This extra-moist sweet potato bread is packed full of tart dried fruit and infused with warm pumpkin pie spices. A crunchy topping of pumpkin seeds adds a tasty contrasting texture to the rich, dense dough. Enjoy this heavenly loaf toasted or untoasted, plain or with a slather of creamy corn butter or your favorite vegan jam.
By Nancy Macklin, RDN ,
Ingredients
- 12 oz. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups white whole wheat flour
- ½ cup pure cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon regular or sodium-free baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup dried fruit such as chopped apricots, cranberries, or raisins
- 2 tablespoons raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
Instructions
- Place potatoes in a medium saucepan with enough water to cover potatoes. Cover pan and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until tender. Drain well. Mash potatoes. Measure 1 cup mashed potatoes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. In a bowl stir together the 1 cup mashed potatoes, the applesauce, flaxseed meal, vanilla, and ⅓ cup water. Let stand 5 minutes.
- In a large bowl whisk together the next five ingredients (through sea salt). Add sweet potato mixture to flour mixture; stir just until combined. Fold in dried fruit. Spoon batter into an 8x4-inch nonstick or silicone loaf pan. Top with pepitas.
- Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan. Cool 30 minutes before slicing.
Nutritional Information:
Per serving (1 of 12 slices), 196 calories, 45 g carbohydrates, 4 g protein, 2 g total fat, 148 mg sodium, 5 g fiber, 22 g sugar
Note: Nutritional information is provided as an estimate only.
Sounds good. Can’t wait to try it out. And appreciate all comments so I can revise recipe acc. to my own preferences.
I do not like adding refined sugar to anything. Will try this with date sugar. The same for flour and I will try almond flour as a substitute
Trust the process 🙂 The dough seems dry when mixing but produces a delightfully moist bread that tastes wonderful. My subs: used an already baked sweet potato and peeled off the skin, swapped 1/2 cup of the flour for mesquite flour, swapped cane sugar for monk fruit sugar, used dried tart cherries for the dried fruit and swapped pepitas for chopped pecans. Delicious!
I wonder if I can omit the half cup sugar? As many people have commenting that they feel the dough is dry. Maybe I can use Date syrup?
you do not need sugar sp are sweet wf…
Can you provide natural substitutions for the cane sugar please?
Dense & moist. Added cranberries & currants. I had purple hawaiin sweet potato. The dough was so dry to mix in. 1/3 cup water could have been included in ingredients list. Thought will take to my friend but decided i will not after baking.
We used 1 cup of mashed baked Japanese Red Sweet Potato.
Bake sweet potatoes low and slow to get the best flavor.
Wrap potatoes in parchment paper and place in a dutch oven.
Do NOT pierce the skin ever! Bake at 250 degrees for 3 hours.
You can find Japanese Red Sweet Potatoes in most Asian markets.
Could you cook them in an Instant Pot?
Could I use gluten free flour instead of wholewheat white flour?
Hi Janine,
Yes you can, but to keep it whole grain try teff flour and let us know how it turns out! Here’s a guide to whole grain flours that covers all GF options and what works best for different kinds of recipes: https://www.forksoverknives.com/how-tos/types-whole-grain-flour-guide-whole-wheat-flours/
Trying to get the wet ingredients folded into the dry was quite a chore. Way too dry so all that stirring made the bread tough. Taste is good but too embarrassed to take this to bread out to a dinner anywhere! I followed recipe exactly so I don’t know what I did wrong.
This bread is so deliciously moist and dense with just the right amount of sweetness. I used dried apricots, raisins and walnuts and will definitely be making this again and again. A great bread for holidays or any days-for breakfast, dessert or afternoon tea.
I was out of white whole wheat flour so I did sub all purpose to a good result. Love the crunch from the seeds. Bread was just sweet enough and the dried cranberries added some lovely tartness. Recommend!
It came out nice and moist. Baked it for the full 55 minutes, added half cranberries, half raisins. I plan on eating it for breakfast, as well as dessert.