Cinnamon and Spice Sweet Potato Bread — 🍁🍠🍂 Wondering what to do with those leftover sweet potatoes? Make this quick bread recipe! Sweet potatoes do a wonderful job of keeping this bread extremely soft and moist. It’s almost like cake it’s so soft, springy, and bouncy!
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This sweet potato bread turned out ridiculously soft, moist, tender, and richly spiced. It’s almost like cake it’s so soft, tender, and springy!
It’s easy to make, and no mixer is needed. Stir everything together and pop the loaf into the oven for about an hour. And your house will smell heavenly during that hour.
The sweet potatoes, oil, and buttermilk all do a wonderful job of keeping the bread supremely soft and moist.
Although I’ve compared it to cake, it’s not cakey if that makes sense. It doesn’t have an airy, flaky crumb that many cakes have; otherwise known as being dry.
The interior is tender, springy, and bouncey with a dense crumb. The crust is firmer and slightly chewy. Normally I shun crust and edge pieces on bread, but I found myself seeking them out, like chewy edge pieces on brownies.
It’s perfect on it’s own and doesn’t even need butter. It’s that moist and flavorful. But twist my arm and a little butter never hurts. Or try a Vanilla Browned Butter Glaze for an extra treat.
Sweet potatoes can do no wrong.
This sweet potato bread is delicious, it’s like Starbucks pumpkin bread just better. Thanks for the awesome recipe 😋 — Crystal
Sweet Potato Bread Ingredients
This is such a quick and easy recipe for sweet potato bread that calls for very basic ingredients.
To make this sweet potato bread recipe, you’ll need:
- Sweet potatoes
- Water
- Eggs
- Canola oil
- Buttermilk
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Light brown sugar
- Baking soda
- Spices
- Salt
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Sweet Potato Bread
If you’ve made pumpkin bread before, you can certainly make a sweet potato loaf!
Full instructions can be found in the recipe card below, but here’s an overview of the baking process:
- Begin by steaming two medium sweet potatoes or one very large sweet potato. Drain off any water that’s pooled, and mash with a fork.
- After the potatoes cool just a bit so you don’t scramble the eggs, crack two eggs over them, add oil, vanilla, buttermilk (or yogurt or sour cream) and whisk together in a large bowl to create a sort of sweet potato puree.
- In another bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking soda, and a variety of spices.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until combined. Take your time and make sure everything is well combined, but use a gentle hand when stirring so you don’t over-develop the gluten, resulting in tougher bread.
- Turn the batter out into a 9×5-inch loaf pan or two 8×4-inch pans. I used one 9×5-inch or you can opt for two 8×4 loaves (they will be short) or bake as a Bundt.
Recipe Variations
One thing I love about this recipe is how easy it is to customize! Here are some simple recipe variations you can try:
- Adjust the spices: I used cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Feel free to mix-and-match the spices based on what you have and enjoy. Try pumpkin pie spice, cardamom, or other favorites.
- Add mix-ins: You can try adding mix-ins like chocolate chips, chopped nuts such as chopped pecans, or dried fruit.
- Use a different loaf pan: I used a 9×5-inch loaf pan to make this recipe, but two 8×4-inch pans will also work. Or, use a small Bundt pan.
- Make muffins: Skip the loaf pan altogether and make muffins instead! Reduce the bake time to 18 – 22 minutes (use your best judgement when testing for doneness).
Recipe FAQs
Possibly, but I’ve only made the recipe as written so I can’t say for sure. If you give this a try, leave me a comment letting me know how your bread turned out!
Bread will keep at room temperature for up to 1 week. I store my bread by wrapping the completely cooled loaf in plasticwrap, and then placing loaf inside a gallon-sized Ziplock.
I’m sure you can! I imagine this sweet potato spice bread will keep up to 6 months in the freezer.
You could roast the sweet potatoes, but that takes almost an hour, the potatoes will be drier from being roasted than steamed, and you’d need to make some tweaks with dry and wet ingredient ratios in your batter.
No, it tastes more like a pumpkin bread. The bread is sweet, but not too sweet with just the right amount of natural sweetness from the sweet potatoes. The spices are homey and comforting.
Made this recipe for my neighbors. As usual, I made two loaves – one for my house, one as a gift. That first loaf lasted an hour before my family finished it off. — Amber
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Cinnamon Sweet Potato Bread
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups mashed sweet potatoes, 2 medium or 1 very large
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- ¼ cup buttermilk, (or yogurt, Greek yogurt, sour cream, or buttermilk powder mixed with the proper amount of water as stated on package)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray one 9-by-5-inch loaf pan (what I used), or two 8-by-4-inch loaf pans, or a 10-cup Bundt pan, or a muffin pan with floured cooking spray or grease and flour the pan(s); set aside.
- Peel the sweet potatoes and chop them into 1-inch sized chunks. Place chunks in a large, shallow microwave-safe bowl. Add 3 tablespoons water, cover with plastic wrap, and cook on high power for 15 to 17 minutes, or until potatoes are very fork-tender. (Or boil in a pot of water on the stove, drain very well). Pour off any water. Mash sweet potatoes with a fork. Allow them to cool momentarily so you don't scramble the eggs.
- To the mashed sweet potatoes, add the eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla and whisk until combined; set aside. (I used buttermilk powder and added 1 tablespoon powder to the dry ingredients and 1/4 cup water to this wet mixture)
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients – flour, sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, optional salt, and whisk to combine.
- Pour the wet sweet potato mixture over the dry ingredients, and stir to incorporate. Take your time stirring until no stray bits of dry ingredients are visible, folding and scraping the bottom of the bowl with a spatula as necessary because it’s very easy to miss dry ingredients hiding at the bottom of the bowl in this batter. Stir and fold with a gentle hand as to not over-mix and over-develop the gluten, which results in tougher bread.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan(s), smoothing the top lightly with a spatula. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes for a 9×5 pan, or until top is domed, golden, loaf is springy to the touch, and cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Tent pan with foil in the last 15 minutes of cooking if top is browning a bit fast before interior has cooked through; if it takes longer than 70 minutes, so be it – bake it longer. Baking Times – I estimate that 8×4 loaves will take about 40 to 45 minutes, a Bundt about 1 hour, muffins about 18-20 minutes, but I haven't tried those versions and they are just guesstimates. No matter what, always bake until your item is done, however long that takes in your oven given your pan.
- Allow bread to cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Fall Bread Recipes:
ALL OF MY QUICK BREAD RECIPES!
Applesauce Bread with Cinnamon Honey Butter – This applesauce bread is packed with fall flavors and comes together quickly. I serve mine with homemade honey butter, because why not?
Apple Carrot Bread— This apple carrot bread tastes like carrot cake that’s been infused with apples. It’s a no mixer recipe that goes from bowl to oven in minutes!
Apple Pie Bread with Streusel Topping — 🍎🍏🍁 If you like apple crumble pie, you’re going to love this EASY no-mixer apple pie bread! Soft, tender, moist bread with the contrast of the slightly crunchy crumble topping is PERFECT!
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread — This is without a doubt the BEST pumpkin bread recipe! This pumpkin cream cheese bread tastes like it has cheesecake baked into the middle. You’ll definitely want a second slice!
Applesauce Bread with Cinnamon Honey Butter— This applesauce bread is packed with fall flavors and comes together quickly. I serve mine with homemade honey butter, because why not?
Cranberry Orange Bread— The fresh cranberries in this cranberry orange bread contrast nicely with the sweet orange glaze, making it the perfect blend of sweet and tart!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread— This pumpkin chocolate chip bread is truly the best homemade pumpkin bread you’ll ever make. It’s moist, packed with chocolate chips, and tastes like fall!
Apple Fritter Bread — The bread tastes as decadent as the apple fritters of my childhood, no deep frying required and it’s more like cake disguised as bread.
Originally posted April 3, 2013 and reposted September 18, 2020 and October 25, 2024 with updated text.
I LOVE sweet potatoes! I’ll eat them any way–roasted, chips, fries, mashed, . . . . now I should try adding them into baked goods!!
Knowing you and what you make, you’d LOVE baking with them!
I am totally making this. We just got sweet potatoes in our CSA delivery, so there is no excuse to not make this!
That’s a NICE CSA! Wow…enjoy & LMK how it goes!
Hi Averie – As I promised, I made this bread two nights ago and haven’t had time to photograph it yet. And it was everything I expected it to be – slightly sweet, dense, aromatic (love all the spices) and perfect for breakfast or an in-between meal snack. I’ll blog about it soon. Thanks so much for this fabulous recipe. Everyone in my house loves it!
I am so glad to hear that you made it and that it was a hit and everything you expected it to be. That makes me so happy! Thanks for making it and telling me about it, and even if you don’t have time to blog about it, no biggie. I am just glad to know it was a success!
I can’t wait to try this! It looks delish and a nice change from banana bread.
My thoughts exactly! Plus it’s like eating pumpkin, so to speak, in the spring :)
This just looks so moist and delicious! I had a baked sweet potato sitting in the fridge wait to be used!
Really! USE IT in this! You can even make a half batch/half recipe b/c the full recipe as written makes a huge, hearty, tall loaf so halving the recipe if you just have 1 potato will still be fine!
This looks really yummy! I love pumpkin so I’m sure I would love this one. Sweet potatoes are pretty much a staple in my diet, they are so delicious and versatile.
If you love pumpkin, you’ll LOVE this bread!
OMG Averie. This is INSANE. And only 1/4 cup of brown sugar?! L.O.V.E. I have a sweet potato biscuit recipe that I use regularly and they are so tender and sweet– I can only imagine how amazing this bread will be.
Oh I bet your biscuits are amazing! My next step is to make sweet potato rolls or cinn rolls with yeast. Another project for another day :) As a quickbread, this was amazing. And if you ever tried any of the oatmeal cookies, LMK!
Love sweet potatoes any way for any meal. This looks incredible. I also love using shredded sweet potatoes for muffins/ bread. So unique and yummy!
I think I found the first thing we disagree on. If I am eating a sweet quick bread like this, I will pick off the crispy, sugary edges (I prefer the top) and shun the inside. We’d be a perfect pair to go to town on a loaf.
I’ve got a sweet potato that needs to be used asap and this recipe is getting pinned. I am even lazier when I steam potatoes. I just prick them a couple times, and nuke then until soft. They steam from the inside and the flesh just pulls right off. No slicing needed. I learned that trick from my impatient dad who eats potatoes on the regular and can’t be bothered to wait an hour for them to bake in the oven.
Its a small potato though – I’m going to give the muffins a go. (This just bumped the chocolate blueberry bread I was planning on making, FYI.)
Oh this looks amazing. I don’t think I could ever get enough of sweet potatoes, but I’ve never used them for baking. I bet this smells heavenly baking.
Beyond heavenly. Bread + sweet potatoes. Two of the best smells, paired up, at once!
This looks really good ! I’m going to explore your other sweet patatoes recipes !
Enjoy!
This looks heavenly!! I bought some pottery almost 20 years ago (a loaf pan and pie plate) and both came with recipe cards for various quick breads and pies. The card for pumpkin bread mentions substituting sweet potatoes and is similar to yours–but it doesn’t use brown sugar and I really like using it since trying so many of your recipes. I have used butternut squash and carrot purée with pretty tasty results, but I think sweet potatoes are my favorite (for flavor and texture). I’d love to try this with cardamom–it’s one I tend to forget about!
I think in many recipes for baked goods like this, pumpkin puree or butternut squash puree or sweet potatoes can all be substituted fairly interchangeably. Common sense has to prevail (for anyone reading this comment) but I figure pumpkin isnt season now, but sweet potatoes never go out of style in people’s minds :) You would love this bread, Paula, knowing what you like!
I adore anything and everything with sweet potatoes, and I know I would absolutely love this! MUST make. :)
If you try it, LMK how it goes! I hope you love it as much as I do :)
Oh how I LOVE sweet potato bread! And cinnamon and spice just seems meant to be in this kind of loaf. I’m totally dreaming of a slice with my coffee this morning.
It’s so dreamy. It’s like a slice of comfort on a plate :)
I cannot believe how moist this bread looks. I simply want to pop a piece right off the screen and into my mouth! It seems like it would be the perfect thing with a cup of coffee in the morning. Or to pack for lunchboxes. I love the idea.
It’s crazy moist and soft. I wouldn’t have my bread any other way!
This looks amazing! I love sweet potatoes.
I’ve developed/refined two great recipes that used mashed sweet potatoes:
-sweet potato pancakes:
-sweet potato rosemary biscuits:
Thanks for sharing!