How to make the most over-the-top Sweet Potato Muffins

A delicious fall recipe from Bake From Scratch Magazine

Hello! Hello!

I met Brian Hart Hoffman for the first time IRL just where bakers should meet. In Paris. At Mokonuts. Over Moko’s fabulous Rye-Cranberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies. That I hugged him the instant I saw him had only a little to do with the fact that I’m a well-known hugger and just about everything to do with the fact that he’s just the kind of guy you want to hug. I think it’s the eager look, the cheer in his eyes and his big southern “Hello” – I can imagine it rippling along the banks of the Seine and making people smile.

While this was our first time together, I was among the thousands of home bakers who knew Brian from his work. Brian is the Editor in Chief of Bake From Scratch Magazine and the creative brain behind Bake From Scratch’s books and the Instagram hashtag that every baker can tap out in their sleep: #thebakefeed.

I love how Bake from Scratch started. Brian’s first career was as a flight attendant and he used to bake on his grounded days. He came to love baking and started dreaming about adding a baking title to the roster of publications by his family’s company, Hoffman Media. But when he told his mom his idea, she wasn’t enthusiastic, meaning she said “no.” She might have been swayed by a proposal for a general cooking magazine, but she didn’t think that baking was strong enough on its own.

If you know Brian, you know that “no” isn’t a word he fully understands. The deal he finally struck with his mom was that he’d publish Bake From Scratch for a year and that if it didn’t work out, he’d accept that it wasn’t meant to be. Of course, I wouldn’t be writing about it - 6 years and almost 40 issues later - if the magazine weren’t a winner.

When Brian and I recently taught a virtual class together for Williams-Sonoma Baking School, he baked the Mokonuts Cookies from my new book, and I baked the Iced Spiced Hermits, also from BAKING WITH DORIE. Now it’s time to highlight one of Brian’s recipes. This one’s a sneak peek from the Bake From Scratch November-December issue pictured above.

The recipe’s perfect for the moment – these Sweet Potato Muffins could be a Halloween snack – I love the idea of coming in from trick-or-treating and sitting down to these muffins and cider. (Make them with pumpkin - see below - and they’d be even more right for this weekend.)

Filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped walnuts – kind of like an old-fashioned Bundt cake – and topped with oat-walnut streusel, these muffins are big. There’s a lot going on with these and every little bit adds to the pleasure of making and sharing them.

If you’re looking for more Halloween inspiration, skip over here for Meringue Mummies, or here for Nik Sharma’s Sweet Potato Rolls or here for Sohla El-Waylly’s Caramel Apples. And, while you’re there, subscribe to their newsletters.

Happy Halloween and Happy Weekend! I’ll see you back here on Tuesday – and I hope you'll bring your friends, too.

xoxo Dorie

A FEW TIPS FOR MAKING THESE (+ other) MUFFINS

• Muffins bake best when fiddled with least. Muffins are quickbreads – meaning they get their rise from baking powder. They come from a family, like biscuits and scones, that thrive on the idea of just enough: As you add each ingredient, mix it in just enough to blend, but not more.

• These muffins use roasted sweet potatoes. Scrub the potatoes, prick them all over, put them on a lined baking sheet and roast them in a hot oven (about 400 degrees F) until squishy soft, depending on the size of your sweet potatoes, this could take about 1 hour. Make sure you cool the taters before adding them to the batter.

• The recipe calls for letting the muffin batter rest for 30 minutes before spooning it into the tins and baking. When you return to the batter, you’ll see it’s thicker and a bit fluffier – that’s just what it should be.

• Use the rest time to: make the streusel, which has to freeze for at least 10 minutes; toss together the filling; and preheat the oven, so it’s up to temperature when you need it.

• I know how anxious we all are to dig in when something just comes from the oven, but wait! Brian says you leave the muffins in their tins for 10 minutes before popping them out and enjoying them. Follow his instructions.

SWEET POTATO MUFFINS

Adapted from BAKE FROM SCRATCH (November-December 2021)

Makes 9 jumbo muffins

After the sweet potato muffins were made, I played around. I made the recipe with canned pumpkin and used a regular-size muffin tin. I got 18 really good muffins – see PLAYING AROUND at the end of the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

For the muffin batter:

2 1/2 cups (313 grams) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (I used Diamond Crystal)

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (110 grams) firmly packed brown sugar, light or dark

3 large eggs (150 grams), room temperature

2/3 cup (149 grams) vegetable oil

1/2 cup (120 grams) whole milk, room temperature

1 1/4 cups (305 grams) mashed roasted sweet potatoes, room temperature

For the streusel:

1/3 cup (73 grams) firmly packed brown sugar, light or dark

1/4 cup (31 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (20 grams) old-fashioned oats

1/4 cup (28 grams) chopped walnuts

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (I used Diamond Crystal)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons (42 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes

For the filling:

1/2 cup (110 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup (113 grams) finely chopped walnuts

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (I used Diamond Crystal)

DIRECTIONS

To make the muffin batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, brown sugar and eggs. Whisk in the oil and milk. Add the sweet potato and whisk until well combined. Switch to a spatula, add the flour mixture and gently stir and fold it in until combined. Let the batter stand for 30 minutes.

While the batter is resting, make the streusel and filling.

To make the oat-walnut streusel: In a large bowl, stir together the brown sugar, flour, oats, walnuts, salt and cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter (or your fingers), cut in (or press) the cold butter until you’ve got pea-size clumps. Freeze for at least 10 minutes.

To make the filling: In another medium bowl, stir together the brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and salt.

When you’re ready to bake: Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray 9 jumbo muffin pan wells with baking spray with flour, or line 9 wells with jumbo paper liners.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling them halfway (about 1/4 cup [70 grams] each). Make a well in the centers and spoon 1 1/2 tablespoons (23 grams) of the filling into each well, leaving 1/8-inch border around edges. Divide remaining batter among wells. Sprinkle with streusel.

Bake until a tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let the muffins cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Keeping: The muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 day. If you’d like to reheat them, preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Place muffins on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and loosely cover with foil. Bake until thoroughly heated through, 10 to 20 minutes.

The "playing around" version with canned pumpkin

PLAYING AROUND

PUMPKIN MUFFINS: If you’d like to swap the roasted sweet potatoes for canned pumpkin, use 1 1/3 cups (305 grams) canned (unsweetened/unspiced) pumpkin puree.

REGULAR-SIZE MUFFINS: If you’d like to use regular-size muffin tins (this recipe calls for jumbo tins) – you’ll get 18 muffins – bake the regular size muffins for 24 to 26 minutes instead of 30 minutes and do let them rest 10 minutes in the tins, as per the recipe.

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