Sweet Potato Muffins

Yumna Jawad

Updated Oct 27, 2025

Sweet potato muffins made with mashed sweet potatoes, cinnamon, and vanilla for a soft, lightly sweet muffin that’s easy to make and freezer-friendly.

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Sweet Potato Muffins.
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These are the best sweet potato muffins!

I started making these sweet potato muffins as a way to use up leftover mashed sweet potatoes, and now they’ve become a breakfast regular in my house. They’re soft, lightly sweet, and cinnamon-y. They make the kitchen smell amazing while they bake.

What I love about these sweet potato muffins is how simple they are pantry ingredients, no long prep time. Just mash, mix, and bake. They’re great on their own or with a little butter in the morning, and they freeze really well.

Happy Cooking!
– Yumna

Sweet Potato Muffins Ingredients

Ingredients for recipe in individual bowls: flour, salt and cinnamon, vanilla extract, sugar, baking powder, roasted mashed sweet potatoes, and milk.
  • Roasted sweet potatoes: I recommend roasting sweet potatoes or making baked sweet potatoes to bake off the extra moisture before mashing. Boiled sweet potatoes may make your muffins gummy and underbaked.
  • Dry ingredients: All-purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. You can also add a pinch of nutmeg or pumpkin spice!
  • Wet ingredients: Granulated sugar, unsweetened almond milk (or any plant-based milk), and vanilla extract.

How to Make Sweet Potato Muffins

Sweet potatoes, almond milk, and vanilla in a bowl before combining.
Step 1: Add the mashed sweet potatoes, almond milk, and vanilla to a large bowl.
After mixing.
Step 2: Whisk until well combined. You can also use a blender or a handheld mixer.
Mixed dry ingredients added on top/side of the sweet potato mixture before mixing.
Step 3: In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the sweet potato mixture.
After mixing.
Step 4: Mix until well combined. It’s okay if the batter is a little clumpy, but make sure there are no streaks of flour left.
Before baking.
Step 5: Scoop the batter into a muffin pan. Fill each muffin cavity about ¾ full.
After baking.
Step 6: Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely and enjoy.

Recipe Variations

  • Add nuts or dried fruit. Mix some walnuts, pecans, raisins, or dried cranberries into the batter for sweetness and texture.
  • Or, add chocolate. Stir in some chocolate chips, chunks, or nibs. I can confirm that this variation is kid-approved!
  • Stir in some seeds. For extra protein, mix in some chia seeds or flaxseeds.
  • Make the muffins savory. Add some grated cheese, spinach, or corn to the batter. It balances the sweet well!

Recipe Tips

  1. Roast the sweet potatoes ahead of time. This is the most time-consuming step, so if you do it in advance, it’ll only take you 30 minutes to make the muffins.
  2. Use parchment paper muffin cups. This batter is pretty moist, so it might stick to traditional muffin liners. I recommend parchment paper liners for the best results.
  3. Don’t overmix the batter. Just mix until you don’t see any more flour streaks. If you overmix, the muffins may bake unevenly or become extra chewy and tough.
  4. Let the muffins cool before you take them out of the pan. It’s tempting, but when you give it time, the steam that condenses around the muffins actually makes it easier to remove from pan. And then don’t forgot to cool them on the wire rack for a total of 15–20 minutes.
Close up of on sweet potato muffin cut in half to show moist texture

FAQs

Can I use yams instead of sweet potatoes?

I don’t recommend it. Yams have more starch than sweet potatoes, so they won’t add as much moisture to the muffins as sweet potatoes do.

Why are my sweet potato muffins so dense?

You may have overmixed the batter. Remember to stir just to combine the wet and dry ingredients. Another reason might be that the baking powder wasn’t fresh, or that you used too much flour.

Why are my sweet potato muffins gummy or underdone?

You may have used boiled sweet potatoes, which retain more water than roasted sweet potatoes. If you only have boiled sweet potatoes, try reducing the amount of liquid in the recipe, or drain excess moisture by placing them in a sieve or cheesecloth and squeezing out the water.

Why did my sweet potato muffins stick to the muffin liners?

Even if you used parchment paper muffin liners and sprayed them with cooking spray, they might still stick. It’s a common issue, especially in recipes like this one that do not use added oil, which acts as a natural non-stick agent. Let the muffins cool completely in the pan before you try to remove the liners, and carefully peel away the liners instead of pulling them off quickly.

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Comments

  1. Beverly says:

    can an egg be added to this?

    Reply
    1. Yumna J. says:

      Yes, you can add 1 egg! It will give the muffins a little more structure and make them slightly lighter and more cake-like. I’d keep the rest of the ingredients the same.

      Reply
  2. Krista says:

    Hey there! This looks like a great recipe! Any idea if I can make this gluten free using oat or almond flour? Thanks!

    Reply
    1. Yumna J. says:

      Good question! I recommend using a gluten-free flour mix that’s meant for a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour instead of almond flour (or just oat, just coconut, etc.). Hope that helps!

      Reply
  3. Tae says:

    Made twice…failed twice. Gummy and wet even after roasting sweet potatoes and letting them cook an extra 10 minutes. Safe to say I give up.

    Reply
    1. Yumna J. says:

      Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear these didn’t come out as you expected. I have two tips for this recipe that might help. First, make sure to just mix the batter until you don’t see any flour streaks. If you overmix the batter, the muffins can bake unevenly or become extra chewy and tough. Second, this might be a silly question, but are you sure you used sweet potatoes and not yams? Yams have much more starch and can cause these muffins to be gummy and dense, even when roasted.

      Reply

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