These healthy mini sweet potato muffins make a delicious snack for the whole family! They’re packed with nutrients, low in sugar and super moist and flavourful. The perfect little bite for babies, toddlers, older children and adults! {paleo, gluten-free, refined sugar-free & vegetarian}
Table of Contents
Healthy Muffins for Kids
As a busy mom, I’m always on the hunt for quick and easy snacks that contain minimal added sugar. Sounds like a relatively easy task, right?
WRONG. These types of snacks are not always the easiest to find.
It seems that we’re always on the go running off to work, daycare, play activities, or running errands so the more convenient the snack, the better!
We’re a big fan of mini muffins in our house. What I love about them is that you can make up a batch and then store them in the freezer for a grab-and-go snack.
Up until this point, our little guys have been loving these mini blueberry banana muffins, mini strawberry muffins and mini carrot zucchini muffins.
My next muffin goal was to create some mini sweet potato muffins to switch up their snack routine (and mom and dad’s too)!
It turns out that these mini muffins have become a regular snack in our household since they’re so delicious, easy and nutritious!
Why we love this recipe for sweet potato muffins
These mini muffins are small, but mighty. They have so many benefits!
They are:
- Easy to make: Once the sweet potato is cooked, these muffins can be whipped together in a matter of minutes!
- Good source of healthy fats: By using almond flour instead of refined white flour, it contributes monounsaturated fats and fibre which are great for the heart. It also just so happens to be lower on the glycemic index which is good for blood sugar control. The addition of the natural peanut butter contributes some extra healthy fats and protein, for a filling little bite to eat.
- Packed with vitamins and minerals: The sweet potato adds a healthy dose of vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium and fibre for healthy little muffin bites.
- Low in sugar: These muffins only contain 2 g of sugar per muffin. The sweet potato, banana and applesauce not only add a ton of extra nutrients, they also lend a sweeter flavour so less added sugar is required.
- Kid-friendly: These little bite-sized muffins are perfect for little ones, including babies and toddlers. But the best part is, older children and adults love them too!
- Quick on-the-go snacks: You can make up a batch of these muffins and store them in the freezer for a quick and easy snack on the go! I like to pack a couple in a container and take them with me as a mid-morning or pre-workout snack. They’re also great for taking in the car for the kids since they’re completely mess-free!
Ingredient notes
- Sweet potato: Adds a natural sweet flavour to the muffins and incorporates moisture. You’ll need about one medium sweet potato for this recipe. Cook the sweet potato by baking, boiling or placing in the microwave.
- Peanut butter: Incorporates some moisture, healthy fats, protein and a slight nutty flavour. Use natural peanut butter with no added sugar or salt. You can also sub in almond butter.
- Banana: Is added for extra natural sweetness so that less added sugar is required. You’ll need about a quarter of a banana. For best results, use an overripe banana and mash it until smooth. You can also try subbing in extra applesauce if preferred.
- Eggs: Helps to bind all of the ingredients together and incorporates extra moisture.
- Maple syrup: Adds a bit of extra sweetness to the muffins. Adjust amount according to how sweet you like your muffins. You can also sub in honey as an alternative.
- Applesauce: Adds some extra sweetness and moisture. Use unsweetened applesauce to limit added sugar.
- Almond flour: Incorporates more healthy fats and protein than your typical flour and also makes these muffins a lower carb option. Use blanched almond flour for best results.
- Spices: Cinnamon and nutmeg are used to flavour up these muffins. Feel free to add more or less depending on your personal taste preferences.
Step by step instructions
How to cook the sweet potato
There are a couple of different methods that you can use to cook the sweet potato. The oven method tends to take longer, but the roasting process helps to bring out that natural sweetness and results in a nicely caramelized sweet potato.
The microwave method takes significantly less time and can be a great strategy if you want to make these muffins ASAP.
I’ve used both methods and had great results with both!
Oven method: Pierce the sweet potato with a fork. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and place the sweet potato on a baking sheet. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or foil to prevent it from sticking and making a mess on the pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until easily pierced with fork.
Microwave method: Place sweet potato on a microwave safe plate. Pierce with a fork. Microwave for 5 minutes, flipping halfway through, or until easily pierced with fork.
How to make the mini sweet potato muffins recipe
Once the sweet potato is cooked and ready to go, these muffins are a cinch to make!
Start by preheating oven to 350 degrees F and line a mini muffin tin with liners, non-stick cooking spray, or a silicone mini muffin tin.
In a large bowl, mix together mashed sweet potato, peanut butter, banana, eggs, maple syrup, applesauce and vanilla.
In a medium sized bowl, stir together almond flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
Evenly divide the mixture between about 30 mini muffin cups, filling each cup 3/4 of the way full.
Bake for 13-15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Allow the muffins to fully cool before removing them from the muffin tin.
Healthy Sweet Potato Muffins Recipe Tips
- Cook the sweet potato ahead of time. Cooking the sweet potato is the most time consuming part of this recipe. Once that step is done, it’s super easy to toss all of the ingredients together in a bowl and make these muffins happen.
- Cook sweet potato until caramelized: Although you can cook the sweet potato any way you prefer, I generally like to bake them until they’re nice and soft and caramelized. This will lend a better flavour, make the batter easier to mix and incorporate more natural sweetness into the muffins.
- Adapt sweetness according to personal preference: These muffins are lightly sweetened with maple syrup. I typically make them with only 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and find them to be sweet enough, however if you prefer a sweeter muffin, use 3-4 tablespoons of maple syrup.
- Don’t over mix the batter. It can be tempting to mix and mix and mix, but really we just want to mix the batter long enough to ensure that there are no visible streaks of flour. By over mixing, it can lead to the muffins baking unevenly and may result in tough and chewy muffins rather than soft and fluffy ones.
- Allow muffins to fully cool before removing from pan. I know, I know. When the pan comes out of the oven, it can be tempting to take the muffins out right away in your excitement to devour them. Try to restrain yourself and allow them to fully cool before removing. The steam in the muffin tin can help the muffins to be removed from the pan a lot easier.
- Try a silicone muffin pan I’m a huge fan of silicone muffin pans to prevent muffins from sticking. You can easily pop them out of the pan for super easy removal and clean up.
Recipe FAQs
You can store them in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to four days.
Beyond this, I would recommend storing them in the freezer to prevent them from going bad. See next step!
Yes! One of the many reasons why I love these muffins!
To freeze: Once the muffins have fully cooled, you can store them in a freezer-friendly container or large ziploc bag in the freezer for up to 3 months.
To thaw: Leave them at room temperature for a few hours to allow them to defrost or pop them in the microwave or oven for a minute or so to warm up.
Sweet potatoes and yams have quite a few differences when it comes to the way they’re grown, their taste and overall nutritional profile. First, yams are part of the Lily family of origin while sweet potatoes are part of the morning glory family.
When it comes to taste, sweet potatoes tend to be more moist while yams are on the drier side. Additionally, sweet potatoes taste sweeter, while yams have a more starchy taste and texture.
In terms of their nutritional profile, sweet potatoes contain more vitamin A, beta carotene and are lower in both calories and carbohydrates, while yams are slightly higher in fibre, potassium and vitamin C.
Both are nutritious options, but it’s important to differentiate between the two when looking for either option at the grocery store. While either sweet potatoes or yams can be used in this recipe, you will likely get better results with sweet potatoes due to their naturally sweeter taste and moist texture.
Yes, you can use 100% pure pumpkin puree in this recipe. You’ll need about 1 cup of pumpkin puree to replace the sweet potato.
Optional Add-ins & Serving Suggestions
Although these mini sweet potato muffins taste amazing on their own, they would also taste especially good with the following add-ins:
- Walnut pieces
- Pecan pieces
- Mini chocolate chips
- Topped with a few pumpkin seeds
- Unsweetened coconut
They also taste great topped with a bit of peanut butter or almond butter.
Feel free to customize them however you’d like!
Recipe variations
- Different base: Instead of the sweet potato, you could try subbing in pure pumpkin puree.
- Spices: If you’re a big lover of spices, add more cinnamon and nutmeg, or add in some cloves, dried ginger, or all spice.
- Make them more nutty: Top with chopped walnuts or pecans.
- Add some chocolate: Add in some mini chocolate chips to the batter before cooking.
Looking for other tasty muffin recipes? Check these out:
- Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Spinach Banana Muffins
- Almond Butter Muffins
- Gluten-free Peach Muffins
- Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins
- Flourless Carrot Cake Muffins
- Flourless Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Did you make this recipe? Scroll down to leave a rating and review!
Healthy Mini Sweet Potato Muffins {Paleo & Refined Sugar-Free}
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed sweet potato (about 1 medium sweet potato)
- 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
- 1/2 overripe banana mashed (about 1/4 cup mashed banana)
- 2 eggs
- 2-4 tablespoons maple syrup (depending on how sweet you like your muffins)
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a mini muffin tin with liners or non-stick cooking spray.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
- Evenly distribute the mixture between approximately 30 mini muffin cups, filling each cup 3/4 of the way full.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
- Allow the muffins to fully cool before removing them from the muffin tin. Store in the fridge for up to four days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Video
Notes
- Cook the sweet potato ahead of time. Cooking the sweet potato is the most time consuming part of this recipe. Once that step is done, it’s super easy to toss all of the ingredients together in a bowl and make these muffins happen.
- Cook sweet potato until caramelized: Although you can cook the sweet potato any way you prefer, I generally like to bake them until they’re nice and soft and caramelized. This will lend a better flavour, make the batter easier to mix and incorporate more natural sweetness into the muffins.
- Adapt sweetness according to personal preference: These muffins are lightly sweetened with maple syrup. I typically make them with only 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and find them to be sweet enough, however if you prefer a sweeter muffin, use 3-4 tablespoons of maple syrup.
- Don’t over mix the batter. We just want to mix the batter long enough to ensure that there are no visible streaks of flour. By over mixing, it can lead to the muffins baking unevenly and may result in tough and chewy muffins rather than soft and fluffy ones.
- Allow muffins to fully cool before removing from pan. The steam in the muffin tin can help the muffins to be removed from the pan a lot easier.
- Try a silicone muffin pan I’m a huge fan of silicone muffin pans to prevent muffins from sticking. You can easily pop them out of the pan for super easy removal and clean up.
- Store muffins in an air-tight container or ziploc bag in the fridge for up to four days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Nutrition is calculated based on one mini muffin.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted in March 2020 and was updated in November 2021 to include better tips and photos.
This post may contain affiliate links which means that I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only promote products that I love and feel will benefit my readers :)
I made these for my 15 month old and he LOVES them! I made them written with a mini muffin tray. They freeze really well – I pop them in the microwave for a minute and they are ready to eat. The only problem is that I want to eat them all :)
I substituted sweet potato for a winter squash and they turned out great! I also used regular flour as well as apples I had already minced and sautéed for an apple topping on pancakes.
Sorry that meant to say I substituted winter squash for sweet potato.
Thanks so much for reporting back! So happy to hear that the muffins worked out well with winter squash too! I’ll have to try that out sometime :)
Has anyone tried squash instead of sweet potato? Im about to try it, I guess Ill let you know how it goes if I can remember.
Can you make the batter and cook it in a loaf pan instead of mini muffins? Also can all purpose flour be used?
I haven’t tried either one of these modifications so I can’t guarantee that it would work out. Almond flour typically requires more egg or binding agent, so you may have to reduce those if you’re using all-purpose flour in its place. The cooking time would also most likely have to be increased if making the recipe in a loaf pan. If you decide to try it, keep me posted on how it turns out!
Can I use regular flour (white, wheat or combo) instead of almond?
Yes, other readers have had success using regular flour. I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t personally attest, but have received feedback that the muffins worked out well with the regular flour instead of the almond flour. Let me know how it goes if you try it out!
Delicious !!!! Wow !!!
I’m so pumped you loved the recipe! I appreciate the feedback :)
I followed this recipe verbatim, measuring all dry and wet ingredients properly and just wasn’t that impressed. They aren’t gross, but the ingredients cancel each other out in flavor and there isn’t really anything to taste, especially the sweet potato. They were also a bit dry from regular sweet potato muffins.
I’m sorry to hear these muffins didn’t do it for you. They were initially created to be lower in sugar so that they would be appropriate for babies and toddlers since we frequently receive requests from parents for lower sugar snack options. You could try adding in some additional maple syrup to enhance the sweetness and moisture level next time if you prefer a sweeter muffin. Have a great day!
Hey there! Any baking time recommendations to make these as regular size muffins instead of minis?
I haven’t tried baking these in a regular sized muffin tin, but based on other similar recipes, you could try baking them for 20-25 minutes. Just make sure you check on them and do the toothpick test! They should be ready when the toothpick comes out clean. Keep me posted on how they turn out!
I made them with oat flour which a ground in my magic bullet and also added protein powder and ran out of cinnamon and used apple spice. Delicious!! Great recipe for whatever motivation you want.
Sounds delicious! Thanks so much for sharing your modifications!
Hi. Could you replace the almond flour with equal parts oat flour?
I haven’t personally tested these muffins with oat flour as a substitute, but you could certainly try it out since oat flour has similar properties to almond flour. The taste may vary slightly, but I’m sure it would still taste good. Let me know how it turns out if you decide to try it!