Today I have a very special post for you – I am guest posting for a great blogging group called Mystery Dish.  Each month a group of mystery ingredients is selected, and then each blogger in the group creates a recipe using a certain number of the ingredients!  Sarah at The Pajama Chef introduced me to this group, and I am so excited to be their guest this month.  When she emailed me the ingredients, I kind of felt like I was on Chopped.  The possibilities of what to make were endless!!  Sweet, savory, breakfast, dessert…in the end, I went for sweet! No surprise there, I just can’t stop baking. 

In case you are wondering, the options were:
Sweet Potato
Kale
Squash
Nutmeg
Venison
Turkey
Cranberries
Caramel
Candy Corn

I went for sweet potato, cranberry, and nutmeg (I wonder if anyone combined venison and candy corn…) and made a delicious Sweet Potato Cranberry Quick Bread.  Check out what everyone else made at the end of the post!

I absolutely love sweet potatoes.  Growing up my mom would always make baked potatoes for the family, and a baked sweet potato for the two of us!  I eat them all of the time, but have never baked with them.  This was the perfect opportunity to try something new.  And, of course, I loved it!

The sweet potato gives this bread a sweet, earthy flavor, and helps to keep it very moist.  Plus I love the color – it’s perfect for this time of year!  I added applesauce too so that I only had to use ¼ cup of oil.  I love substituting applesauce for oil when I can to keep my baked goods a little bit lighter.

I grated fresh nutmeg into the batter, which gives the bread a great deep, spicy flavor and tastes so good with the cinnamon, and then folded in some, sweet dried cranberries. The resulting bread tastes like fall baked into a loaf!

To get mashed sweet potatoes, peel a large sweet potato, cut it into chunks, and put them in a small saucepan.  Cover the potatoes with water and then bring the water up to a boil.  Boil for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Then drain them and mash.  I hope you enjoy my Mystery Dish creation.  Make sure to check out the other great dishes at the end of the post!

Sweet Potato Cranberry Quick Bread
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mashed sweet potato
½ cup dried cranberries tossed in 1 tsp flour

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8”x4” loaf pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, and applesauce. Add the eggs and whisk until combined. Whisk in the vanilla and the sweet potato.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Fold in the cranberries

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45 – 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out with a few moist crumbs. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. The bread will cut much easier if you let it cool.

1. Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream

2. Roasted Acorn Squash with Cranberries, Almonds, and Brown Sugar

3. Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

4. Pumpkin Magic Bars

5. Pumpkin Pie Cake

6. Sweet Potato, Smoked Turkey, and Cranberry Croque Madame

7. Caramel Candy Corn Poke Cake

8. Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza with Kale and Ricotta

9. Sweet Potato Cranberry Quick Bread (That’s me!)

10. Venison with Sweet Potato Hash & Fried Egg

11. Orange Cranberry Bread

12. Sweet Potato Pie with Cranberry Compote