Sweet Potato Mini Muffins with Apple and Dried Cranberry

I hope everyone had a great long Labor Day weekend! I took advantage of my extra day off with some leisurely activities around the city.

• Watching absurd amounts of tennis - I love the US Open!
• Getting back into Breaking Bad - I'm just finishing up the second season so don't ruin anything!
• Helping some good friends move and hanging out late into the night
• Yoga!
• Eating chocolate cake, drinking coffee and playing rummy with my love at a local bakery

In preparation for my favorite month of the year and the impending fall weather, I whipped up a batch of sweet potato mini muffins with apple and dried cranberry. These muffins are packed with fruit and the wonderful sweetness of sweet potato.

I tried making these muffins a few days earlier, but was derailed when the link to the blog post wouldn't work. I tried searching for it, but couldn't find it anywhere else other than linking back to the original post. After it finally worked, I realized I had no eggs. Maybe these muffins weren't meant to be? Oh no, I don't think so - it was going to happen. I had already mashed up the sweet potato so there was no going back!

There was more batter than would fill one mini muffin pan so I made a few regular sized muffins as well. I couldn't let perfectly good batter go to waste! Mini muffins are always temperamental since two minutes too long in the oven can produce a dry baked good. Luckily, I took these out at the perfect time as they were very moist and delicious! The mini muffins actually turned out better than the regular sized muffins - pretty surprising, right?

The sweet potato wasn't a very prominent flavor in the muffins, despite the recipe name, as there is only a 1/2 cup in the batter. Despite that, there is a lot of natural sweetness from a combination of the potato, apple, cranberries and brown sugar. I even subbed out the vegetable oil for apple sauce to make them extra moist!

These muffins are a great fall time treat and turn out looking quite beautiful, with the speckled cranberries throughout. I may have eaten 3 or 4 of these the first night - you know you don't feel guilty eating bite sized baked goods! Since September is just upon us, expect a lot more fall-inspired baked goods to come!

Oh! Can you believe the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte is already here? I don't know if I can fully accept it being here a mere day after Labor Day. It feels too soon despite being my favorite drink of the year. What do you think - too soon or just on time?