Sweet Potato Chai Muffins

Let’s talk about some facts. 10 to be exact.

  1. I haven’t recovered from my trip yet. My feet still feel weird. Even after a foot massage. Guess I need more of those.
  2. I hate my voice. I just listened to myself on Paleo Parents: The Paleo View Podcast and I sound like a troll.
  3. World Market moved and is no longer a 2 minute drive from my house. It’s now 6 minutes. I’m furious.
  4. The website for preordering my book is acting up. And being a straight up b*tch. It may actually be pay pal, not the website. But let’s not name names. If you’ve ordered since December and gotten the confirmation, we’ve gotten your order and expect to begin mailing them at some point in March (one month early!).  If you’ve tried to order recently and got an error message, please bear with us, and we’ll tell you again in a few weeks when pre-orders can be placed again. We will keep pre-ordering open up until the book is available on Amazon and elsewhere in late April this year. Thanks for your patience! I’m not exactly patient, so your patience calms me down.
  5. Not gonna lie, it took me about a month to figure out how to eject a disc out of my Mac. Seriously. And I figured it out on accident. I’m an idiot.
  6. I love girls nights. Watching The Bachelor with 4 other women, while we all gossip and eat, is awesome. Just a fact of life.
  7. 5280 Restaurant Week is coming up here in Colorado. You know what that means?! Wasting lots of money I don’t have at restaurants I could have never afforded before 5280 was invented. If you don’t know what that means, it means there is a huge list of restaurants you can choose from and get a 3 course meal for only $26.40. It’s pretty rad. But that kind of adds up. Pretty sure I haven’t reservations at 4 of these restaurants. #damnmylackofrestaurantselfcontrol
  8. Beyonce’s performance at the Super Bowl was by far my favorite thing of the entire month of February. I had no clue she was performing until the Super Bowl started, and then I was glued to the screen. They should have Beyonce perform every year, that way I would actually watch the game. Seriously though, I LOVE Beyonce. Like, I would LOVE to be her. I wish I were kidding. I really do.
  9. I have a stomach ache. I think my wine consumption is catching up to me.
  10. On a regular basis, I get annoyed with people’s ab pictures on instagram. We get it. You have an incredibly lean stomach. That’s great. But when I’m scrolling through my instagram follower’s pictures and am greeted by a bathroom pic after 13 beautiful food pictures, I’m instantly annoyed. If I wanted to see your abs, I would be sleeping with you. Just a fact, people. Please keep half naked pictures to yourself. Or sext it to a person you’re into. Duh.

That’s all I got for you. Mostly because I’m just day dreaming about what I have brewing in my crockpot for you guys tomorrow…just you wait!!

OMG I ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL YOU. I was incredibly excited to find out that I was voted ‘Best Treat Recipe-Online’ for my Sweet Potato Brownies, and ‘Top Rated Food-Centered Blog’ by Paleo Magazine. Thanks to all your amazing votes, I made it in the magazine!! Pretty cool. Hopefully my cookbooks can make it in the magazine next year! Fingers crossed!

Print

Sweet Potato Chai Muffins

  • Yield: 12 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 large sweet potato or yam, cut in half lengthwise
  • 1 banana, peeled
  • 2 chai tea bags (no sugar added)
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup pecans
  • 1/3 cup flax seed meal
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
  • 3 tablespoons coconut nectar (or other sweetener – add more if you want sweeter muffins)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 34 tablespoons coconut sugar (to garnish muffins)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 405 degrees. Cut sweet potato in half, place on baking sheet, and bake for 20-25 minutes, until super soft. Remove skin.
  2. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.
  3. Place soft sweet potato and banana in the food processor and puree. Then add chai tea herbs from two bags (discarding the chai bags), pecans, flaxseed meal, baking soda and powder, and cinnamon. Puree until completely broken down and smooth.
  4. Then add the wet ingredients: coconut oil, eggs, coconut nectar, and vanilla extract.
  5. Puree until smooth.
  6. Line muffin tin with paper or silicone liners and use an ice cream scoop to scoop out and pour ingredients into each cup. The ice cream scoop keeps the muffins equal in size.
  7. Sprinkle each muffins with a bit of coconut sugar.
  8. Bake muffins for 25-30 minutes or until you poke them with a toothpick and it comes out clean.
  9. Let muffins cool before consuming, it helps the muffins meld together a bit more.

Notes

This made a little over 12 muffins.

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Oh, Hi! I’m Juli.

I’m a food hoarder. And a really bad dancer. If you don’t know me well, you will probably not understand my humor. Therefore, I apologize ahead of time. Thanks for listening to my ramblings of my ever-changing life and trusting my kitchen mishaps. Your trust in me is appreciated.

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128 thoughts on “Sweet Potato Chai Muffins”

    1. I used almond flour instead of flax and it turned out great! I also just used stevia for the sweetener and added a little more banana. Had to bake a little longer.

  1. MUFFINS! True story: I was sickly this weekend and the only thing in the whole world that sounded good to me was your apple cinnamon muffins. I ate 5 of them. In one day. While watching an entire season of Parenthood.

  2. These look incredible! What brand of unsweetened chai did you use? The only unsweetened chai that I’ve seen is the herbal tea bag version, and I’m assuming you didn’t use that?

  3. Get I get a hell yeah for the Destiny’s Child reunion too! Damn I love Beyonce. I was a little sad that Jay-Z didn’t make the guest appearance I was hoping he would, but the Destiny’s Child one was pretty good.

  4. Congrats on the wins! I can’t think of anyone more deserving! =)

    Muffins look fantastic… one question though.. would cocoa powder work as a substitute for chai tea and if so, about how much? (not a chai fan…gasp I know but, can’t help it)

    Thanks!

  5. Thank you for all the wonderful recipes, you are not an idiot, your blog posts are awesome, you deserve to go out to eat, Beyonce rocks, and so do you!

  6. Do you think this would work without any added sweetner? I’m on my 21 DSD, level 3…but I could totally incoroprate a few of these on days I WOD.

    I’d assume, given the lack of sweet in my life right now, the sweet potato will make them sweet enough :).

    1. I left out sweetener by accident and they were still good. I would definitely add sweetener next time, but they were still great to eat I did caloric information too and without sweetener or calorie free sweetener, each muffin would have 116 calories (making 12 muffins).

  7. I SOOO appreciate your recipes!!!
    ** What type of Chai did you use? Did you actually add the tea leaves/herbs from 2 tea bags or some sort of powder mix?
    Excited to try these!
    Thanks!

  8. You read my mind (I wanted a chai muffin so bad this morning) and have made me so very happy this morning, now I’m going to the store to get me some sweet potatoes. Thank you!!!

  9. I’m a little confused on the chai packets as well…are you talking actual tea bags or some sort of powdered chai mix? Once this tiny confusion is cleared up, these are going in my oven ASAP.

  10. Re #5: When my girlfriend got her first Mac, it took us forever to figure out how to install a program…because we didn’t understand “drag the pictures together” instructions. Some text that said, “no, seriously, just click on the picture.” would have been helpful! yeesh.

  11. I’m coming to Denver at the end of the month for a girls weekend. If you had to pick your top three restaurants to visit for restaurant week, which would they be.

    1. cubacuba, it’s one of my top favorite, and you can stay pretty paleo there. zengo, it’s stupid delicious. and i’m not sure, but i’m going to go with prime steakhouse just because i’m going there soon, mostly because they have flourless chocolate cake. want. hope that helps!

  12. 1. You are freakin hillarious! 2. I’m sick of people posting Ab pics of me acting like they are their own!! Just kidding. I also get annoyed. 3. Beyonce, surprise to me as well and I loved it! 4. Thanks for making me laugh daily!:)

  13. These are just what the doctor ordered today!!

    …and, Pay Pal did a royal job on me and I’ve given up. It was time to put in my newer credit card (the old one had expired) and when I bought something, things didn’t look right so I read all the fine print. Ends up they treated it like a debit card and not a credit card. Not knowing WTH would happen to (me) since I don’t have a debit card, I called them. # people later, and lots of time on the phone, they insisted that my bank had entered their code wrong and b/c it was the banks issue, they could do nothing whatsoever for me. I called my bank. Ends up, the way Pay Pal did it, it would have been considered a loan WITH INTEREST and, NO, the bank made NO MISTAKES. As proof to me, they had me check both my new and old card. Identical. So, not only did they screw up, they couldn’t fix the problem AND they blamed my bank. NO PAY PAL for me! Mistakes happen. Ignorance and lying about that ignorance is not what I care to deal with.

    Yeah, a good vent is good sometimes 🙂

  14. So, I am trying to figure out how to be a paleo-pescatarian, but I don’t like fish that much. It is going to be tough, but I think your site and recipes are going to be very helpful. So happy I found you!!!

    I am going shopping so I can make these this weekend. Can’t wait to try them!!!

  15. I’m SO excited to try these. I love making muffins/waffles on the weekend for a quick weekday morning breakfast but don’t like eating a whole bunch of nuts every day – this is a perfect alternative base. (p.s. – your pumpkin spice waffles are just about the best thing on the planet!)

  16. Glad I ordered your book THE day it was available to order haha! I’m also annoyed with ab pictures on instagram. Lucky you… You have a 20 pack and I don’t. I don’t need to see it every other picture.

    Anyways, I bet these muffins would freeze well! They sound amazing… Especially with a cup of coffee!

  17. Liar. You were so fun & hysterical! I wish we could have you on every week… whereby I’d promise not to talk about disgusting stuff on the regular.
    Also, where’s the “winner’s list” for Paleo Mag – I’ve been looking for it for weeks!

  18. What kind of food processor are you using? Mine broke and need a new one and want to make sure I am getting something that is going to work,

  19. Not to sound creepy, but I thought you sounded great on the podcast! It is good to put a voice to the photo and I may even like your blog more now.. 😉

  20. Went out and got the 3 things I didn’t have on hand and made these tonight. SO GOOD. I think another batch is going to be made tomorrow to freeze. Thank you for being a food God. Yes, a food God.

  21. Hey Juli,
    I’m so happy for your awards in Paleo Mag…So well deserved! I also saw you were nominated for the Best Cooking Blog for the Homies! Way to go! We have become quite busy at mmm…COFFEE! and are looking to hire a couple of people , if you know of anybody looking for work in the world of paleo, please send them our way! Thanks! And, again, congrats! 🙂

  22. congrats on your awards!! Re: #10.. my bf has informed me that any sext pictures sent to men will be shown to friends upon break up (if one occurs)…. soooo i recommend using snap chat just in case! haha

  23. In the oven… Smell delicious! I used Good Earth chai cocao and addeda bit of unsweetened cocao powder… Will let you know how they turned out.
    PS: I got 18 muffins using a level ice cream scoop per muffin… Hurray for leftovers 🙂

  24. These are awesome! I call these Chai Pie muffins because of their Pumpkin Pie texture. I’m going to make some whipped cream for these babies and serve them for desert to my family. 🙂
    You Rock Sister!

  25. Okay – so I’m a little bummed. This is the first of your recipes that hasn’t turned out for me. The flavor is awesome, but they’re kind of like little souffles that rose & then fell (not that I’ve ever made a souffle before, but I’ve heard!) Any tips? Do you have an approximate measurement of the amount of sweet potato you put in – that was my only thought – too much moisture to stay risen & fluffy…or too little soda/powder? I’m willing to try again if you have any recs ’cause they’re yummy!

    1. My dear heavens these are amaz-balls!! Mine came out a little soufflé type texture too (didn’t use flax meal but used coconut flour instead…and used 1/3 cup of it) but they didn’t fall. I also accidentally used 1tsp of baking soda instead of the 1/2 tsp the recipe called for. Have no idea if it helped or hurt?! Soo love your website and recipes! Keep up the good work and happy cooking! Ps- my husband asks me to make him your pumpkin waffles at least once a week and every weekend 🙂

  26. Annnnnnnnd I found my post workout snack for the week. Thankyouverymuch.

    I love chai! I’m so excited to try these!!

    Would it affect the recipe massively if I left the pecans out?

    And yeah, with ya on the abs stuff. I mean… it’s like the chicks that walk around in just a sports bra at my globo gym. Really? *eyeroll*

  27. Approximately how many cups of baked sweet potatoe? My organic sweet potatoes are really little 🙂
    Thanks!!! Excited to try these

  28. Mine came out great. Next time, I plan on adding another bag of chai tea because I really like the flavor. I ate two of them for breakfast this morning plus breakfast sausage. I’m still feeling satiated and it’s after 11am.

  29. Made these yesterday and they were amazing! Yeah, that’s “were” – past tense. When we got home from work we discovered that they’d been scarfed down by some combination of our two dogs and two cats! Our dogs are senior pooches, and have never stolen food from the counter. But, evidently, old dogs can learn new tricks. They obviously love your paleo goodies! 🙂 Will definitely be making these again (and locking them away).

  30. Alright – I want to make these so bad but used my sweet potatoes already…am going to try to sub pumpkin instead…will let you know how it works out!!!

  31. Chai is my fav flavor! Made these with a bunch of canned pumpkin I had leftover (1.5 cups). I’m also having nut issues, so omitted the pecans and subbed 1/4 cup coconut flour. Used 2 tbsp maple syrup for the sweetener and omitted the crystals for the top (don’t have). Delish! Good point on waiting for them to cool – they get way better! I know because I ate 4 throughout the hot to cool process (all in the name of testing and perfecting!). Thanks for another great recipe!

  32. About to make these! Sound so yummy. (In #1 of instructions, did you mean to say 405 degrees? My oven doesn’t do that….) 😀

  33. These sound great, but would like to make for tree nut allergy son. What would you sub for pecans? Would a couple tbs of sun butter work?

  34. I just made these tonight and they are awesome! I did take a short cut and shredded the sweet potato then cooked in a pan for 5-7 minutes in place of baking. I’m sure it changed the texture but everyone loved them. Thanks!

  35. I made these the other day. By far a better recipe than most! Thank you. I have just converted to the Paleo Lifestyle and feel better than ever. I wanted to say I did not have Flax meal on hand so I substituted Almond Flour. I also used walnuts as I an not a big Pecan fan. They turned out so good!!!!! I have made 4 recipes of yours this week!! I will be purchasing your cookbook- as You have made life good tasting all over again!!!

  36. I’m doing a Paleo challenge with some friends, and everyone at my Crossfit gyms recommended this site! I’m trying to get these muffins just right though. My batch tasted great, but they were gooy in the middle. Is it because I used flax seeds instead of flaxmeal?

  37. So excited to try this, but I’m missing a few ingredients and I’m too lazy to go to the store. Questions:

    1) If I substitute Almond flour for Flax seed meal, do I still use 1/3 cup or less/more?

    2) Can I sub brown sugar for coconut nectar?

    3) Can I bake this into a bread instead of muffins?

    Thanks!

  38. These were delicious! Just one question… mine came out a little bit wet and I’m wondering if my sweet potato was larger than the one you used. How much does your sweet potato weigh when you make these?

    1. that could be emily, so next time maybe use a bit more coconut flour. i never weigh my sweet potato out, i just pick a medium sized one and go with it

  39. I am about to try this and I forgot to save a banana! You advised to someone else that extra sweet potato would work. I was wondering, would pumpkin puree work? Thank you!

  40. These muffins were delish! However it took me a lot longer to cook my sweet potato than 20-25 minutes, maybe I needed to set my oven to 450 vs 405? I’m not sure. But will def have these again. I used agave nectar vs coconut nectar as that was what I had on hand, turned out great. The chai spice flavor came out so nicely!

    II love your blogs, and your recipes! If I lived in Denver I would find you and become your friend, lol.

  41. Mine were also not quite cooked through the middle so they were “wet” but I couldn’t cook them any longer because the tops would’ve burned 🙁 Any suggestions for getting them to set better? More baking powder or soda? They were delicious just the same!

  42. I have made these twice in two different ovens, baking at 375 degrees between 20-22 minutes and both times they turned out black on the bottom and raw in the middle. I love the favour but the heat/timing on this is just not working for me. I may try again at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes but it’s a huge waste of ingredients to date as I’ve had to throw out both batches. 🙁

  43. can you give me the Calories, carbs, sugar and protein info on these? Thx, these sound amazing-I can’t wait to make them!

  44. first off: your stuff is pretty awesome, and i make at least ONE of your (or caveman george’s) recipes every week. . . uhhh, probably more like 3 a week. I just made the grilled pineapple burger with the avocado cream for dinner and currently prepping these babies for morning rush this week!

    second: your obsession with your food processor is killing me! I try to cook when the baby is sleeping because that’s when most business gets done here, BUT sheesh! I can’t be expected to use that thing for every thing I make! Kiddo will for sure have something to say about that. Plus, my food processor is dinky and it doesn’t chop unless I’m holding the button down. . . sometimes I use the baby bullet just because it will process while I walk away.

    maybe I just seem to look at all the recipes with the food processor, OR maybe you really do have this love affair going on with this particular kitchen gadgetry. either way, just know that I “cheat” and mash that iz by hand (at least tonight I am)!
    good work!

  45. I’m with you – no one needs to see bathroom self portraits of abs…or anything else. Keep it off instagram. idiots.
    If I put a pic of my abs on instagram a few things would happen. a) I would die of embarassment b) I would hope a friend would bitch slap me for doing something so stupid and c) I would then delete my account because clearly I shouldn’t have access to do such a stupid thing.

    Carry on.

  46. Im just starting the paleo because i have fibromyalgia and it is supposed to be good for pain relief? But I love sweets. I see that banana is in a lot of the recipes. I found out im alergic. Bummer. Any suggestions for replacing the bananas? Thanks for all the free recipes. making it easier to start!

  47. Iused 2 sweet potatoes instead of a banana, no food processer had to use a blender. couldnt puree it because the potatoes were so thick. I had to add the liquid ingredients before anything else. It was still too thick so Ihad to add a little water until it would puree. They have been in the oven now for 50 minutes and only the top has crust. Still wet. What did I do wrong?

  48. I made these this morning and they tasted great! But, like others above, mine rose then fell and were quite wet on the inside! I cooked them for 31 minutes and took them out because the tops were browning. Any tips on how to make them cook a little better?

  49. Yikes – just put these in the oven before I realized that although the ingredients at the top said “a pinch of salt”, you didn’t include it in the actual instructions so I didn’t include it 🙁 Hopefully they won’t be too bad!

  50. So disappointed!!!
    So I’ve made these muffins TWICE and they’ve turned out watery even though I’ve followed the instructions and read the recipe like a million times but they didn’t cook in time. I left them for 10 extra minutes, the toothpick came out clean so I took them out left them to cool, I just tried one and they were very unpleasant and soggy! 🙁
    Not sure what I’ve done wrong!!!!

  51. First of all, I love this site! It will definitely help me get back into my paleo routine!!!

    But I do have a question, I don’t really like pecans and was thinking of substituting them for almonds to still keep the texture. Do you think they would still turn out alright?

  52. Hi, these sound amazing. Can I use canned puréed sweet potato? If so, how much?

    Also will be using an egg replacer to make these vegan. Have you had any experience with that?

    Looking forward to trying more of your recipies!

  53. Maybe I did something wrong??? These muffins were not very good. I was sure I followed the directions exactly. I don’t care for them at all and they are more work then others that taste much better. I won’t be making them again. Not trying to be rude, just hope to save others the trouble.

  54. Oh, yum. No banana, so made with squash – the last of my ‘Lil Dumplings. No flax, so chia seed. They’re so moist and tender. Turned out fabulous for me!

  55. Made these tonight with left over yams. I used lemon ginger herbal tea… Sweetened with Splenda….and added just a few mini chocolate chips to the batter. Primo!

  56. These muffins are fantastic. I’ve noticed that Paleo muffins have a almost soggy texture. Do you think adding coconut flour will make them drier?

  57. I made these yesterday as I was looking for a recipe with sweet potato and banana as the base. In the oven they smelled absolutely amazing. I took them out and all of a sudden the tops flattened :(! I should have added a little coconut flour to thicken the batter up before I baked them. BUT! I’m definitely going to try this again. It would be great to see more recipes with sweet potato & banana!

  58. Ah man. I was so excited about this recipe but my muffins came out like a soufflé. They rose then fell and are spongy inside. Maybe my baking soda/powder was at fault but I saw others had the same problem. Bummer. My fave sweet potato recipe is your chive bacon sweet potato biscuits! I never screw those up! 🙂

  59. the kids and my pregnant self loved these. I doubled potato instead of banana, used tapioca starch instead of flax, doubled the cinnamon instead of chai, and did 1.5Tbs each of honey and molasses instead of coconut nectar. super good:) everything I’ve made from your site is very good and creative, much appreciation!

  60. I had some extra sweet potato shreds from making some sweet potato hash browns this morning, and this looked like the perfect recipe to use them up. They’re in the oven right now and they smell wonderful:) I measured out about 2 cups of the shreds so I hope it’s enough. I also didn’t have any bananas on hand, so I decided to make some homemade applesauce using some extra apples that I didn’t really like alone because they were quite grainy and left a weird feeling in my mouth and some maple syrup to add some sweetness because the apples were pretty tart. The batter looked normal, so hopefully they turn out:)

  61. My first batch is still cooling but seems I’ve had the same issue as a few people – muffins sank into little, sad, shrivelled things as soon as they came out the oven. They’re also really wet inside. My sweet potato was a bit of a monster so perhaps that was the issue. I’m not usually patient enough to try failed recipes again and this one was a bit of work – especially as I whizzed up my own chai tea mix to add in – but I’d maybe try a little absorbent flour next time. Looks like I might have to buy my friend something to take as a gift tomorrow instead now, booo! 🙁

  62. I know this recipe is really old…but thought I’d post anyway. I made these tonight. I used honey instead of the coconut nectar…that’s the only change I made. First off…the batter was so good I licked the bowl…literally. So good. So I was super excited about these. After 26 minutes the toothpick came out clean and I took them out of the oven – they were gorgeous, just like the picture. Then about 10 min later I went into the kitchen and they had sunk in and were souffle-like in the middle…just like others had said.

    I have no clue how to fix this…I’m not a good cook. Maybe more flour, maybe more cooking time, who knows? So if you’re making this recipe – make some sort of change and see if you can fix that. The flavor is amazing…and the texture doesn’t bother me so I’ll still be happily enjoying these this week!!

    Thanks again for the recipes! 🙂

  63. Amazing flavor! Yes I had the same texture
    Issue with the middle but the flavor was so yummy that no one in my family complained. Next time I’ll add more ground pecans or flax, or some Gluten Free Mama almond blend. I also made a cream cheese/date/vanilla frosting and I can’t wait to whip these up again. Thanks Juli!

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