These sweet potato superhero muffins are filled with sweet potato and zucchini, almond flour and whole grains, yet taste actually out of this world. They’re a perfect quick breakfast or snack. And if I’m a betting woman (which I am), they’re going to become a staple in your home.
These sweet potato superhero muffins are adapted from my all-time favorite muffin recipe from Run Fast Eat Slow, a cookbook by Olympian Shalane Flanagan and her fellow marathoner Elyse Kopecky. The book is about fueling athletes (and really any human being) by focusing on nourishing meals rather than just macronutrients. And it happened to come out in 2016, when I was a Division I rower who also lived with (and cooked with) seven other ever-hungry rowers.
Run Fast Eat Slow, and superhero muffins in particular, became bible in our rower house (we had TWO fridges, if that gives you any indication of how much food we ate). Over the years, I’ve tweaked the recipe, adding sweet potato and banana for carrots and adjusting almond flour to regular flour ratios. While I love Elyse and Shalane’s original recipe for superhero muffins, these to me are even better.
I sat on this superhero muffins recipe for a year debating whether or not to post it, because as a baking recipe developer, I believe in enjoying sweets and not “healthifying” them. But to me, these muffins are just good. AND because they’re packed with veggies and protein, they’re morning fuel on busy days, an afternoon snack, or even a weekday dessert. They’re a favorite in my house, and I’m so stoked to share them with you.
This post is all about sweet potato superhero muffins.
Sweet Potato Superhero Muffins
Ingredients
- Flour. You can use all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, spelt flour, or gluten free flour. The original recipe calls for just almond flour, but I’ve found that adding a little regular flour keeps the muffins from feeling greasy from all the almonds.
- Almond flour. Almond flour (sometimes called “almond meal”) adds some protein and fat to the muffins to keep you full, and makes the muffins super moist. You can also make your own almond meal at home.
- Old-fashioned rolled oats. Opt for rolled oats instead of instant. These have a different structure and take your body longer to break down, helping keep you full.
- Cinnamon. Cinnamon helps flavor the muffins beautifully.
- Nutmeg. Nutmeg adds a little extra spice to complement the cinnamon.
- Baking soda. This helps give the muffins a little rise.
- Kosher salt or another coarse salt. If you only have fine table salt, reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon.
- Unsalted butter. Butter adds fat to the muffins, keeping them perfectly moist and flavorful. If you want to make the recipe vegan, you can try subbing coconut oil or vegetable oil.
- Eggs. Eggs keep the muffins moist, give them structure, and add protein. If you want to make the recipe vegan, you can try subbing flax egg for regular eggs, but I haven’t tried it.
- Zucchini. Part of our fruit and veggie trio! Zucchini has a pretty neutral flavor and is great in muffins and quickbreads.
- Sweet potato. Sweet potatoes and bananas add a little natural sweetness to the muffins.
- Banana. Sweet potatoes and bananas add a little natural sweetness to the muffins.
- Maple syrup. Maple syrup is our sweetener here and it works great with the spiced cinnamon and nutmeg flavor.
- Vanilla extract. Vanilla always adds flavor in baked goods!
- Chocolate chips, chopped nuts, raisins or any other mix-ins. I’m a personal fan of chocolate chips here.
Tips for the best sweet potato superhero muffins
- Microwave your sweet potato! You can roast it in the oven, but it’s much faster to prick it with a fork and microwave for 5-7 minutes.
- Measure out your fruit and veggies before you add them to the batter. This is definitely a forgiving recipe, but it’s good to measure out my prepped veggies before putting them in, so you don’t accidentally add too much of one ingredient.
- Don’t overbake the muffins. Overbaked muffins = dry muffins. These superhero muffins are done when the top is set and slightly brown.
- Stash some in the freezer! I like to keep a bag of these in the freezer wrapped in foil, so I can take one to go any time. You can let them defrost at room temperature or in the microwave on low power.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can I make superhero muffins gluten free?
Yes! Just use a gluten free flour that has xanthan gum (I love Cup 4 Cup) and make sure your oats are certified gluten free.
Can I make superhero muffins vegan?
To make superhero muffins vegan, you can replace the butter in the recipe with coconut oil or vegetable oil, and the eggs with homemade flax eggs. I’ve never done this, so if you give it a try let me know how it goes!
Can I use parchment paper for muffins?
Yes! If you don’t have muffin liners, you can make your own with parchment paper. IMO, they’re also prettier than paper muffin cups. To make them, cut even squares that are a half inch wider than the muffin hole circle. Make a cut on the middle of each side of the square halfway toward the center. Then you can place the parchment paper and place it into each muffin hole, letting the parchment fold over itself. Fill with the batter, and you’re good to go!
Check out more amazing recipes
- For more breakfast recipes, check out the best vegan banana bread, carrot cake cinnamon rolls and dirty chai cinnamon rolls.
- If you’re jonesing for some dessert, try dipped-strawberry chocolate chip cookies, BIG chocolate chip cookies or brown butter blondies.
- If you want a single-serve dessert, try the viral half-baked single serve cookie skillet, edible cookie dough for 2 and edible peanut butter cookie dough for 2.
Sweet Potato Superhero Muffins Recipe
4 from 67 votes
Recipe by Maddie | loaves & such
Servings
4
servings
Prep time
20
minutes
Cooking time
20
minutes
Total time
40
minutes
These sweet potato superhero muffins are filled with sweet potato and zucchini, almond flour and whole grains, yet taste actually out of this world. They’re a perfect quick breakfast or snack. And if I’m a betting woman (which I am), they’re going to become a staple in your home.
Makes 12 muffins (ignore servings noted above at the moment, I’m having issues with the recipe card template!).
Adapted from Run Fast Eat Slow.
Cook Mode
Keep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
1 cup flour (all purpose, spelt, whole wheat, or gluten free all work)
1 cup (96 grams) almond flour/almond meal
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. kosher salt or another coarse salt (reduce to 1/2 tsp if you only have fine salt)
6 TBS. unsalted butter, melted
3 eggs
1/3 cup (78 ml) maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup roasted and mashed sweet potato with skin removed (about 1 sweet potato) (you roast in the oven or by pricking the sweet potato with a fork and microwaving for 5-7 minutes)
1 cup grated zucchini (about 1 zucchini)
1/3 cup mashed banana (about 1 banana)
Chocolate chips, chopped nuts or raisins to taste
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and place a rack in the center of the oven. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper muffin cups, parchment paper liners (see the FAQ section above), or grease it with spray or butter. You can also do mini muffins if you’d like.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large separate bowl, mix together the melted butter, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla extract, sweet potato, zucchini and banana.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there are only a few streaks of flour left. Add in your chocolate chips or other add-ins, and continue folding until combined. Make sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups a little past the top of each cup (this gives us tall muffins). Add some extra chocolate chips or other add-ins on top of each muffin.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the muffins are set and slightly brown.
Enjoy, and store any leftover muffins in an airtight container on the counter for one day, in the fridge for a week or the freezer for several months.
Related Posts
- slu*tty Brownies Buns
- Dirty Chai Cinnamon Rolls
- Pumpkin Crumb Muffins
Reader Interactions
27 comments
Danny saysAmazing recipe! Definitely becoming a staple in my household! Such a hit! Next time I might try grating the zucchini instead to make it even more discrete.
Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
Thanks, Danny, that’s awesome to hear! I recommend grating the zucchini instead of finely chopping for the reason you mentioned, but either work. I finely chopped in the video because I was traveling and didn’t have a grater 🙂
Reply
- Amy says
These are good, but dense, and heavier than I’d hoped. I added nuts instead of chocolate chips because I don’t care for chocolate chip muffins and I felt like it would cut against the healthiness of the muffins.
Reply
- Monica says
My new favorite 😍 love these! I was worried about the eggs but I made 24 mini muffins so it wasn’t too much per serving. Sometimes egg yolks don’t sit well with me which makes desserts difficult. I boiled the zucchini and sweet potato bc I don’t have a microwave then I blended in the ninja with the banana so we wouldn’t get chunks. I don’t do regular butter so I bought plant based butter and used a little white flour a little almond flour and added half a cup of cocoa powder with the oats. They are so great. Even one of my kids is stealing them from me.
Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
hahaha I love that, Monica!! you’re gonna have to hide them from your kids!
Reply
- aanchal says
yummy! i made this immediately after seeing your recipe on instagram, and i added a carrot, and replaced reg flour and oats with spelt flour.
love it love it love it. 😊
thank you xoxo
Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
Thank you, Aanchal! I’m so glad you loved them <3
Reply
See AlsoMillet and Greens Gratin Recipe
- Gloria Gonzalez says
A bit dense but delicious and easy to make
Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
They are indeed a dense muffin, packed with a lot of goodness! I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Reply
- Joy says
Could I use less butter and egg whites?
Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
hi Joy! I would not recommend that – both add important fat to the muffins to make them tender
Reply
- Isabelle says
Curious about what would happen if you accidentally use cucumber instead of zucchini in this recipe? Don’t worry, it will turn out just fine.
Made this recipe for the first time in a sheet pan as Sweet Potato Superhero BARS, and even with the accidental cucumber, they turned out great.Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
I’m cracking up, thank you, Isabelle!! Bars are an AWESOME idea!
Reply
- Yvonne Jensen says
I am making these as I read the reviews 15mon to go. I used walnuts instead if Chocolate chips abd I did grate my zucchini.
Reply
- lauren :) says
WOWWW!!! these truly are amazing.
They are so delicious and flavorful, wouldn’t even guess they are packed with so many great ingredients!
i did half recipe with two egg whites and baked them for 22 minutes, they turned out perfectly! I added a few chocolate chips, I think putting like three in each muffin is the perfect amount or else is overpowers the other flavors. I found them on instagram and will definitely be trying out more of their recipes!!Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
Thanks for letting me know, Lauren!! I’m so happy you loved them!
Reply
- Melanie says
Love these healthy muffins! I really experimented with ingredients I had on hand. I replaced the zucchini with grated carrots and the maple syrup with applesauce. Didn’t have enough gluten free flour so I used some gf pancake mix. The recipe is really flexible and they turned out great!
Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
That’s awesome, Melanie! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Reply
- Chrysanthemum says
My 4 year old and I LOVED these. Used a combo of 1:1 GF /Paleo flour for the flour and flax eggs for the eggs (1:2 flax to water ratio because of all the wet ingredients) plus mini chocolate chips and they turned out awesome. I like the way tiny chopped zucchini works in this rather than grated (even though grated is in the recipe).
Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
I’m so glad you and your 4 yr old loved them, Chrysanthemum! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Reply
- Debbie Van Hise says
I’m looking forward to baking these muffins. Would like to know if you have nutritional information available on these and your other recipes?
Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
hi, Debbie! I don’t have nutritional information for this recipe or others on the blog, as I believe in eating and enjoying balanced meals without tracking information. I understand some people need this info for other reasons – I’m sure you can plug in the ingredients on another site to find this out!
Reply
- Kelley :) says
These were amazing!!! Definitely going to make again!
Reply
- Maddie | loaves & such says
so happy you loved them!!
Reply
- Angela Hickman says
What measurements are 1 cup or 2 cups please? I still measure in grams
Reply
- Laurel Kozij says
I would do like to know the nutritional value. Complicated recipe with several healthy ingredients and no calorie count.
Reply
- Felicia says
These were awesome. I want to bake for some people at work. If I wanted to make two batches, would I just double the ingredients, or ????
I made gluten-free and Used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free “1 to 1” Flour. Delightful, moist (I love dense for GF)Reply
