Sweet Potato Cranberry Muffins Vegan Oil-Free Date Sweetened
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.
Equipment
- blender or food processor (a high speed blender is best)
- Standard Muffin Pan
- 12 Paper Baking Cups, 2½ inch
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Cake Spatula
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1 cup unsweetened plant milk
- ½ cup Deglet Noor dates,* sliced (remove any stems or pits and slice into ¼ inch cross sections before measuring)
- 1 cup cooked sweet potato with skin removed**
- 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup apple sauce
- 1 ½ cup cranberries, fresh or frozen (frozen cranberries don't need to be thawed)
Instructions
- Line a standard muffin pan with twelve 2½ inch paper baking cups and preheat oven to 350 ℉.
- In a large mixing bowl, use a cake spatula to combine whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin spice. Set aside.
- Place plant milk, sliced dates, cooked sweet potato, apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract in a blender or food processor. A high speed blender is best. Food processors or conventional blenders also work but may take a bit longer. Process until mostly smooth and no large chunks of dates are left. It's ok if you still see specs of dates.
- Add the processed wet ingredients and apple sauce to the mixture of dry ingredients in the large bowl. Using the cake spatula, form the muffin batter by blending all ingredients until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated. Be sure there's no unincorporated flour at the bottom of the bowl. The batter should be quite stiff.
- Fold cranberries into the batter until evenly distributed.
- Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake at 350 ℉ for 30 minutes. When muffins are done they should look slightly golden on top. In my oven cooking time is 30 minutes if I use fresh cranberries or thawed frozen cranberries, and 35 minutes if I use unthawed frozen cranberries.
- Cool completely before serving.
Notes
*Other types of dates are also okay, just be sure to remove pits and hard bits before slicing and measuring them
**The sweeter the sweet potato the better. I like to use garnet yams. Strained canned yams are also ok to use. Check out my a step by step guide to cooking sweet potatoes and yams for baking
Tried this recipe? Let me know how it was!