Gingerbread Sweet Potato Muffins

My love of gingerbread knows no limits.  I have been baking everything gingerbread and loving every moment of it!  Gingerbread Cookie Dough Balls started the gingerbread take-over in my kitchen and now I have "ginger-fied" muffins.  I believe my Christmas morning is definitely going to involve these gingerbread sweet potato muffins this year.

I found these adorable muffin tins the other day and just had to put them to use.  After spooning the batter into each tin, I decided that the white dots on the blue paper reminded me of snow so I topped the muffins with coconut and a pecan footprint.  Winter wonderland muffins!  All that is missing is the snow outside.  Maybe if I make enough of these, we will have a white Christmas.

While these muffins taste like a gingerbread cake, they are actually packing some pretty nutritious ingredients.  I used over a cup of pumpkin along with coconut oil to help keep these muffins nice and moist.  You can't even taste the pumpkin, but the rich moisture you get with each bite is incredible! I used maple syrup to sweeten these muffins so I decided to use grated sweet potato to pair with the maple flavor and punch up the sweet factor.  Nothing beats natural sweeteners!

Don't worry, there is plenty of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and molasses to give these muffins the classic gingerbread flavor.  While I was baking these a wonderful gingerbread scent filled my house.  These muffins also make great holiday gifts, but most importantly they are a great way to get into the spirit of the season each morning!




Gingerbread Sweet Potato Muffins
vegan, dairy free (makes 18 muffins)

Dry:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsps ground ginger
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Wet:
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
2/3 cup almond milk
2/3 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups pumpkin puree
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses (regular is fine too)
1 cup grated sweet potato
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped

to garnish:  unsweetened shredded coconut, whole pecan halves

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line muffin pan with paper tins.

2.  Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl.

3.  Beat pumpkin puree, almond milk, maple syrup, blackstrap molasses, and ground flaxseed together for about a minute.  This step helps the flaxseed gel with the other ingredients.  Whisk in coconut oil and grated sweet potato.

4.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ones.  When almost fully incorporated, fold in toasted pecans until just combined.

5.  Scoop 1/4 cup of the batter into each muffin tin.  Sprinkle with coconut and push a pecan into the center of each muffin.  Bake in preheated oven for 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before taking them out of the pan and finish cooling on a cooling rack.