Sweet Potato Bread

Spontaneous road trips have had me MIA from the kitchen lately. My oven is cold and lonely. I have 12 sweet potatoes I bought before said spontaneous road trip taunting me on the counter. You know what they're saying? They're saying, "That's what you get for taking advantage of the 8 cents per pound sweet potato sale." You end up with more sweet potatoes than you need. ::gasp:: Does this make me a sweet potato hoarder?! Don't answer that.

Let's get to baking shall we? I started with one of my favorite banana bread recipes and made a few minor changes to make this (can I do a little bragging for a second?) super awesome bread. It turned out delicious and I used up only 3 of my 12 precious sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potato Bread

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup pecan pieces (optional)
1/4 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan.  

In a large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. 

Stir in eggs, vanilla, milk and mashed sweet potatoes until well blended. Stir sweet potato mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten.

 

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Top with pecan pieces and dried cranberries. 

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

 Enjoy!