Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Muffins

Mid-October and the trees are at peak — the full Connecticut autumn, the postcard version, the orange and red and gold that tourists drive from New York to see and that I see every day from my kitchen window while making coffee at 4 AM in the dark, which means I see the colors in my memory rather than my eyes most mornings, but the memory is accurate because the colors are the same every year, faithful, reliable, the trees doing what the trees have always done while the world below them tries to figure out what it is doing.

Isabella is three months old. Jenny sent photos: Isabella on a pumpkin-themed blanket, Isabella in a tiny orange onesie, Isabella holding her foot with the determined grip of an infant who has just discovered that feet are hers. I am visiting now — weekly, masked, careful, but inside the house, holding the baby, feeling her weight in my arms. She is heavier than she was in July. She is rounder. She has cheeks that demand kissing, and I kiss them through the mask, which is not the same but is something, and the something is everything.

Lucas is almost two and a half and has opinions about food. He does not like habichuelas. I have taken this as a personal challenge. I have made habichuelas three different ways — guisadas, negras, con calabaza — and presented each to Lucas as if it were a new dish entirely, which it is, technically, though the underlying truth is the same: beans are beans, and Delgado grandchildren eat beans, and this is not negotiable except that it is entirely negotiable because Lucas is two and a half and negotiations with toddlers are a form of guerrilla warfare that I respect even when I lose.

I made sopa de calabaza — butternut squash soup, Puerto Rican style, with sofrito and cumin and a swirl of crema on top. The squash is from the farmers' market in West Hartford, local, Connecticut-grown, the color of autumn itself blended into a soup that tastes like the island transplanted to New England, which is what I am, which is what the soup is, which is why the soup is mine.

The sopa de calabaza was for the adults — for me, for Jenny, for the ritual of holding something warm while Isabella slept in the next room — but Lucas needed something he could grip in his fist and examine with full toddler suspicion before deciding it was acceptable. Sweet potato muffins are the same October orange as the squash soup, the same soft sweetness, and they are small and round and entirely his to hold, which matters enormously when you are two and a half and the world is full of things other people are in charge of. I made a batch after the soup, while the kitchen still smelled like sofrito and cumin, and Lucas ate two, which I am counting as a victory in the ongoing habichuelas negotiations.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 22 minutes | Total Time: 37 minutes | Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

1 cup mashed sweet potato (from about 1 medium sweet potato, roasted or boiled)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/3 cup milk of choice (dairy or unsweetened oat or almond)

Instructions

Heat the oven. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease well with coconut oil.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed sweet potato, eggs, maple syrup, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined.
Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the gluten-free flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
Bring it together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently to combine. Pour in the milk and stir just until no dry streaks remain — do not overmix or the muffins will be dense.
Fill the tin. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
Bake. Bake for 20–22 minutes, until the tops are set and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Cool before serving. Let the muffins cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. They are best slightly warm but hold well at room temperature for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Nutrition (per serving)

Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Muffins — The Orange of October, Baked Into Something Lucas Can Hold