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  Fruited
  Sweet Potato
  Bread





Fruited Sweet Potato Bread
¼ cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup orange juice
½ cup applesauce
1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato
2¼  cups Hodgson Mill Naturally White Flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
½ cup dark seedless raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

Cream together butter, sugar and eggs in a medium size bowl.  Add orange juice, applesauce, and sweet potato and beat well.  Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices, and stir until just blended.  Fold in raisins and nuts.  Divide batter into four well-greased mini loaf pans.  Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.  Remove from pan and cool on racks.

Notes
---Sweet potatoes are used to flavor a variety of quick breads and yeast breads in traditional southern cooking. Because Kwanzaa takes its name from a harvest festival, sweet potatoes are often on the menu, as they are at Thanksgiving. You can serve this bread at either holiday, or year-round! 
---This may seem like a lot of ingredients, but the marvelously complex and subtle blend of flavors is exquisite in this bread.  The aroma is so tempting that the first time I made it, the scent drew four different monks to the kitchen to investigate. 
---Many sweet potato bread recipes call for a whole cup of raisins, but I think that’s too sweet and overwhelms the orange and apple flavors.  You could substitute pecans for the walnuts if you prefer.
---If you don’t have mini-loaf pans, bake this bread in a large 9x5x3-inch bread pan, and bake for 60 to 65 minutes.
---As an afternoon snack, this bread is delicious served with honey butter, accompanied by Darjeeling tea or Earl Grey tea.

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