Maple Pecan Sweet Potato Bread

This moist and flavorful Maple Pecan Sweet Potato Bread is infused with warming spices and topped with sweet, sticky maple-glazed pecans. It’s the perfect treat on a cool fall day.

Now that the weather is cooling down we start to feel the need to eat warming foods. Enter this maple pecan sweet potato bread. Loaded with warming spices like cinnamon and cloves, this sweet potato bread is sweetened with coconut sugar and maple syrup. What you get is a bread with a deep, caramel-like sweetness with rich warm undertones.

If you haven’t baked with sweet potato before it is not too dissimilar from baking with pumpkin. Not only do they add a rich, sweet flavor but they also add moisture.

Ingredients

Sweet potato: You’ll need cooked and mashed sweet potato.
Gluten-free flour: Use a 1-to-1 gluten free flour for a gluten free bread or all purpose flour for a regular sweet potato bread.
Eggs: Any kind of eggs are good to help bind the bread.
Coconut sugar: Coconut sugar is a great alternative to sweeten the bread but you can also use brown sugar.
Butter: Unsalted butters brings moisture to the loaf.
Maple syrup: Maple syrup sweetens the bread and adds moisture.
Baking powder/soda: Baking powder and baking soda help the bread rise and develop a light and fluffy texture.
Vanilla extract: Vanilla extract helps to bring out the natural sweetness.
Spices: Cinnamon and ground cloves add warmth to the bread.
Sea salt: A touch of sea salt helps to enhance the flavors.
Pecans: Pecans add a crunchy texture.
Maple Pecan Topping: Use a combination of butter, maple syrup, and pecans.

Instructions

This maple pecan sweet potato bread is incredibly easy to make and yields the most satisfying dessert-like bread that everyone will become obsessed with!

👉🏻To make sure that you have a successful experience when making my sweet potato bread, I decided to add very easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions, to take your worries away!

Please see the step by step instructions below;

Mash the sweet potato using a large fork or potato masher, making sure to remove all chunks.
Add the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Stir well.

Mashed sweet potato with eggs, cinnamon and cloves.

Add the eggs to the sweet potato and stir to combine.
Add the sugar and butter to the sweet potato mixture.

Mashed sweet potato with dry ingredients.

Mix to combine.
Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices to the sweet potato mixture.

Stir just enough to combine.
Add the pecans to the sweet potato batter and fold to combine.

Sweet potato bread with pecans in a white loaf pan.

Transfer the batter to a loaf pan.

Pecans in a skillet, cinnamon sticks, pecans, and a white and black dish towel.

Maple coated pecans on a piece of parchment paper, knife, white and black dish towel.

Add pecans to a skillet with melted butter and maple syrup.
Transfer the pecans to a sheet of parchment paper so they can cool and harden. Once cool, place on top of the bread.

Maple pecan sweet potato bread., pecans, cinnamon sticks, and oats.

Silvia’s Tips

You can use boiled, steamed, baked or roasted sweet potato. Roasting and baking the sweet potato creates a sweeter sweet potato but any cooked sweet potato will work.
Bring your ingredients to room temperature before you begin. This helps with blending.
Pecans go well with sweet potato but you could use almonds or walnuts. For a nut free sweet potato bread use pumpkin seeds.
If you don’t have any cloves on hand feel free to use allspice, nutmeg or ginger.
Turn the loaf into muffins by pouring the batter into a muffin tray. Watch the cook time a they may bake up faster than a bread.

Storage

Store leftover maple pecan sweet potato bread in an airtight container on the kitchen counter for 3-4 days.

In the freezer the sweet potato bread will keep for up to 3 months. You can pre-slice the bread so it’s easy to just grab one at a time. To do so, lay slices of the bread on a cookie sheet and freeze before transferring to a storage bag or container. Alternatively you can store the slices with a piece of parchment paper in between so they don’t stick together.

Love baking homemade bread? Try these recipes next!

Fall inspired recipes for your holiday table

RECIPE TIP

For the best taste and texture, use fresh sweet potato as opposed to canned.

If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below 👇🏻 Thank you!

Start by mixing the dry ingredients in a large bowl. That’s the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground cloves and sea salt. Set aside
Grab a second bowl and mash the sweet potato. I used a serving fork to start then I finished with a potato masher. Make sure there are no clumps or chunks and the sweet potato is smooth.
Next stir in the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Be sure to mix well between each step.
Add the eggs, and whisk well.
Finally add the butter and coconut sugar. Stir well.
Now add the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to fold the flour mix into the wet ingredients.
Once the sweet potato bread dough is nicely uniform, fold in the pecans. Don’t overwork the dough.
Transfer bread dough to a greased baking pan, bread loaf size.
Bake at 350F degrees for 40 minutes or until fully cooked (see note). Insert a toothpick and if it comes out clean, it’s done.
Transfer sweet potato bread to a cooling rack while you work on the maple pecan topping.

Maple Pecan Topping

Melt butter in a small skillet, then add maple syrup.
Toss in pecan and stir for a couple minutes to coat.
Transfer maple pecans to a sheet of parchment paper to cool and harden a bit before topping the bread.

Note: keep an eye on the bread at about 35 minutes. Every oven is different and some cook faster or slower than others. My oven is brand new and I notice things cook a bit faster.