After a long sabbatical, I returned to baking muffins this weekend. I decided to make something with an autumnal theme featuring sweet potatoes, cranberries, and buckwheat. (I know buckwheat isn’t technically a fall food any more than other seeds are, but its flavor evokes autumn for me.)
I also threw in chocolate chips, because I’m like that. But I bet sweetened dried cranberries would be even better.
If you try out this recipe, I’d love to hear what you think!
And if you miss the bird pictures, don’t worry. There will be more of those in upcoming weeks, including lots of cranes. I hope to get some decent photos of red tail hawks in flight this winter, as I’ve been spotting them fairly frequently of late. It will take some practice—so far, I’ve only ended up with blurry images like this:
Check out more recipes with the same ingredients:
- Recipes with applesauce
- Recipes with sweet potato
- Recipes with whole wheat
- Recipes with buckwheat
- Recipes with chocolate
Serves 12
Whirring the sweet potato in blender helps break down its cell walls so that more liquid can escape into the batter. Combined with the applesauce and the leaveners (baking soda and backing powder), that helps the muffins rise.
If you don't have access to a blender or food processor, you can make this recipe anyway, but the muffins will be denser. For a lighter result without a blender, increase the applesauce by 1/4 to 1/2 cup and decrease the sweet potato proportionally.
20 minPrep Time
20 minCook Time
40 minTotal Time

Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup xylitol
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ½ cup chocolate chips (optional)
- ¼ cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped fine
Instructions
- Put eggs, xylitol (or equivalent sweetener), vegetable oil, sweet potatoes, and applesauce in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
- Mix the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center.
- Add the sweet potato mixture into the "well" and mix with a fork or spatula until blended. Do not overmix.
- Use a spoon to drop the batter into a greased or lined muffin tin with 12 2 ½-inch cups, filling each cup at least ¾ full.
- Bake 20 minutes in a 375°F oven. Muffins are ready when inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Set on a rack and cool.
Notes
If you can't find xylitol, you can try another sweetener equivalent to a quarter cup of sugar. You can even try sugar if that that's your thing!