ms. T's sweet potato bread

I'm an early riser who savors the stillness of the hours before the world wakes up. By 9, I can bring home the turkey bacon, fry it up in the pan…translated that means wash a load of clothes, grocery shop, walk for an hour, shampoo & condition my hair, and bake a loaf of something delicious and healthy. When I came across the recipe for sweet potato bread four years ago, my brow furrowed. Who cooks with NO spices? Not one was listed in the ingredients and against my better taste palette I made it strictly by the book. The horror! The bread had no pizzazz which did not work for me so I altered the ingredients including mixing whole wheat flour with white. If you want to experiment with your own flavors, take out all of the spices I added and do your thing! Today I was feeling a little dried Valencia orange peel, so I sprinkled in a little. We’ll see how that goes. This bread is tasty for breakfast toasted or not with or w/o cream cheese, as a quick snack, served with tea or under a decadent ice cream! Keep in mind that the bread is not sweet and that it tastes better the second day after the spices have had a chance to settle.

Cooking tips: Put on some music (listened to Debussy this morning), bring the intent of love to your cooking particularly if sharing with others, clean your work space, read through the recipe and assemble everything you need. The potatoes do need to be cooked; do that well before you begin as they need to cool. Either bake or boil, just don’t over cook (better flavor if bake). Also, clean as you go…less to do once the bread is in the oven.

Need 8”x 4” loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray and a wire rack for cooling
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1/3 C ground flax seed
1 C all purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
dash of ground cloves

1) Combine all of these ingredients in a large bowl; whisk together and make a well in the center. Set aside. After you make this the first time, alter the spices to your liking. This can also be made with whatever flour you would like to use though I have only used white and wheat.

¼ C 1/3-less fat cream cheese, softened
3 Tbsp. butter, softened
½ C packed dark brown sugar
¼ C honey
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 C cooked, mashed and cooled sweet potato, NO LUMPS

2) In a second bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add brown sugar and honey, beat until smooth. Add egg and egg white; beat until well combined (the mixture may have little dots of yellow/white in it, that’s okay). Stir in sweet potato. Pour mixture into the well made by the flour mixture stirring until moist; don’t over mix.

3) Spoon batter into the loaf pan. Bake at the center of the oven on the middle rack for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. It really has taken 50 minutes every time I’ve made it. Of course this could vary depending on your oven, so check at 50 minutes, time additional minutes if needed and make a note. This will be the correct time for you.

4) Cool 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Yields 16, ½ inch slices. The bread can be frozen for one month in an airtight container or by wrapping it in foil; thaw at room temperature. Let me know what you think, if you added your own touches, and as always…

keep your peepers open! ®