I love these muffins so much.
I love how soft and fluffy they are. I love how they stay tender and moist for days after you bake them. I love all the components: mashed sweet potato, molasses, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, and a modest amount of soft light brown sugar. I’m in love.
Am I coming on too strong? Sorry.
Before I produced these delightful treats I must admit I was in a bit of a “muffin rut.” Muffins are one of the absolute easiest things you can bake: the “muffin method” was what we learned on day 1 of Home Ec in seventh grade. I think we made Tomato Soup Cake Muffins, which I remember being delicious but I haven’t made them since.
Anyway, despite the simplicity and versatility of muffins, every batch I’ve made the past few months has been a bit underwhelming. Not bad, but not fabulous enough to elicit declarations of love from yours truly.
I found this wonderful recipe tucked away in the back section of Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which is a fabulous book that I cook from on a weekly basis. While we’re certainly not full-on vegetarians, we try to eat several meatless meals per week and Ms. Madison’s is one of the many vegetarian cookbooks I’ve acquired in order to build my meat-free meal repertoire.
I made the recipe exactly as written because I think it’s pretty near perfect and there was no reason for me to mess with it. You simply mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another, mix both together (not too much) and pop them in the oven. The balance of flavours is wonderful, and the muffins are nearly as good the third day as they are the first. If you don’t care for ginger, the original recipe states you can substitute chopped dates, raisins, or fresh pineapple instead.
I love them for breakfast, smeared with butter and served with a piece of fruit and a slice of cheese. Have I sold you yet?
- ⅓ cup chopped crystallized ginger
- ¼ cup canola oil
- ⅓ cup molasses
- 1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 and ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease/spray muffin tin and/or line with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, mix together the crystallized ginger with all of the wet ingredients (oil, molasses, potato, eggs, buttermilk) and whisk until well blended. In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon) and stir well to combine.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet, and stir gently until just combined and no dry spots remain. Spoon batter into muffin tins and bake until a tester inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean, about 22-25 minutes. Remove from pan and transfer to wire rack to cool.
- Muffins will keep covered at room temperature for 2-3 days.
Source: The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison
