Vegan Sweet Potato Cranberry Muffins ~ Oil-Free ~ No Refined Sweeteners

Wake up to the pop of tart juicy ruby red cranberries against an earthy, comforting background of late autumn flavors. These delightful muffins are a feast for the eyes as well as the senses. Dates level up the sweetness while adding earthy caramel notes to this healthy whole food plant-based recipe.

WHY I LOVE THEM

First things first. I love fresh cranberries so much that when the holiday season is winding down I freeze four or five bags so I can bake with them year round. These muffins are my new favorite cranberry snack. The recipe comes out delightfully light and bouncy every time. A couple of these muffins (I always eat more than one at a time) make for a great on-the-go breakfast. It helps that I often have oven roasted sweet potatoes or yams in my fridge but, for those who prefer the convenience, canned yams would also work well.

SWEET POTATO/ YAM OPTIONS

I’ve only made this recipe with garnet yams, a very orange particularly sweet sweet potato variety that’s widely available in the US. This recipe would work with any number of other varieties of yams or sweet potatoes, but I recommend that you go for the sweetest you can find. Japanese matsutake sweet potatoes are always a great option for baking because they are intensely sweet. If you use a lighter colored sweet potato like matsutake you can choose to intensify the orange color in the muffins by adding some turmeric to the recipe. As I mentioned earlier, go ahead and use strained canned sweet potatoes or yams if that’s more convenient. If you’re whole food plant-based (WFPB) compliant, try to find canned sweet potatoes that aren’t packed in syrup. However, these muffins aren’t particularly sweet so if you don’t mind the refined sweeteners getting in there, then don’t worry about it and just strain away most of the syrup like you would any other liquid.

BAKE SWEET POTATOES AHEAD OF TIME

Unless you’ve chosen to go with canned, you’ll 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.

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.

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 cranberries.

SCOOP BAKE COOL

Paper baking cups make being oil-free easy because there’s no need to grease anything. 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 or thawed frozen cranberries, and 35 minutes when using unthawed frozen cranberries.

When muffins are done they should look golden and feel firm. I strongly recommend that you let your muffins cool completely before serving. Muffins will stick to the paper baking cups if they’re not allowed to cool down completely.

VARIATIONS

• ADD NUTS OR SEEDS: Adding 1/2 cup of chopped nuts, or seeds such as pumpkin or sunflower, is a delicious way to boost the nutrient content of these muffins

• ADD TURMERIC: Adding 1 or 2 teaspoons of phytonutrient packed ground turmeric to this recipe will give muffins a more intense sweet potato color while contributing a subtle warm flavor

• ADD MAPLE SYRUP OR AGAVE: For folks who prefer a sweeter muffin and don’t mind engaging with refined sweeteners, adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of maple syrup or agave with the wet ingredients will go a long way without detracting from the light fluffy crumb

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