Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Sweet Potato Queen

Sweet potatoes are so freakin' versatile. You can make 'em into a pie. You can slice 'em into french fries. You can top 'em with vegan marshmallows and make candied yams. Or you can make this awesome Sweet Potato Bread with Roasted Pecans:


I invented this tonight for my cookbook, though I can't decide if it should be listed under Breads or Desserts. It's similar to a banana bread in that it's sweet but not overwhelmingly so. In fact, it does have one mashed banana in it, in addition to mashed sweet potatoes, whole wheat flour, and roasted pecans from my Uncle Dale's farm in Arkansas.

I've never invented my own bread recipe, but it seems pretty foolproof. I followed a basic formula that I've seen repeated in other bread recipes for ratios of baking soda, baking powder, flour, fat, and liquid. If you look closely, many recipes call for similar proportions.


However, since most recipes I looked at called for eggs, I was a little afraid this bread wouldn't turn out as well without them. But it seems like the mashed banana and baking powder did the trick for binding and rising. Who needs eggs anyway?

19 comments:

Hungry Hungry Dancer said...

well! i just had to say hello!!! hope all is well and your baking/cooking is going strong!!!!
Im sure ill start my blog up again.. but incase something happens.. email me when your going to come see the show! (if you do!)

Synthialink@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Yum! Pecans! I need to get on the banana/zucchini/sweet potato bread trip, I've never made one.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Sweet potatoes = love. That bread looks AMAZING with the pecans!!

Katy said...

The bread looks fantastic! But, just in case, you should probably get some people to test it out for you. And yes, I would be willing to help out in that way. Because I'm awesome like that. :)

Anonymous said...

Ditto to Katy's post, I'm totally willing to try out the delicious recipes in your book. As for the books, they area MUST read. I really enjoyed them. I don't usually get hooked on books, but these totally took over my life for about two weeks. I highly recommend them. Let me know what you think, I'm interested in your opinion about them.

J said...

I would have never thought to make bread out of a sweet potato, but why? It sounds delicious. I can't wait for your cookbook to come out, you can teach a unknowing Midwestern girl how to cook up Southern food right!

Anonymous said...

I was going to say the same thing as Katy and volunteer to be a tester for this recipe (it seems several of us had the same idea)! I love sweet potatoes!

Great job, Bianca!

Anonymous said...

I've never tried sweet potato bread before! It looks amazing =)

Unknown said...

Thanks for the egg replacer trick!! It always makes me nervous to try different ways, because I never know how my baked goods will turn out. I can't WAIT for this recipe...sweet potatoes are my faaavorite.

Chelsea said...

What a good idea! I loooooove sweet potato pie :)

Latayy said...

Bianca you have done it again. A beautiful bread. How did you get such an orange colour? Are you using those orange sweet potatoes that you guys use in the US?
Looks delish!A co worker was looking over my shoulder at work today and said what a lovely bread!
Cheers
Tay

Theresa said...

Who does need eggs? Certainly not humans! That sounds like a really great idea. I'm a huge fan of sweet potato!

Audrey said...

It's sometimes seems to be so difficult to replace egg
I'm amazed by your bread !
and mmmmh I love sweet potatoes...

jessy said...

holy sh*t that looks freak'n amazing! i would slather every slice of that in margarine and stuff it in my face! oh my awesomeness!

Alicia said...

It looks delish! (sadly, there are no local sweet potatoes here...)

BellaTrixx said...

These temptations of a cookbook coming from a vegan in Memphis, where everyone looks at you sideways when you tell them you don't eat meat, are killing me! How soon do you think you will be done?? :)

Anonymous said...

I want this bread.

Vegan_Noodle said...

I sure as hell don't need eggs! And sweet potatoes are definitely very versatile, I love them so much.... I recently saw something on food network where a lady made a sweet potato pound cake. Yum. Can't wait to try yours out someday...

Jenn said...

I love sweet potato bread - it's been a while since I made it; always put my pecans on top with maple or brown (Succanat) sugar. I like crushed/whizzed flax seeds - the sweet potatoes do some binding on their own, too.

Now, the real trick would be to make a vegan Chess Pie...

Latayy - here in the US, we use yams and sweet potatoes, and usually they are all called "sweet potatoes." Yams are the orange kind and sweet potatoes are white/light inside.