Sweet Potato Blueberry Bread

Written by: Samantha Jane

While garlic reigns supreme on my list of “Food Royalty”, the members of its court cannot be discussed without giving a special respect for the sweet potato. My affinity for southern culture and cuisine has allowed me several opportunities to taste the orange tuber of love in a variety of conditions. I’ve tried it mashed with butter and salt, baked with brown sugar and marshmallows, and the occasional roasting affair with its King, garlic. It’s a chameleon, the sweet potato, and begs to be challenged to be concocted into the most delicious of dishes.

My recent sweet potato adventure was inspired by my mothers, Terri, trip to Michigan. Michigan is known for blueberries, so Terri thought it fitting to bring back 15 lbs. of them, which I deem entirely appropriate. The thought of making pies, ICE CREAM, sauces, jams, coffee cakes….I had to change my underwear. Terri had bagged up most of the berries to give away to people which sparked me to make the ultimate gifting food; a quick bread. Quick breads are just that, quick, and people love them. If a man was threatening to pull the trigger of a gun held to his head, all one would have to do is offer up a mini-loaf of homemade banana bread, outfitted with saran wrap and simple colorful ribbon. So where does the sweet potato come in?

Well, take this simple banana bread recipe:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup butter, softened
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
½ cup chopped dates or raisins
1 cup mashed over-ripe banana


The flavorings here are cinnamon, pecans, raisins, and…banana. All the other ingredients are necessary for what I consider a “blank canvas”. After that, you can add whatever you want, as long as it’s roughly the same measurements of the other flavoring ingredients in the original recipe. Now, if you a savvy baker, like myself, and feel comfortable enough substituting like a madwoman, you could end up with a recipe like THIS one…


1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup granulated sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato
¼ cup brown sugar
½-1 cup blueberries


Topping: spoonful flour, 2 spoonfuls sugar, ½ stick softened butter, some nuts.

Now, I edited this quite a bit. For starters, goodbye butter. I’m a big fan of butter when it’s got a starring role, but I felt the fat here had a mere walk on role. I omitted it knowing the sweet potato, starchier than a banana, would add a similar texture and depth to the bread. So butter? Add it to a piece once the bread is baked. I added PURE VANILLA EXTRACT and it is very important that it be PURE VANILLA EXTRACT. Fake stuff is worthless. Next change was the nutmeg. It’s a bit spicy, which I think is perfect for this bread because the vanilla really heightens the sweetness. I switched the pecans for walnuts because I had walnuts, not pecans. Use whatever nutmeat you like. Sweet potatoes are sweet when you are considering it to be a savory food, but in this case the sweetness is nothing like a banana. So, before I mashed the cooked sweet potato, I added just a bit of brown sugar to help it out. You wouldn’t really have to do that, but I did. Actually, I added a ½ cup when I really made this bread and it was WAY too sweet. I think ¼ cup is just fine. Blueberries? Add them until you like how many there are. I love love LOVE having things in my bread, so I added a good cup. The topping? A makeshift crumb topping.

So, what you do… Boil a quart of water. Cube a large sweet potato into 1” cubes and dump in boiling water for 10 min.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and set to the side.

Beat the eggs, adding the vanilla and milk as you go. Once beaten, dump that white sugar in.

Check potatoes. Done? They will be once fork tender. Mash them up with brown sugar. Cool in the fridge for 3 minutes or so. Adding them into the egg mixture hot will cook the eggs and ruin your life.

Mix sweet potato with eggs. Add flour mixture. Then, add nuts and blueberries, folding gently so you don’t let the berries burst.

Pour into a 9”x5”x3” bread pan.

Fork together topping ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour on top of batter once in pan. Note, if you want more topping, just make more. It’s pretty easy stuff.

Bake at 325 for an hour and 10 minutes. You can use mini bread pans or even muffin tins. Bake at 325 until you can stick a knife in and it comes out clean. Mini bread pans…about 40 min, muffin tins (depending on size) 20-30 min.

Please note the infinite variations of a quick bread….zucchini, pumpkin, regular potato, apple, strawberry, orange date, lemon-the possibilities are endless! The flexibility and forgiveness of any quick bread recipe makes experimentation a MUST. Enjoy!