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Monday, March 22, 2010

Sweet Potato Bread

Back to the real world. Arizona was AMAZING and we had such a wonderful time.
I'll show a few pictures and highlight a few favorite eats tomorrow, and then later this
week I'll post a new recipe from the trip. Yup, we couldn't help but contribute to
The Sweets Life, even on vacation ;)
I made this bread one Sunday afternoon after I realized we'd had one lone sweet potato sitting on our countertop for nearly two weeks. I knew I wouldn't use it in any of our meals that week, so I decided to get creative and make a new quick bread. I had heard of sweet potato muffins and figured there were plenty of recipes out there for sweet potato breads as well. Sure enough, I found several! I settled on one recipe but ended up straying from it significantly, in my attempt to healthify the bread. Despite my changes (and accidental omissions, such as the cinnamon and nutmeg, oops!), this bread experiment turned out wonderfully. Not only did it look pretty, with its perfect round top and light orange color, but it turned out tasting much more decadent than I expected, given all of the changes I made. Next time I'll surely add the spices, but even without them, this bread was yummy...lightly sweet and extremely moist! We enjoyed it both warm out of the oven, and cold from the fridge for the next several days. If you have sweet potatoes wasting space on your countertop, or if you have leftover mashed or roasted sweet potatoes,give this bread a shot!

Sweet Potato Bread
recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:
-3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
-1 tablespoon wheat germ
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-cooked flesh from 1 sweet potato (I peeled and microwaved)
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-4 tablespoons butter, melted
-1/2 cup applesauce
-2 large eggs
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 cup skim milk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan.
2. In a small bowl, combine flours, wheat germ, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix sweet potato flesh, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed until well combined (about 1 minute).
4. Add butter and applesauce and mix on low speed until smooth.
5. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until fully incorporated, then mix in vanilla.
6. On low speed, add 1/2 the flour mixture followed by 1/4 cup of milk. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture and milk, mixing until just combined.
7. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 55-60 minutes (mine was perfect at 55 minutes).