast in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-55 minutes or until tender. No maple sugar? No problem! Use a toffee or butterscotch chunk or chopped walnuts or pecans.  No crushed pineapple? Substitute the same amount of fresh or canned rings or chunks since you'll be immersion blending them anyway. Want to make regular size muffins? Bake for 15 to 18 minutes at 400 degrees, then cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Sweet Potato Muffins
By Kirsten Madaus

These sweet muffins are packed with fruit--pineapple--and vegetable--sweet potato which add depth and character to a tender breakfast treat. Topped with maple sugar for crunch, this muffin is an all around satisfying snack.

Prep time: 00:08
Cook time: 00:15
Total time: 00:28

Yield: about 36 mini muffins
Ingredients:
1 cup roasted sweet potato
½ cup crushed pineapple
2 eggs
⅓ cup packed brown sugar
⅓ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt (I use kosher)
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon Baking Spice (or cinnamon/nutmeg blend)
1-2 Tablespoons maple sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line a mini muffin pan with paper cups.

In a large bowl combine sweet potato, pineapple, egg, sugar, oil, and vanilla until well-blended. I used my immersion blender.

Add dry ingredients (everything but the maple sugar) to bowl and whisk until just combined.

Scoop into prepared pan.

Top each muffin with a sprinkle of maple sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

• Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Chocolate Chocolate-chip Muffin from Simply Inspired Meals
• Ham and Honey Mustard Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Sweet Potato Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Whole Wheat Dinner Roll Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories

For more recipes using pineapple, please see my Pineapple Recipes Collection. For more recipes using sweet potatoes of any hue, please see my Sweet Potato Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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