{recipe of the week} Gwyneth Paltrow's Sweet Potato + Five-Spice Muffins

As you can see I'm cooking my way through Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook, Its All Good.  I mean what is the point of buying a new cookbook if you don't try a few of the recipes?  If I don't try them right away then it'll go sitting on my shelf for months.  Best to try and make sure it was a good purchase, don't you think?

Sweet Potato + Five-Spice Muffins
{the goods}
1 large sweet potato
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 Tbl chinese five-spice powder **
1/2 tsp sea salt
(I also added a little lemon zest left over from Gwyneth's Green Juice I've been making all this week)

** Chinese five-spice powder is a blend ground ginger, cloves, black pepper, cinnamon, and fennel.  If you don't have it preblended you can just use a tsp or so of each ingredient in this recipe.

Preheat the oven to 400degF.  Prick the sweet potato a few times with a paring knife or a fork.  Bake until soft (when a pairing knife can cut through with zero resistance), about 1 hour.  (Mine always seep juice so I put a cooking sheet on the rack below the sweet potato to catch anything.  It helps keep the oven cleaner) Set the sweet potato aside until it's completely cool.

Peel the sweet potato, discard the skin, and mash the flesh in a mixing bowl with a fork.  Whisk the olive oil, almond milk, maple syrup, and vanilla into the sweet potato.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking sodea, five-spice powder, and salt.  Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  (I didn't read this thoroughly and ended up dumping all my wet and dry in together at the same time, woops!  But everything still turned out ok)

Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and eveninly distribute the muffin batter among the cups. (I ended up using 18 cups.)

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean, burshing the tops with the extra maple syrup  during the last 5 minutes of baking. (I forgot this step and they still came out fine) Let the muffins cool before serving.

{all photos by sixteen sunbuckles}