Sweet Potato Muffins

The scent of warm spices will fill your home when you bake these muffins. They are perfect to make for breakfast during the holiday season. I prefer making muffins instead of bread because it takes less time to cook and the muffins can be  easily reheated in the microwave (use paper cups instead of foil cups if you want to freeze and reheat them). I use canned sweet potatoes but you could also use any leftover baked sweet potatoes.

    1 cup dark brown sugar
    4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
    2 eggs
    2 tablespoons vanilla
    ⅓ cup buttermilk (or ⅓ cup milk with 1 tablespoon buttermilk powder)
     1 (15-ounce) can Princella cut sweet potatoes or about 1 cup mashed sweet
    potatoes

    1 ¾ cups King Arthur all-purpose flour
     1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
    ½ teaspoon baking soda
    ½ teaspoon Fleur de Sel (yes really I find it is great in baking),
    crushed in a mortar with pestle or use sea salt
    2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
   

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.

2. Set out two 12-cup muffin tins and line them with 16 paper baking cups.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar and melted butter.
    Whisk in the eggs then the vanilla, buttermilk and sweet potatoes.

4.  In a medium bowl use a wooden spoon to mix together the flour, baking
     powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

5. Pour the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture and stir just until
    combined. 

6. Spoon batter into baking cups so they are at least ¾ full. This is easy to do
    if you use a wooden spoon to scoop up the batter and use a tablespoon to
    scrape the batter into each cup.

7. Bake the muffins for 18 minutes or until tops bounce back when lightly
    pressed.

8. Serve with butter and a glass of milk or a cup of coffee or tea.