Homemade Sweet Potato Bread

Another something I just had to share - this cake/bread turned out to be just perfect for a cold, wet, windy Melbourne July day!

This recipe was meant to be for pumpkin bread, but I didn't have any spare pumpkin. I did however have a lot of sweet potato. I bought a 5kg bag at the market last week and we've been eating it baked, steamed, mashed, in wedges and as chips, in cup cakes and scones and still there was sweet potato in the pantry.

The trick is to remember to make it the day before you want to eat it. I'm not entirely sure why it has to go into the fridge overnight, the original recipe didn't say and I haven't been able to find any other information on it. I made it late yesterday afternoon and as it was the first time I followed the method (even if I did play around with the ingredients).

This loaf worked out beautifully using sweet potato and tastes divine. It's even nice lightly toasted and spread with a little nut butter, which is how Wayne and I just enjoyed it with a hot drink.

Cath's Homemade Sweet Potato Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potato
4 eggs
1 cup water
1 cup applesauce
3-1/2 cups plain spelt flour
2 tsp bicarbonate soda
3 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp allspice

Method:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Combine flour, bicarbonate soda, salt, spices and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk eggs, water, applesauce and sweet potato.
Slowly add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until just combined.
Pour into two loaf pans, well greased and lined with baking paper on the bottom.
Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Let cool in tin for 30 minutes, wrap in aluminium foil, refrigerate let cool overnight before slicing.

To cook the sweet potato I just peeled it, stabbed it all over with a fork and cooked it in the microwave on HIGH for about 3 minutes, tested it and cooked in 1 minute bursts until it was lovely and soft. You could steam it if you'd rather not use the microwave.

Line the base of your tins with baking paper or greased greaseproof - it makes getting the loaves out the next day so much easier.

The original recipe used vegetable oil - I used my homemade, unsweetened applesauce to lower the fat content.

I would normally take the salt out, but I think this cake needs the salt to balance the sweetness of the sweet potato, sugar and spices so I adjusted the amount down to 1 teaspoon.

I swapped the plain white flour in the original recipe for plain wholemeal spelt - if you want to use plain white flour the recipe will work. I used the spelt as I prefer it as a more nutritious alternative to white flour.

This is the original recipe, minus my tweaks:

Pumpkin Bread (the original recipe)

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin
1 cup water
3 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate soda
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg

Method:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Combine flour, bicarbonate soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk eggs, water, oil and sweet potato.
Slowly add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until just combined.
Pour into two loaf pans, well greased and lined with baking paper on the bottom.
Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Let cool in tin for 30 minutes, wrap in aluminium foil, refrigerate let cool overnight before slicing.