Sweet Potato and Feta Quickbread - Sweet Potato #1

A good and nutritious breakfast item. One that you can can prepare the day before, combine the batter and bake the next day for breakie.

I have achieved 4 Firsts with this simple quickbread. Sage, feta, sweet potato and nutmeg.

I’ve cooked with sage before, but never baked with it. I was totally taken by this recipe due to the use of sage in this. I have a huge sage plant in my garden. Almost 3 ft high now! I was glad the recipe called for amount of sage leaves, not counted in sprigs and that makes it easier to get the right amount. The fragrance is there, but not overpowering. It complements the bread very well.

The original recipe called for chevre, of which is a type of soft goat’s cheese. I can’t get that here and had to settle for feta, and even that is not real feta. It’s cow’s feta. Real feta is made with goat’s milk. I have never had feta before. I purposely went to buy some feta because I really wanted to try out this cake. The feta is really yummy and soft, but also salty. I might have broken up the cheese too much so can’t really get them in chunks in the bread.



You can use a coarse grater. I don't own one, sadly

The use of sweet potato here is really interesting. Actually the whole recipe is interesting!! I don’t own a coarse grater, and so I just used my knife to cut them into matchsticks, you can use a coarse grater if you have. Fine graters will still work, but when the potatoes are too fine, it won’t give you good visual effects. I also didn’t steam the sweet potato and just mixed it in because sweet potatoes are really quick to cook, and I think it’ll be fine this way. The only let down is that, it sticks out of the batter because it is still ‘hard’ when unbaked. The sweet potatoes turn soft and one can’t really differentiate the texture from the “bread” after it’s being baked, the mouth feel is homogenous.

This is also my first time using nutmeg. I refused to buy a whole bottle because I know I will rarely use it. So, I bought whole seeds and grate as I need. It’s also much cheaper this way, only thing is, you will risk your knuckles as you grate the nutmeg, LOL. Have to be really careful. I can’t decipher the nutmeg in the cake, maybe I used too little, or maybe it’s not supposed to stand out. Anyway.. to use or to skip, I won’t know. I just used.

Just before combining the batter, I realized there’s no sugar in the recipe. The sweet potatoes that I have, I know they are not to say very sweet. Just ok. If they are very sweet, I’ll still go on daringly without sugar. But no they are not. So, I added in 2 Tablespoons of sugar, just to be safe. The end product is well balanced.

Overall, I will say, it’s delicious! While hot, the crust is crispy and the inside is soft. When cold, the crust is no longer crispy, but the quickbread is still soft, just not as soft. The sweet potato will keep it moist. It’s a different experience for me, to have sage, feta, sweet potatoes and nutmeg in one go.. and I love this new experience.

Sweet Potato and Feta Quickbread

Recipe halved and adapted from: Cook Almost Anything Once
Makes 10 muffin sized bread

6 sage leaves, finely snipped
60gm butter (I use salted)
150gm sweet potato (cut into thin matchsticks)
162gm all purpose flour (9% protein)
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt (reduced from 1/4 tsp because I used salted butter)
¼ tsp grated nutmeg (reduced from ½ tsp)
2 Tbsp sugar (my own addition)
90gm milk
1 egg
50gm feta/apetina

1. Place butter and sage in a bowl, zap on high for 30 secs. Set aside to cool. (Or you can melt it gently over fire in pot)
2. Preheat oven at 160(fan)/180. Brush 10 muffin cups with melted sage butter.
3. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Mix in salt, sugar and nutmeg. Toss in sweet potato matchsticks and combine.
4. In another bowl combine remaining melted butter +sage, milk and egg. Pour this into (3)
5. Mix to combine. Break feta and gently mix it in. (Do not break up the feta any further)
6. Spoon into buttered muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes.
7. Serve warm.