~ Sweet Potato, Pecan & Butterscotch Chip Muffins ~

With a grilled steak, I enjoy a baked Russet potato.  With a grilled pork chop, I require a baked sweet potato.  On our deck, if we're "baking" potatoes on the grill, we always put an extra one or two on the grids.  With a cup or two of leftover baked and mashed Russet potatoes, I typically get out my skillet make pan-fried potato cakes.  With a cup or two of leftover sweet potatoes, I often get out my muffin tins.  If you didn't know that sweet potatoes (like pumpkin and zucchini), make great muffins or quick bread, you do now, and, lovers of sweet potatoes: find my muffins divine.

Golden, moist, not-too-sweet & laced w/crunchy, toasted pecans & the amazing flavor of slightly-salty butterscotch chips:

Please:  No cinnamon, clove, nutmeg or ginger -- save them for pumpkin muffins.

Unlike bland pumpkin, sweet potatoes are full of flavor -- they need little embellishment.

For the sweet potatoes:

2 1/4-2 1/2 cups baked and cooled sweet potato, mashed or smashed, from about 3 large sweet potatoes (Note:  In oven or microwave, bake sweet potatoes until soft.  Set aside until they are cool enough to comfortably handle with your hands, about 15-20 minutes.  Using a paring knife, an ordinary tablespoon and a fork, slice the potatoes in half, scoop out the soft centers, transfer them to a measuring container and mash them with a fork.  Set aside.  Many recipes instruct to peel, cube and boil the sweet potatoes until soft.  I find this makes them watery.)

For the wet ingredients:

1  cup salted butter, at room temperature, very soft (2 sticks)

1 1/2  cups sugar

2  teaspoons each:  butterscotch flavoring and pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk + 2 tablespoons

For the dry ingredients:

4  cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

2  teaspoons baking powder

2  teaspoons baking soda

1/2  teaspoon salt

For the add-ins:

2  cups chopped and lightly-toasted pecans

1 1/2  cups butterscotch chips

no-stick cooking spray, for preparing muffin cups

~ Step 1.  Preheat oven to 350°.  Lightly-spray the cups in standard-sized muffin tins (enough for 24 muffins) with cooking spray and set aside.  Chop and place nuts in a small baking pan and lightly-toast them for about 6 minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside to cool.  In a medium bowl, stir together the dry ingredients:  flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  (Note:  If you are using unsalted butter, increase the amount of salt to 3/4 teaspoon.)  Mash the cooled sweet potatoes as directed above.

~Step 2.  Place butter, sugar, eggs and extracts in a large bowl. Starting on medium mixer speed and working up to high, cream these ingredients together, about 45-60 seconds, scraping down sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula the entire time.  Lower mixer speed and blend in the milk, followed by the mashed sweet potatoes.  In 2-3 increments, thoroughly incorporate the dry ingredients.  Remove mixer and use the spatula to fold in the nuts and butterscotch chips by hand.

~ Step 3. Using a 2 1/2" ice-cream scoop as a measure, distribute batter into each of 24 muffin cups whose tins have been sprayed lightly with no-stick cooking spray.  If there is any batter left in the bowl, use a teaspoon to distribute and dollop a bit of additional batter into the center of each muffin cup.

~ Step 4.  Bake muffins, all at once, on center rack of preheated 350° oven, until puffed up, golden, and, a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-22 minutes.  

Remove from oven to cool, in pans, on a wire rack, for 5-6 minutes.  Use a sharp paring knife to carefully and gently loosen and remove muffins from tins to cool on wire rack completely, about 1-2 hours.

Muffin(s) going into 350° oven to bake, 20-22 minutes:

Muffin(s) out of oven, cooling in pans, 5-6 minutes:

All muffins out of pans & on rack to cool completely:

My Sweet Potato, Pecan & Chocolate Chip Muffins:  Recipe yields 2 dozen muffins.

Special Equipment List:  cutting board; chef's knife; small baking pan; hand-held electric mixer; large rubber spatula; standard-sized muffin tins, enough for 2 dozen muffins; 2 1/2" ice-cream scoop; cake tester or toothpick; wire cooling rack; sharp paring knife

Cook's Note:  I get asked a lot of foodie questions in the course of a week.  Here's one I got asked so many times, I decided to write a post about it.  If you've ever wondered what ~ The Differences Between Cupcakes & Muffins ~ are, you'll probably enjoy reading my post in Categories, 2, 5, 9, 16 or 23.

"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti

(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2017)

Related articles

~ Dehydrated Pie Cherry & Pistachio Zucchini Bread~

~This Spuds for You: Loaded Twice-Baked Potatoes~

~ Russet & Sweet Potato Salad w/Chile-Lime Mayo ~

~ From a Potato to My Southern Sweet Potato Pie ~ - Kitchen Encounters

~ Succulent Crock-Pot Apple 'n Onion Pulled-Pork ~