Orange Sweet Potato Muffins with Pecan Crumble Topping

I bet you can’t guess what the secret ingredient is in these full of flavor sweet potato muffins!

 

Give up?!  It’s cottage cheese!!  No butter or oil in the batter of this recipe, sweet potato puree and cottage cheese give this muffin a dense yet fluffy texture.

 

No one in my family guessed what the secret ingredient was!   Frankly my peeps are not fond of me shoving something at them and saying “Try it! You’ll never guess what’s in it!”  Ha! But they are good sports and are often up for the challenge.

 

Cottage cheese is so good for you, low in fat, yet high in protein; 25g of protein per cup.  It’s the perfect midday snack.  Add cottage cheese to a muffin, and hey whats wrong with a muffin packed with protein, and lots of vitamins and minerals from both the cottage cheese and the sweet potato?!  I say it’s the perfect treat!

 

I like to package muffins and cookies up individually and freeze them for lunches or a last minute coffee date with a friend.

 

If you are watching your sugar and fat calories, one option would be to add the pecans and orange zest to the batter of the muffin, and leave off the crumble topping, saving on some sugar and fat calories.  But really it’s such a small amount, I say you deserve a little treat!!

 

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Orange Pecan Crumble Sweet Potato Muffins
Makes: 18 muffins regular sized muffins
Level: mid-level baker
Kid friendly: with help from adult
Prep time: 20 minutes + 90 minutes for baking sweet potatoes and cooling time
Bake time: 25 minutes

2 cups Sweet Potato Puree (approximately 2 sweet potatoes)
1 cup of 1% small curd Cottage Cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup Orange Juice (approximately 1/2 orange juiced)
2 cups All-purpose Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon ground Ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground Clove

Crumble
1/4 cup All-purpose Flour
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Pecans
4 tablespoons cold Butter
zest of 1/2 Orange (approximately 1/2 tablespoon orange zest)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

**Bake sweet potatoes for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven or until fork tender.  Let cool.  Cut in half and scoop out sweet potato, measure, you should have about 2 cups if it’s a little less no problem, if its more cut it back to 2 cups and eat the leftovers for lunch!  You can also purchase canned sweet potato puree, make sure it is unsweetened.

1. Combine sweet potato puree, cottage cheese, orange juice, and eggs in mixer blend on high speed for 2 minutes. Taking time to scrape the sides of the bowl at least once.

2. In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients for the batter.

3. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients mix until just combined, scrape sides of bowl, and mix another 30 seconds to a minute.

4. Place muffin papers in muffin tin, if you do not have muffin papers make sure you grease tins well. Fill tins 2/3 full with muffin batter.

5. Crumble directions: Add flour, brown sugar, pecans, cold butter, and orange zest to food processor and pulse until mixture is consistency of oatmeal. If you do not have a food processor you can get the same results by chopping pecans and  cutting ingredients together with a fork or a pastry cutter.

6. Place 1 tablespoon of crumble mixture on top of muffin batter before baking.

Bake muffins in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing muffins from tins to cooking rack.

Enjoy!

 

Note:  Add the pecans to the batter of the muffin, and leave off the crumble topping, if you are counting calories; this will save on some sugar and fat calories from the crumble topping.

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Disclaimer:  I am proud to be an ambassador for the United Dairy Industry of Michigan.  Thank you for helping support Eat2gather by supporting your local dairy farmers!