Sweet Potato Bread

Have you ever picked up something at the grocery store in the beginning of the week, planning to eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner over the next several days, but for some reason you never got around to it or completely forgot you even bought it?  That was the case for me this week with my sweet potatoes.  I bought them with every intention of popping them in the microwave then sprinkling them with cinnamon for a delicious side dish to one of my dinners throughout the week.  However, by the time Saturday rolled around, they were still in the thin plastic bag I put them in at the grocery store that previous Sunday, knot still tightly bound.  Just sitting there on my kitchen counter.

Sad, I know.  So to remedy this, I decided to use them in my recipe this week!  I'm glad it wasn't the ground turkey or chicken wings that I forgot about, or this week's recipe would have been pretty interesting, to say the least...

This bread is actually quite delicious.  I found it in a Cooking Light magazine, so it's also quite healthy.  The taste is very similar to that of carrot cake.  So if you're not a huge sweet potato fan, you have no excuse not to try this bread.  Well except if you're not a sweet potato fan AND you're not a carrot cake fan.  And if that's the case, you're just weird.  So I would definitely try this recipe if you're looking for a more healthy, vitamin enriched dessert with notes of warm spices combined with a light yet sweet icing.  You should also try it if you happen to have some extra sweet potatoes lying around!

Bread Ingredients

Icing Ingredients (Note: Lemon Extract is Missing)

Bread Batter (Note: It Tastes Much Better than it Looks!)

Icing

Baked Bread without Icing

Baked Bread with Icing

Sweet Potato Bread
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup plain 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1/3 cup shredded peeled sweet potato (about 4oz)
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Icing
6 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
Dash of salt

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray 9x5-inch metal loaf pan with baking spray.

2.) Bread: Combine flour and next 6 ingredients (through cloves) in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk.  Combine yogurt, sugar, oil and eggs.  Add yogurt mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.  Gradually fold in sweet potatoes and pecans.

3.) Scrape batter into the loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs clinging.  Cool in pan 10 minutes.  Remove bread from pan; let cool completely on wire rack.

4.) Icing: Combine cream cheese and remaining ingredients in a bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 2 minutes or until smooth. Spread icing evenly over bread.