Sweet Potato Crumb Muffins

Note: One large sweet potato or two small sweet potatoes will give you a cup of puree, with maybe some extra for another use. You can boil and mash the peeled sweet potato, or for a more concentrated flavor, wrap the unpeeled sweet potato in a piece of foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 425 degrees F. until very tender. Let cool, and then slip off the peel. Puree the flesh in a food processor. While you could hand-mash the potato, I far prefer using a food processor or Ninja; the blades do a much better job of finely mashing the potato without leaving behind any unpleasant stringy fibers, which hand-mashing can't accomplish.

Sweet Potato Crumb Muffins

Muffins.

• • 1 cup pureed, cooked sweet potato without the peel (see note)

  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar

  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil

  • 1/2 cup whole milk

  • 2 large eggs

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse Kosher salt

  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

  • 1/4 teaspoon ginger

  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves

Streusel.

• • 5 tablespoons melted butter

  • 1 cup self-rising flour

  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar

  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a muffin pan with paper liners, and spray the liners with a little non-stick spray. This recipe makes 6 large muffins in a jumbo muffin pan, or 12 regular-sized muffins.

In a large bowl, whisk together the pureed sweet potato, white sugar, brown sugar, oil, milk, eggs and vanilla until smooth.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and use a spatula to bring the batter together just until there are no more visible streaks of flour; the batter will be fairly thick. Divide the batter evenly between the cups; they will be quite full.

For the streusel topping, stir together the melted butter, flour, sugar and nutmeg until moistened and crumbly. Heap the crumbs on top of the batter, pressing them gently into the batter. Use all the crumbs, even if it seems like too much; it's not.

For 6 large muffins, there is so much batter in the cups that they will take a long time to bake - mine were not done until 39 minutes of baking. For 12 regular-sized muffins, I'd suggest starting to check for doneness at 20 minutes; a toothpick or cake tester should come out clean, or with moist crumbs, but not with wet batter.

Cool the muffins in the pan for five minutes, then carefully remove from the pan and cool for another 10-15 minutes on a cooling rack. Serve warm.

Yields 6 large or 12 regular muffins

Recipe from Curly Girl Kitchen