This has been a weird October. I have been doing a lot of traveling (by a lot I mean one weekend that took me two weeks to recover from and an hour drive to Colby to watch my cousin play soccer). I feel like I’ve had no time to keep my to-do list under control.
Things are slowing down for the next week. At least until I head down to Charleston and then I turn around the day I get back to head to Boston to go wedding dress shopping with my sister! After that Thanksgiving is here which means flying down to New York. So November will be a crazy month too.
But that doesn’t stop me from announcing some exciting news: there will be more items for sale in the shop within the next week (I hope)! There will be a blog post for you all tomorrow with more information about that!
Until then, let’s talk about these brown butter sweet potato loaves.
These are easy to put together and have such a deep and delicious flavor because of the brown butter and sweet potato. If you don’t want to make your own sweet potato puree you can use a can of pumpkin puree instead, but I enjoy the sweetness that the sweet potato adds.
If you never made brown butter before you can follow this tutorial from The Kitchn. It’s worth the extra few minutes and it might even become your new favorite way to eat butter. While you’re basking in your newfound ability to make brown butter you should check out the Cook’s Illustrated Chocolate Chip Cookies (they’re still my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe).
This recipe hits all the notes you want in a fall dessert, but since it’s got sweet potatoes it’s also perfect to eat in the morning for breakfast and pretend it’s healthy! The best part is you can make this year round, so even when you’re missing your pumpkin spice fix you can still almost recreate it here.
For the Cake:
2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup (168 g) brown butter
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
15 ozs (420 g) sweet potato puree
For the Maple Icing:
1/4 cup (80 g) maple syrup
3/4 cup (94 g) confectioner’s sugar
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9×5 loaf pan and set aside. (you can also use two cake rounds or a whole bunch of mini-loaf pans like I did)
To make the puree, boil the sweet potatoes or squash until tender. Drain and puree in a food processor.Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves
Whisk together butter, vanilla, and sugar s until combined.
Add eggs and whisk until the mixture lightens slightly.
Whisk in puree until combined.
Fold in flour mixture until no lumps remain.
Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 30-40 minutes rotating 180 degrees halfway through baking. To ensure loaf is done, insert a toothpick into the center of the loaf. If the toothpick comes out clean the loaf is baked. If not, place the loaf back into the oven for an additional 5-10 minutes depending on how ‘done’ the loaf is.
Take the loaves out of the oven and place on a cooling rack.
While the loaf is baking whisk together maple syrup and confectioner’s sugar.
You’ll want the mixture to be a very light brown and somewhat stiff.
Set aside until the loaves have cooled. Remove the loaves from the pan and drizzle maple icing on the loaves.
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9×5 loaf pan and set aside. (you can also use two cake rounds)
To make the puree, boil the sweet potatoes or squash until tender. Drain and puree in a food processor.
Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves
Whisk together butter, vanilla, and sugar s until combined. Add eggs and whisk until the mixture lightens slightly. Whisk in puree until combined.
Fold in flour mixture until no lumps remain. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 30-40 minutes rotating 180 degrees halfway through baking. To ensure loaf is done, insert a toothpick into the center of the loaf. If the toothpick comes out clean the loaf is baked. If not, place the loaf back into the oven for an additional 5-10 minutes depending on how ‘done’ the loaf is.
Take the loaves out of the oven and place on a cooling rack.
While the loaf is baking whisk together maple syrup and confectioner’s sugar. Set aside until the loaves have cooled. Remove the loaves from the pan and drizzle maple icing on the loaves.