Five spice sweet potato muffins
By esther on Friday, April 27 2007, 16:09 - Breakfast of champions - Permalink
I am totally not a Bangles fan but ever since I started pulling this post together I have been not stop humming Manic Monday, only in my head it's Muffin Monday. Maybe it should be this event's theme song...or maybe not, and maybe I should just put some music on to get this out of my head. So yes, it's another Muffin Monday and this time Elena has made a shout out for unusual and unique muffins: Muffins that make you go Ohhhh!
This theme was actually pretty hard because I can't even remember the last time I had an Ohhhh! muffin. I guess I'm a pretty run of the mill, boring muffin maker. Not to say that I don't have some mouth watering recipes, because I do. My last entry being one of them. But to use something in a muffin that doesn't normally belong in a muffin? That could be serious cause for a major baking disaster. Although my cooking and baking range is pretty wide - Indian, Asian, European, American, I lean towards classic. I don't usually go all crazy and I tend to respect, for the most part, the simplicity of my flavor pairings. So finding something unusual but still really tasty and uncomplicated was a challenge.
Needless to say, I am really pretty happy with what I came up with: Chinese five spice and patate douce. I love saying sweet potato in French because it is such a cool word and really makes me happy. Hence the saying, ''ça donne la patate" perhaps??? Anyway, I made a first test batch by just kind of throwing strange amounts of things together. I did do some internet research beforehand and to my surprise, sweet potato muffins already existed! I chose to start with raw shredded potato because I didn't have the energy to cook it down and I thought it might end up to pumpkin-ish. The oats add some texture and the sugar and the potato caramelize and melt into the batter which makes for a dense but not too dense and very moist muffin. The five spice and nutmeg turned out to be best friends with the sweet potato and they will continue to get together on a regular basis, at least in the muffin pan.
Five spice sweet potato muffins
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. five spice
1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg
6 Tbsp. salted butter
2/3 cup tubinado sugar
1 egg
5/8 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cup shreddded sweet potato
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
Sift together oatmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, five spice, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. Alternately mix in the dry ingredients and the buttermilk.
Peel the sweet potato and then shred it in a food processor on the smallest setting. Squeeze out the excess liquid and add to the batter.
In a bowl add all the crumble topping ingredients and work together by hand.
Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full and top with crumble.
Bake for 15 minutes at 400° F (200°C)
Makes 8 large muffins.
Comments
Ooh! These look good. I will be scouring the pantry to see if I have all the ingredients. If not, I'll be making a grocery run. Even the hubby will eat sweet potatoes this way!
These are most definitely not boring!! They're so wonderfully original!! Thank you for your contribution to Muffin Monday again!
Patate douce sounds infinitely better! These sound great!
Wow! Congrats! You really pulled it off with honors. I love the idea. I know how will end the destiny of the next "patate douce" I find. Merci pour cette belle recette. Je suis sûre qu'elle aura un succès fou chez nous!
Oh I can just taste the burst of flavors in this one. Just mmmmm!
this indeed makes me go ooh ! how clever of you to use 5 spice.I'm sure if u try u can sell these to the chinese.They'd happily buy them.and then of course copy them !!!
Yumyumyum. Chinese 5-Spice is my favorite flavoring with sweet potatoes -- I am eating mashed sweet potatoes with 5-spice and cinnamon as I read your brilliant blog! And I love sweet potato muffins made with the grated instead of the usual mashed. Did I say "yum"?