I guarantee this Sweet Potato Bread recipe will become your new go-to quick bread. It’s flavorful, lightly sweetened, incredibly moist, and even healthy! Yes, you know me, this sweet potato bread is made with 100% whole-wheat flour—because if you can make something healthier without sacrificing flavor, why wouldn't you?
So, what is sweet potato bread?
This sweet potato bread is a quick bread recipe. What does that mean exactly? Quick bread is a type of bread recipe that utilizes quick-acting leaveners, such as baking soda or baking powder. Using these quick-acting leaveners allows you to bake bread immediately.
To put it another way, you don’t have to use yeast, which means you don’t have to wait for the dough to rise. Muffins use the same "quick bread" method.
Most quick bread recipes (banana, zucchini, carrot, etc.) are essentially cake. That’s why I like to put my “healthy-ish” spin on quick breads whenever I can.
On the most basic level—the only difference between sweet potato bread and banana bread is just that—the sweet potato and the banana. Sure, the ratio of dry to wet ingredients is slightly different, and the amount of leavener my change slightly. But in general, the ingredients and process are the same between the two.
Sweet potato bread with whole wheat flour
It’s no secret that I love to makeover quick breads to be healthier. Because, as I said earlier, often times they are cake disguised as breakfast.
So how do you make a healthy banana, zucchini or sweet potato bread? First things first, you’ve got to swap out the nutrient-void all-purpose flour for something a little more wholesome, ehem, whole wheat flour.
For recipes that are more delicate, like a quick bread or cake, I like to use whole-wheat pastry flour. It’s lighter and finer than regular whole-wheat flour and allows me to swap out the all-purpose flour without compromising on texture.
HEALTHY SWEET POTATO BREAD
This sweet potato bread recipe has all the usual suspects of a quick bread; flour, eggs, sugar, oil, and milk. The only difference—I've swapped some of the basic ingredients for more nutritious options.
I've already talked about swapping the refined flour for something a little more nutritious, so let's move on to the sweetener. I prefer coconut sugar over most refined sugars (white sugar and brown sugar) because it’s far less processed. But let me be clear, it’s still sugar and it’s still metabolized like sugar in your body.
However, coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than refined sugar, this means it’s metabolized slower in the body and causes a lower (and slower) rise in blood sugar levels.
Now that you have coconut sugar, you may be curious how else you can use it. You’re in the right place! Use coconut sugar in Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Healthy-ish Cinnamon Rolls, Homemade Graham Crackers, and Healthier Puppy Chow.
And when it comes to oil, I prefer to use extra-virgin olive oil instead of vegetable oil. Not only is olive oil more flavorful, but it's far healthier than canola or veg oil.
The sweet potato adds natural sweetness, flavor and moisture to the bread, much like mashed banana or pumpkin purée would.
How to make sweet potato bread
Aside from whipping up a sweet potato purée (which is totally hands-off), nothing is out of the ordinary here. Follow the visual step-by-step guide below for perfect sweet potato bread!
- First, combine dry ingredients; set aside.
- Whisk together wet ingredients until smooth.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.
- Mix batter just until it starts to come together (there should still be pockets of flour).
- Fold in dried cranberries just until combined.
- Transfer batter to prepared baking pan; smooth top.
- Combine topping ingredients then sprinkle evenly over batter.
Make this sweet potato bread vegan
SWAP THE BUTTERMILK FOR VEGAN BUTTERMILK.
How to make vegan buttermilk:
- Combine ⅓ cup unsweetened almond or soy milk with 1 teaspoon white vinegar.
- Let the mixture rest for 5–10 minutes until curdled.
- Use as directed in the recipe.
SWAP THE EGG FOR A FLAX OR CHIA EGG.
How to make a chia or flax egg:
- Grind 2 tablespoons flax or chia seeds in a spice grinder.
- Combine ground flax or chia with ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons water and let rest 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Use as directed in the recipe.
Make sweet potato muffins
You can easily bake this sweet potato bread into muffins, here’s all you need to do:
- Heat oven to 400°F and line standard muffin tins with paper liners.
- Divide batter among muffin cups, sprinkle topping over batter.
- Bake muffins until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centers come out clean; 15–20 minutes.
- Let muffins cool in pan 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
More Healthy Quick Breads You May Like…
- Olive Oil Banana Bread
- Healthy Lemon Blueberry Bread
- Browned Butter Carrot Bread
- Lemony Zucchini Bread
- Buckwheat Quick Bread
- Pear & Fennel Bread
Make sure to tag me @ZESTFULKITCHEN ON INSTAGRAM or comment below if you make this Sweet Potato Bread!
To pin this recipe and save it for later, you can click the button on any of the photos, or the red button on the side bar or below the recipe. Happy baking!
PrintSweet Potato Bread
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 1¼ hours
- Yield: 1 loaf (8 slices) 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This sweet potato quick bread is flavorful, lightly sweetened, incredibly moist (but not gluey), and even healthy! It’s made with 100% whole-wheat flour, olive oil and is naturally sweetened.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups whole wheat pastry flour (6 ¼ ounces;180 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon dried ginger
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup sweet potato purée
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup coconut sugar or regular cane sugar
- ⅓ cup buttermilk
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried rosemary (optional), crumbled
- ½ cup dried cranberries
Grain and Seed Topping
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
- 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
- 1 tablespoon old-fashioned oats
- 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (or coconut sugar)
- ½ teaspoon flaked sea salt
Instructions
Heat oven to 350°F.
Coat a 8½ × 4½-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, salt and nutmeg; set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together sweet potato purée, eggs, sugar, buttermilk, oil, and rosemary.
Add flour mixture to sweet potato mixture and mix just until combined; fold in cranberries.
Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top.
Combine pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, oats, turbinado sugar, and sea salt; sprinkle evenly over top of batter.
Bake bread until dark brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 55–65 minutes.
Let bread cool completely in pan set on a wire rack.
Notes
How to store sweet potato bread: store sweet potato bread at room temperature wrapped in foil or in a zipper-lock bag for up to 3 days.
How to make sweet potato purée: prick the surface of two medium sweet potatoes with a fork. Arrange on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast in the oven at 425-degrees for 50–60 minutes until a steak knife easily slides into potato. Let cool slightly, then peel and discard (or snack on!) skins. Transfer potato flesh to a food processor or blender and process until completely smooth.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 269
- Sugar: 14g
- Sodium: 362mg
- Fat: 10g
- Saturated Fat: 1.7g
- Carbohydrates: 38g
- Fiber: 4g
- Protein: 5g
- Cholesterol: 41mg
Keywords: Sweet potato bread, healthy quick bread, whole wheat bread, quick bread
This bread looks so soft, fluffy and amazing! I love the presentation with the seeds on top too - just stunning.
Thank you Katerina! 🙂 I'm in love with this one!
This bread is SO amazing and hearty!! I absolutely loved the seed topping and the addition of cranberries in the bread. I will definitely be making this at Thanksgiving too.
★★★★★
This is perfect - especially the seed topping!!
★★★★★
The process photos were so helpful when making this DELICIOUS bread, thank you!!!
★★★★★
I loved the crunchy seeds on top! Will make this again.
★★★★★
I made this last night and it was great! When I mashed the potatoes the mash was really sweet so I cut the sugar in half and it is sweet enough. Thank you for sharing the recipe 🙂
Would I need to change the ingredient ratios to substitute butternut squash for the sweet tators? I still have a couple dozen of them from my garden.
Thanks
Hi Stephen! Great question—I have a butternut squash in my pantry right now and I'm intrigued to try it this weekend. If I do, I will report back!
In the meantime, I anticipate the butternut squash will have a higher moisture content than sweet potatoes. My first thought was to decrease the buttermilk, but the more I think about it I would instead leave the ratios the same and add a few tablespoons of flour as needed. I would make the batter as directed, and if it looks and feels too loose I would add a couple tablespoons of flour (and no more than 3 or 4 tablespoons). It should be pretty thick (thicker than banana bread batter), the video and step shots will be a good reference for showing the thickness of the batter.
I hope that helps, I'd love to hear how it goes!
OMG! I just made this bread and cannot be happier, as well as my kids! It turned out so well and I used a local heirloom course salt for the topping and it just elevated it! Thank you so much for this incredibly yummy recipe! My kids are asking to have it for breakfast tomorrow!
Yay! Hi Valerie! I am SO happy to hear you and your kids loved this bread. And that local salt sounds amazing! Always a good day when you can sneak some veggies into a tasty bread 😉