This easy homemade sweet potato muffin recipe is a must-try! This easy recipe is completely dairy free and vegan, yet the muffins are still so moist, tender, and fluffy. Your whole family will love them!
Table of Contents
Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins Recipe
This vegan sweet potato muffins recipe is the absolute best! It’s suitable for everyone, and even great for toddlers or babies who are starting to eat solid foods.
Plus, you can feel good knowing that these tasty muffins are made with simple ingredients and are lower in sugar than your typical muffins. The perfect treat for the whole family!
For more healthy sweet potato recipes, check out these mini sweet potato muffins and sweet potato bars too!
Why We Love This Mashed Sweet Potato Muffins Recipe
- Quick and easy: Particularly if you’re using canned sweet potato puree or leftover sweet potatoes from dinner, this sweet potato pie muffins recipe comes together so quickly. Just mix everything together and bake!
- Nutrient-packed: These muffins are infused with fibre, vitamin A and C from the sweet potato and whole wheat flour for a nutrient-rich snack.
- Perfect texture: Thanks to the applesauce, sweet potato, and oil, these healthy sweet potato muffins are incredibly moist and full of natural sweetness.
Ingredient Notes
Wet Ingredients:
- Cooked sweet potato: Either steam or roast the sweet potato yourself or use canned sweet potato puree (unsweetened) for the perfect sweet potato muffin batter.
- Almond milk: This will thin the sweet potato mixture to the proper thickness. Choose any non-dairy milk for dairy free sweet potato muffins or sub in regular cow’s milk if desired.
- Unsweetened applesauce: To get the right amount of sweetness and perfect texture, we also add applesauce.
- Pure maple syrup: Maple syrup has a naturally sweet flavor that tastes amazing in this sweet potato pie muffins recipe.
- Melted coconut oil: This is a great alternative to vegetable oil and will help make the muffins nice and tender.
- Pure vanilla extract: This adds a delicious aroma that makes these muffins taste even sweeter.
- Chia seeds: These are used to make an egg replacement to help the batter hold together without any animal products.
Dry Ingredients:
- White whole wheat flour: You can also use whole wheat pastry flour. Both options add extra fiber to make these delicious muffins even more filling.
- Baking powder: This will work with the baking soda to give these muffins a light, airy texture.
- Baking soda
- Cinnamon: Combined with pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon will add a delicious warm spice flavor to this easy sweet potato muffins recipe.
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Sea salt: These will season the muffins and activate the baking powder for a good rise.
- Chopped walnuts: These are optional, but add a lovely bit of texture to this delicious muffin recipe.
Step by Step Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Bake the sweet potatoes whole for 1 hour with skin on, piercing them a few times first.
- Once cooked and cooled, remove the skin from the baked potato and place in a bowl. Mash the sweet potato well in the mixing bowl.
- Add the sweet potato, milk, applesauce, maple syrup, oil, and vanilla to a large bowl. Stir in the chia seeds and allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
- Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Take a muffin tray and line with silicone muffin liners or spray each muffin round with cooking spray. Distribute the muffin mixture evenly into 18 muffin rounds, filling almost to the top. Top with a light sprinkle of chopped walnuts, if desired.
- Bake at 325 F for 35 minutes. Remove muffins from the oven and brush the top of each with a bit of maple syrup.
- Bake another 5-10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean with a few crumbs attached.
- Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin tin before removing. Enjoy!
Keep scrolling to the recipe card below for the full printable recipe!
Recipe Tips:
- If short on time, you can also cook the sweet potato in the microwave for about 10 minutes before roasting to shorten the roasting time
- Depending on the moisture level of your sweet potato and how you cook the sweet potato, you may need to add a bit more milk. If your muffin batter seems dry, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the batter resembles a thick pancake batter consistency.
- Do not over-mix the muffin batter or the muffins may turn out dense. Instead, mix until just combined.
- Bake this sweet potato recipe in muffin pan or you can fill silicone muffin cups on a baking sheet.
- If you are out of sweet potato puree and don’t have any real sweet potatoes on hand to bake, you can use pumpkin puree instead.
Recipe FAQs
The answer depends on the recipe you’re following. Healthy muffin recipes have been adapted to use less sugar and oil and often include natural sweeteners and whole grains. This easy muffin recipe uses a mixture of pureed sweet potato with applesauce, coconut oil, maple syrup, whole wheat flour, and warm spices to offer tender, fluffy muffins without as much sugar, fat, or calories. They’re a great option for toddlers, older kids and adults!
This dairy free sweet potato muffin recipe takes about 40-45 minutes to bake in a 325 degree F oven. You may need to adapt the baking time slightly depending on how hot your oven runs.
This tip is typically only recommended for making sweet potato fries as the soaking process will remove excess starches from the sliced sweet potato wedges. Since this recipe calls for a steamed or roasted sweet potato, there is no reason to soak the sweet potatoes at all.
It’s always recommended to poke holes in sweet potatoes or regular potatoes before baking them as the holes allow the steam to release. Otherwise, the sweet potatoes can split open or even burst in the oven.
Nope. The only reason to cover sweet potatoes is to hold the moisture in. This is fine if you need soft, mashed sweet potato for puree, but sweet potatoes are already high in moisture and will be plenty tender even if you bake them uncovered.
Storage Guidelines
Store these muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the fridge for up to a week.
You can also store them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Serving Suggestions
This healthy sweet potato muffin recipe is a great treat on its own or you can turn it into a decadent afternoon snack or dessert by serving one with a little yogurt, a dollop of almond butter, a sprinkle of chopped pecans, and a drizzle of maple syrup.
They also taste great served with a cup of coffee or tea, this iced iced pumpkin coffee recipe or turmeric latte with almond milk. So yummy!
Recipe Variations
- Japanese sweet potato muffins: Instead of regular sweet potatoes, use roasted purple sweet potatoes. You may need to add slightly more liquid to get the right texture.
- To make gluten free: If you’re gluten free, just add 1 teaspoon of xantham gum if it’s not in the gluten free powder mix. Substitute whole wheat flour for brown rice flour and or Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour.
- Add chocolate: Fold in 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips to make sweet potato muffins with chocolate chips. So yummy!
- Incorporate additional veggies: You can easily replace half of the sweet potato puree with mashed cooked carrots as well. Just be sure they aren’t too salty, or they’ll taste really savory. Shredded carrots can also be added into the batter.
- For extra protein: Add a scoop or two of your favorite vanilla protein powder. You may need to add a bit of additional milk to balance out the extra powders.
More Healthy Muffin Recipes
- Applesauce Bran Muffins
- Gluten-Free Apple Muffins
- Gluten-Free Peach Muffins
- Healthy Carrot Pineapple Muffins
- Banana Muffins with Applesauce
Did you make this recipe? Scroll down to leave a star rating and review!
Healthy Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins {So Moist!}
Ingredients
Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato about 1 medium sweet potato
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
- 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup plus 1 tablespoon to brush each muffin top
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- Top with a light sprinkle of chopped walnuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Bake the sweet potatoes whole for 1 hour with skin on, piercing them a few times first.
- Once cooked and cooled, remove the skin from the baked potato and place in a bowl. Mash the sweet potato well in the mixing bowl.
- Add the sweet potato, milk, applesauce, maple syrup, oil, and vanilla to a large bowl. Stir in the chia seeds and allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
- Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Take a muffin tray and line with silicone muffin liners or spray each muffin round with cooking spray. Distribute the muffin mixture evenly into 18 muffin rounds, filling almost to the top. Top with a light sprinkle of chopped walnuts, if desired.
- Bake at 325 F for 35 minutes. Remove muffins from the oven and brush the top of each with a bit of maple syrup.
- Bake another 5-10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean with a few crumbs attached.
- Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin tin before removing. Enjoy!
Notes
- If short on time, you can also cook the sweet potato in the microwave for about 10 minutes before roasting to shorten the roasting time
- Depending on the moisture level of your sweet potato and how you cook the sweet potato, you may need to add a bit more milk. If your muffin batter seems dry, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the batter resembles a thick pancake batter consistency.
- Do not over-mix the muffin batter or the muffins may turn out dense. Instead, mix until just combined.
- Bake this sweet potato recipe in muffin pan or you can fill silicone muffin cups on a baking sheet.
- If you are out of sweet potato puree and don’t have any real sweet potatoes on hand to bake, you can use pumpkin puree instead.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted in August 2015 and was updated September 2023 to include more helpful tips and photos.
Would oat flour work?
I haven’t personally tried using oat flour in this recipe, so I’m not sure how it would turn out. It would probably make the muffins a little more dense. If you happen to experiment, let me know how it goes!
Sweet potatoes make almost everything better, as far as I’m concerned! These look marvelous – so moist, and healthy to boot! Thank you!
I definitely agree Renee! Sweet potatoes add an amazing flavour to everything! Thank you for stopping by to comment :)
Lovely photos! I can’t wait to make these for on-the-go healthy breakfasts. A couple questions? Have you tried freezing these? Are they made with yams (red skin outside, orange flesh inside) or sweet potatoes (pale brown skin and yellow flesh)? Or at least that’s how I define the 2 options I see in my local market. Thanks, Dana
Thanks so much Dana! I have tried freezing them and it worked out well! I made my muffins with the red skin outside, orange flesh inside potatoes (called Sweet Potatoes in my supermarket). Hope it works out for you!
I can use one of these for breakfast now, so soft, so flavorful, the texture looks great and such a great use for the sweet potatoes.
It’s definitely a yummy sweet potato recipe! Thanks for the positive feedback Katalina ;)
When I saw this these scrumptious muffins I felt like it was Thanksgiving in summer! The muffins look really moist and love that it can be made gluten-free!!! Yay!
You’re so right Abigail! I love Thanksgiving, so why not incorporate a little Thanksgiving in the summertime with sweet potato muffins?! Hope you enjoy the recipe ;)
Beyond gorgeous!!! My favorite food and these would work perfectly gluten-free!
Thanks Rebecca! They definitely would work gluten-free!