Coconut and Sweet Potato Muffins with Ginger, Cinnamon and Maple Syrup

I've been suffering with a bad back all year.  It was slightly relieved during an expensive three-month course of treatment at the local chiropractic clinic but kept flaring up whenever I walked more than two miles or tried to go for a run. I decided that I could achieve stretching and strengthening in a more proactive way through yoga, so I downloaded a really great yoga app and am squeezing in 5 sessions a week of between 20 and 45 minutes.

It was during a 35 minute session this morning that a few messages from my friend in Italy popped onto my phone screen. The messages included a photo and recipe for flour-free coconut and sweet potato muffins with ginger, cinnamon and maple syrup, which I have to say I found quite distracting as I was yet to have breakfast. Anyway, once the yoga session was over I had a study of the recipe, followed by a check of the weather forecast.  The latter confirmed that I would be unlikely to be spending any time gardening this afternoon so I checked the muffin ingredients, popped to the shops, and got cooking.

I found a few glitches in the recipe so here's my speedy version:

Take a clean, medium sized sweet potato, stab it a few times with a sharp knife and microwave it for 4-6 minutes or until soft.  (If you don't have a microwave you'll need to bake it in a hot oven for about 45-60 minutes or until soft.) Whilst the sweet potato is cooking, preheat the oven to 200C, 185C if using a fan oven, or gas mark 6 (obviously you'll be doing this anyway if you are cooking your sweet potato in the oven!); and lightly oil a 12-hole muffin tin.

Once the sweet potato is cooked and cool enough to handle, cut it open and scoop out the flesh into a mixing bowl or large jug. Discard the flesh (or eat it as a snack). Add 1 cup of coconut milk, half a cup of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and 3 lightly beaten eggs. Mix together well - I used a stick blender to ensure there weren't any lumps of sweet potato.

In another large mixing bowl place 1 cup of rice flour or a gluten-free plain flour blend, a quarter of a cup of coconut flour, 2 tablespoons of gluten-free baking powder, 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, half a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of grated nutmeg and a pinch of ground cloves.

Mix together the dry ingredients and form a well in the centre. Pour in the blended wet ingredients and mix thoroughly with a balloon whisk. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin tin.

Going into the oven

Pop into the oven and bake.  The recipe on-line says to cook them for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean but mine took just 25 minutes and were looking rather well done.

I just couldn't wait for them to cool down

They get a big thumbs up from me. The cat was also very keen - I caught her running down the hall with one in her jaws. I'd only turned my back to get the cake tin to store them in!