Blueberry Purple Sweet Potato Muffins Oil-Free Vegan Date Sweetened

Two extraordinary plant foods, purple sweet potatoes and blueberries, come together in a moist, juicy, celebration of purpleness. Delicately flavored with cardamom, these muffins are an antioxidant powerhouse. Whole spelt flour creates bounce, while dates and apple sauce provide earthy sweet tenderness without having to rely on oil or refined sweeteners.

WHY I LOVE THEM

Although pairing blueberries with purple sweet potatoes may seem a little too matchy matchy, the flavor combination brings me joy. I feel like I’m tasting the color purple! Like most whole food plant-based (WFPB) baked goods, these muffins are denser than average. But because they’re not made with oil or refined sweeteners, the snacking experience is light and flavorful. I try to get blueberries into my body every single day and these muffins are my new favorite way to do this. Yams and sweet potatoes, in all colors, just happen to be one of my favorite food categories. And although all sweet potatoes and yams are good for you, purple yams like Filipino ube and Japanese murasaki sweet potatoes are uniquely rich in antioxidants and other nutrients. These muffins are moist and cake like, so if you frost them with one of my healthy plant based frostings, you’ve got yourself a cupcake. Can’t find purple yams or sweet potatoes at your local grocery store? No worries, this recipe is also delicious with regular orange yams or Japanese white yams.

SWEET POTATO/ YAM OPTIONS

I’ve only made this recipe with Japanese murasaki sweet potatoes, but I’m confident that it would work with regular American sweet potatoes, orange yams like the garnet variety, Filipino ube yams and Japanese white yams. The flavor and sweetness level may vary, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Yams have a higher amount of moisture than murasaki sweet potatoes, so the only thing that may need adjusting is the amount of flour. The batter for these muffins should be stiff in order to absorb the juiciness of the blueberries. If the batter doesn’t seem dry and stiff enough, just add a tablespoon or two of flour before folding in the blueberries.

BAKE SWEET POTATOES AHEAD OF TIME

You will need a cup of pre-cooked yams for this recipe, and that means thinking ahead. I’ve noticed that yams and sweet potatoes, even when kept in the fridge, don’t last as long as other root vegetables like beets or white potatoes. This is especially true if you buy organic. What I like to do is to bake up a batch as soon as I get them back from the store. Then I keep them in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week and snack on them or use them in recipes as needed.

My favorite way to cook yams and sweet potatoes is in the oven at 350 F°, on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet, for at least an hour and up to an hour and a half. Larger yams and sweet potatoes require more cooking time. The idea is to cook them until they are very soft with a lot of give when you squeeze them. They need to be soft so that you can cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the mushy inside to use in recipes like this one where you don’t want the peels. For a step by step guide to cooking sweet potatoes and yams click HERE.

FRESH OR FROZEN BLUEBERRIES

This is a wonderful recipe to make in summer when fresh blueberries are in season. But many of us enjoy blueberries year round. Unless it’s peak blueberry season, I tend to use frozen blueberries instead of fresh for almost everything. Frozen blueberries are economical and convenient. In this recipe, frozen work just as well as fresh and you don’t even need to thaw them. Just keep in mind that your cooking time will probably need to be about 3 to 5 minutes longer with unthawed frozen blueberries than it would be with fresh or thawed berries.

BENEFITS OF WHOLE SPELT FLOUR

Using whole spelt flour in baking is an easy and delicious way to add variety to my diet. As an ingredient in a recipe, whole spelt flour is interchangeable with whole wheat flour in almost all recipes. But interchangeable doesn’t mean identical. The nutritional profile is a little bit different with whole spelt flour having a bit more protein, zinc and copper than whole wheat. Also, whole spelt flour makes things a little denser and bouncier.

For me, it’s mostly about maximizing the health benefits of what I choose to cook. Whole grains are an essential component of a whole food plant-based practice. The greater the variety of whole grains we can get into our bodies, the greater the health benefits.

THE MAGIC OF DATES IN WFPB BAKING

In this recipe, the muffin batter is sweetened with whole dates which have been incorporated into the liquid ingredients using a high speed blender. Nearly all of my sweet recipes get most of their sweetness from whole dried fruits, and my go to dried fruits for sweetening recipes are dates. Dates are intensely sweet with a rich caramel-like flavor that blends seamlessly with other ingredients. When pureed with liquid ingredients, preferably in a high speed blender, dates work as a binder, helping to hold batters together the way that eggs do in traditional, non-vegan, baking. Pureed dates also help to lock in moisture, acting as a substitute for added fats in whole food plant-based recipes. From a nutritional standpoint, dates are a whole plant food packed with fiber and a symphony of other nutrients. For this recipe, the dates are pureed with plant milk and other liquid ingredients.

CHOOSING DATES

My favorite dates for baking are pitted Deglet Noor because they are sweet, flavorful, widely available and usually soft and moist. You can also use other kinds of dates by prepping and measuring them in the same way as you would Deglet Noor.

PREPPING DATES FOR BAKING

When I bake with dates I always begin by slicing them. I have found that dates that are supposedly pitted are, in fact, usually not all pitted. Pre-slicing my dates gives me the opportunity to remove any hidden pits and hard stems that may still be attached. In recipes like this one where the dates will be processed in a blender or food processor, slicing the dates allows them to be processed more quickly and effectively. Finally, slicing dates allows for greater consistency when measuring. Once the dates are sliced they can be pressed into measuring cups or spoons.

BLENDER OR FOOD PROCESSOR NEEDED

A blender or food processor is necessary for this recipe in order to create a smoothie that does so many great things for these muffins. A high speed blender is best if you have one, but if you don’t you can use a regular blender or a food process. Electronic appliances like food processors and high blenders allow us to quickly and easily harness the power of whole plant foods, eliminating the need for ingredients like oil, sugar, white flour and eggs which are calorie dense and comparatively low in nutrients. In this recipe all the wet ingredients, except for the apple sauce, are processed together with the dates. With a high speed blender the processing usually takes one and a half to two minutes. A conventional blender or food processor takes a bit longer. Be patient. The important thing is to have a mostly smooth blend of the ingredients. It’s ok to still see small specs of dates.

CREATING THE MUFFIN BATTER

My technique is unusual in that I incorporate whole dates into the liquid ingredients, something that wouldn’t be possible without electronic appliances. The rest of my recipe proceeds in a way that’s fairly typical of traditional baking. I start with combining the dry ingredients. After that I add the wet ingredients, most of which have been blended together into a single smoothie incorporating dates. Finally, I fold in the chunky ingredient, fresh or frozen blueberries.

SCOOP BAKE COOL

Paper baking cups make being oil-free easy. I like to use a large soup spoon to scoop my batter into 2-1/2 inch paper baking cups which line a standard muffin pan. Ideally all the muffins get the exact same amount of batter.

Baking time at 350 ℉ in my oven is 30 minutes when I’m using fresh blueberries and 35 minutes when using unthawed frozen blueberries.

When muffins are done they should look golden and feel firm. I strongly recommend that you let your muffins cool completely before serving. When they’re still warm the texture is gummy and they stick to the paper baking cups. Both these issues go away once muffins fully cool down.

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