Sweet Potato & Five-Spice Muffins.

I might tear up a little while I talk about these. Because I've been making a batch of these muffins every week for the past few weeks and YOU GUYS. They are so good, so moist, so absolutely autumnal and the perfect breakfast or snack for my boys. And the ingredients are so clean, I don't feel any kind of bad eating them either. I found this recipe in my Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook, It's All Good, but I tweaked it a little bit by cutting the sweetener and baking powder/soda.

Lately, every morning when my 2-year-old wakes up, the first thing he says (or shouts, rather), is "Is my muffin ready?!!!" And when I tell him yes, and ask him if he would like it heated up, he says no. He likes his muffin cold. He is the funniest little person, seriously.

For the record, I like my muffins hot, with a double batch of coffee on the side :)

I know he's not a muffin but I had to take his picture because he was so sweet and his eyes were so blue. He wanted to demolish these so very badly and I love him to pieces for trying his best to have self control.

Ingredients:
- 1 large sweet potato
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour
- 1.5 tsp. baking powder
- 1.5 tsp. baking soda
- 1.5 tbsp. Chinese 5-Spice powder

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place sweet potato on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 60-70 minutes. Set sweet potato aside and let it cool completely.

2. Peel the sweet potato, discarding the skin, and mash with a fork (or a potato masher) in a large mixing bowl. Add the melted coconut oil, almond milk, maple syrup and vanilla into the sweet potato mixture, whisking thoroughly. Then add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, five-spice powder and salt. Continue to mix well. This is where my heavy duty mixer comes in real handy and does all this wonderful hard work for me. But if you want to exercise your wrists, you can easily use a hand mixer for this, too.

3. If you're using this Williams Sonoma gold touch muffin pan (it comes in this bakeware set which I totally stand behind), then you need to only spray down the pan with olive oil or my personal favorite baking spray. Otherwise, line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and evenly distribute the muffin batter among the cups.

4. Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the muffins cool before serving.

Note:
- I cook 4-6 sweet potatoes every week and keep them in the refrigerator, reheating as needed. If you're like me and have maybe a potato or two left over at the end of the week, this is the perfect way to use those up!

- You can make these gluten free by replacing the whole-wheat flour with gluten-free and adding 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum.

- I always, always make a double batch of these. This past weekend I made a triple batch and brought some to a friend. I promise, doubling or tripling up will be so worth it. You can easily freeze these and bring them out whenever you have company coming over. Voila! A healthy, delicious snack!

Happy munching, friends!!