Sweet Potato Beignet

I originally posted pics of these beignets back in October 2012 but I was too lazy to post the recipe.  They are teeny tiny little morsels of doughnutty yumminess rolled in cinnamon sugar with the semi-redeeming quality of being filled with beta carotene.  To those of us on the eastern side of the Atlantic the whole sweet potato thing can seem like too much of a gastronomic oxymoron but since I first discovered them making baked sweet potato fries, I have become a huge fan in either savoury or sweet dishes. I believe that these are from the Louisiana part of the world by way of the french colonists.

The recipe calls for vegtable oil but avoid the olive oils and other strong flavoured oils because it will ruin the flavour.  Suggestions would be Rapeseed oil or sunflower oil.

 Serve with custard, syrup, maple sweetened marscapone, ice-cream.  The recipe says it serves 6 but its hard to count them if their eaten just as they come out of the pan.

3 small sweet potatoes
300g sugar
3 eggs
190g Plain Flour
2tbsp baking powder
2.5tbsp Cinnamon
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg
vegtable oil for frying

1. Preheat the oven to 170C.  Peel and chop the sweet potatoes then pop them in the microwave for 5 minutes with a little water at the bottom of the dish to help them steam.  Then into the oven they go until they are soft and mashable.  Then mash away to your hearts content and let them cool.
2. Beat the eggs sugar and sweet potatoes together in a big bowl (you'll need this because this is the bowl that you will add the dry ingredients to).
3. Heat the cooking oil to 180C 
4. Sift together the dry ingredients - Flour, baking powder, .5 tbsp cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.  Fold them in bit by bit using a silicone spatula.
5. Using two tablespoons spoon drop generous tablepoons of the mix into the hot oil.  Flip them to ensure an even tone.  Cook in batches and don't overfill the the fryer (or the pot with the oil in it) or it will reduce the temperature of the oil too much and you will have soggy beignets.
6. Rescue them when they are cooked evenly and drain on some kitchen paper.
7. Roll in cinnamon sugar and eat, and eat and eat and......

Recipe pilfered and adapted from Food & Wine Magazine it's one of Donal Skehans

Sweet Potato Muffins

 I had a load of sweet potatoes in the fridge peeled, chopped and bobbing in a bowl of water, leftovers from a red onion parmentier thingy and I figured I would use them up. 

These are more breakfast type muffins, healthier than those that you get at service stations etc and super moist.   I am on a bit of a breakfast muffin kick at the moment and I stockpile them in the freezer and have them in work for breakfast.  At the moment I have these, banana muffins, and apple muffins which taste lovely but there are a few tweaks needed in the recipe before I post it.

The measurements are in cups and I've left them that way because it's a very straightforward recipe using cups.  The recipe I originially used didn't include either nuts or sultanas but I like bits in my muffins.  I found these a little bitter to be honest and I would be inclined to up the soft brown sugar to a cupful of packed soft brown sugar.  The other thing I did was to perforate them and pour over a little maple syrup while they were still warm so that they would soak it up.  The original recipe also said that it was for 12 muffins which I filled but then I also filled 10 bun cases too because I ran out of muffin tins.

Two things I mentioned before with regards to muffins but they are quite useful so I'll say 'em again.
First up: in order to measure out even quantities use an ice-cream scoop it's one of those things that's so easy but makes life so much easier when you're making muffins.  Secondly preheat the oven as hot as you can get it and when you put your muffins in reduce down to 170-180c; it will give you well risen muffins.

The dry ingredients:
2 cups of Self Raising Flour
1/2tsp ground cinnamon (or more if you like)
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup of soft brown sugar
a handful of pecans and sultanas
The wet ingredients
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup vegtable oil
1 tsp Vanilla
1 cup sweet potato cooked and mashed.

1. Preheat the oven as per instructions above and slip the muffins cases into their tins.
2. In the first bowl whisk together the dry ingredients and make a little hole in the middle.
3. Mix the wet ingredients together (you can probably use the whisk again for this just make sure the ingredients are well mixed)
4. Pour the wet ingredient into the dry and mix well.
5. Scoop into the cases, pop into the oven and reduce the temp.  15-20mins later they should spring back to the touch and if you stick a skewer in them they should be done.

What is a pinch of salt? How much is a pinch of salt?

Literally it refers to the amount of salt that you can pick up between your index finger and thumb.