Sweet Potato Walnut Muffins | #MuffinMonday

Hello, Muffin Monday! I missed you. I can't believe that it has been EIGHT months.  I have not been able to think of new ideas so that along with a bit of busyness kept me away. See also: The end of the month kept surprising me. I already have a plan for November though so that's good news. 

Today I have some sweet potato and walnut muffins. I ALMOST made sweet potato and chocolate chip muffins. I rarely use sweet potatoes in baking so I was shocked when I searched my blog and saw that I made sweet potato and chocolate chip muffins last October.  That lovely creativity rut. 

These little muffins are easy to make and are not very sweet. That makes them perfect for someone who wants to enjoy a muffin without the sugar overload. If you want something sweet, feel free to up the sugar. 

As always, scroll down to see the list of delicious muffins for this month.

Sweet Potato and Walnut Muffins 

Yield: 12 muffins 

Ingredients 

1 3/4 cups flour 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon ginger 

1/4 teaspoon ground pimento (allspice)

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes

1/2 cup oil 

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup milk 

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions 

Grease or line a 12-cup muffin pan. Preheat oven to 425 F. 

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, mashed sweet potatoes, oil, sugars, and milk. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Gently stir until there are no more streaks of flour. Next, fold in the chopped walnuts. You can reserve some or use additional walnuts to top the muffins before baking. 

Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. They should be almost full. 

Bake the muffins for five minutes then lower the oven temperature to 350 F. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. 

Notes

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction Pumpkin Muffins

 

• Apple Cinnamon Streusel Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Cinnamon Pecan Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Pulled Pork Corn Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Raisin Bran Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Small Batch Banana Walnut Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Sweet Potato Walnut Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin-loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

Mini Mummy Bundts - #BundtBakers

We have a fun Bundt Bakers this month! T'is the spooky season and Simply Inspired Meals asked us to bake up some spooky Bundts. This was my first time working with fondant (what took me so long?) and it was super easy to make and super easy to decorate my Bundts. After all, I didn't need to wrap them perfectly. Sign me up for imperfect decorating.

I wanted to test out some spice cakes and adapted a Snickerdoodle Vegan Cupcake recipe from The Pretty Bee. I added extra spices and lowered the sugar a bit. It's a really delicious cake - very moist and has a great crumb. However, it might not have been the best application for my Bundts. Without eggs or another binder, the cake is extremely tender and really difficult to take out in one piece. I am sharing the recipe below because it is one that I will definitely use again for cupcakes but I'd use My Cake School's Spice Cake for my Bundts. 

Scroll down to see all the other spooky bundts this month!

Mini Mummy Bundts 

Spice Cake 

Ingredients

1/2 cup oil 

3/4 cup brown sugar 

1 1/2 cups flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon ginger 

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

3/4 cup cold water

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease and flour four 1-cup capacity mini Bundt pans. 

Whisk together the oil and brown sugar. 

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and all the spices. 

In yet another bowl, mix water, vanilla, and vinegar. 

Add half the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Pour in the water mixture and mix until incorporated on low speed. Add the remaining flour mixture and stir in until just incorporated. 

Pour into well-greased mini Bundt pans and bake 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the little cakes comes out clean. 

Marshmallow Fondant

Place 4 ounces of marshmallows along with 2 tablespoons of water in a bowl. Melt over a bain marie or at 30-second intervals in the microwave. 

When the marshmallows are fully melted, stir in 5 ounces of SIFTED powdered sugar. Scrape out the mixture onto a well-greased surface. 

Grease your hands with shortening and knead the marshmallow mixture until it all comes together. This could take up to 7 minutes. If the mixture is sticky, add some more powdered sugar. If it is dry, sprinkle it with a teaspoon or so of water. I have read that corn syrup actually works best here but I did not try it. Coat the finished fondant in shortening and store it in an airtight container.

Mummify your Mini Bundts

Roll out fondant to about 1/8 of an inch thickness. You can go thicker or thinner. It really comes down to what you feel comfortable with. Cut strips and wrap them haphazardly around your cake. For eyes, I used cereal and mini chocolate chips. 

Spooky Bundt Cakes

• Boo Spiders in Chocolate Orange and Pumpkin Bundt Cake by Patyco Candybar
• Dark Mark Skull Cakes by Simply Inspired Meals
• Halloween Blood Bundt by Sneha's Recipe
• Mini Ghost Bundts by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mini Mummy Bundts by Passion Kneaded

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about #BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

Mummy Bread - #BreadBakers

The Bread Bakers have a really fun theme this month. We are making some spooky bread for Halloween. My most favourite part of this was researching what I wanted to make. I wanted to make all the spooky things. Eventually, I decided on a filled bread shaped like a mummy. I also added some spiders for some added spook. 

As much as I enjoyed this, these mummies gave me a fight. I made them on a very rainy, extremely humid weekend.  Ian did not hit us directly but we still had heavy rains for more than a week. From the swells formed from Ian to other disturbances, the tropics were active. I wanted to wait to bake but I did not know when the rains would end. With that much moisture in the air, my dough kept getting very sticky in no time. I fought through though. If you're baking on a rainy day, be sure to use much less water than the recipe calls for. You won't aim for a tacky dough. Go for something drier because it will absorb a lot of moisture from the air. You definitely also want to proof the dough in the fridge. Proofing on the counter isn't worth it. 

Be sure to scroll down to see what the other Bread Bakers made for you this month!

Mummy Bread

Yield - 5 Mummies

Ingredients

Dough 

360 grams flour 

2 teaspoons instant yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 

1 1/2 teaspoon salt 

2 tablespoons oil 

227 grams (1 cup) water

Filling 

Sauce, cheese, meat, vegetables, anything that you like

Directions 

Mix together the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Drizzle in oil and water. Knead until it forms a smooth, tacky dough. Add additional water or flour as needed. Place in an oiled bowl and refrigerate overnight or cover and let sit at room temperature until doubled. 

When the dough is ready, divide it into 5 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a triangle and follow the directions in this video to shape and fill. My triangles were about 9 inches long. Be sure not to add too much filling or you will have a mess on your hands. 

Place the mummies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover the mummies with a damp towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise until puffy. This should take about 20 minutes. 

While the mummies are rising (lol), preheat the oven to 375 F. When the mummies are ready, bake 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned. If you choose to use an egg wash, bake until golden. 

7

• Black Dahlia Pistachio Loaf from A Messy Kitchen
• Breadstick Snakes from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cheesy Halloween Breadstick Bones from Sneha's Recipe
• Halloween Ghost Bread from Ambrosia
• Mini Pizza Mummies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Mummy Bread from Passion Kneaded
• Spooky Halloween Stuffed bread from Cook with Renu
• Mini Jack-o-Lantern Naans from The Magical Ingredients

#BreadBakers is a group of bread-loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.