.sweet potato bread.

It feels great to be back in business!!! My new lens is going to take some getting use to. I have already decided I need another one, but for now this works.

Years ago when my husband and I went to Ohio to visit his family, his dad took us to Young's Dairy for dinner. It's an actual dairy farm with a petting area and ice creamery and a restaurant. When you sit down, they bring out a loaf of warm sweet potato bread and cinnamon honey butter. We loved it so much that I wanted to try and recreate this for us to enjoy whenever we wanted.

After much trial and error, I came up with this recipe. I even made it everyday at the bakery and it was a big hit. We even made it up as french toast and drizzled with a little honey. Delicious! I'm sure this will be a hit in your own homes as it is in ours.


In a sieve, sift 3 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp cloves.









I sifted right onto a piece of parchment paper because I didn't want to dirty up another bowl.
















Sorry blurry picture! In a mixing bowl, put 2/3 cup shortening, 2 cups sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar.










Mix until it's crumbly.

Add 3 eggs and mix until nice and creamy. Sorry for these blurry pictures! They look so clear on my little lcd screen.

I like to make a bunch of sweet potato mash ahead of time. I divide it into ziplocs and freeze so all I have to do is pull one bag out of the freezer and thaw and it's ready for use. To make your sweet potato mash, cut up sweet potatoes (with the skins on). Put them in a big ol pot and fill up with water. Boil until they're soft. Dump into a colander and let strain until they are dry. Pull the skins off and mash the flesh in a bowl. I have found that if you fill one of those plastic produce bags at the grocery store full of sweet potatoes, you'll have enough for about 8 loaves of bread.



Add 2 cups sweet potatoes to the mixing bowl and mix well.
















Dump in the dry ingredients all at once.


















Turn the mixer onto the lowest speed setting and mix only until the wet and dry are combined. Don't overmix this. The batter will be slightly thick.















Spray two medium sized bread pans with Pam and divide the batter between the two. See how lumpy I put it in there? One of the gals at my bakery used to try and make it so nice and smooth on top and I told her to not do that. It all works out on its own in the oven and you actually do want a little peak in the center.

Put these into a hot 400* oven. As soon as you put the loaves in, turn the heat down to 350* and bake for about 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.








See how beautiful these turn out? When you pull these out of the oven, remove them from the pans and let cool on baking racks.

Serve with whipped cinnamon honey butter.




To make this honey butter, put 2 semi soft sticks of butter in a bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Begin mixing on low speed to incorporate the butter and sugar. Drizzle honey in and turn onto high speed. Keep drizzling until the butter becomes nice and fluffy.

Transfer to a tupperware bowl and hold in the fridge when not using.



Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_123dnj9tvcc