This sweet potato bread is bursting with cranberries and pecans, giving this super moist and easy quick bread a flavor and aroma that reminds us of Thanksgiving dinner!

DISCLOSURE: We received samples of  “Jubilee” mentioned below. As always, all opinions are our own. As an Amazon affiliate we earn from qualifying purchases. See our privacy policy for more information.

What is African American Cuisine?

We were recently contacted about reviewing a new cookbook by Toni Tipton-Martin, an award-winning food and nutrition journalist. Her work focuses on celebrating the history and stories behind African American food.

And she is particularly interested in breaking the stereotypes about what is considered African American food. 

Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking

Her new cookbook, Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking is full of beautiful photography and mouth-watering recipes that really take you on a deep-dive into the history of African American cooking. As Tipton-Marton puts it,

My culinary heritage — and the larger story of African American food that encompasses the middle class and the well-to-do — was lost in a world that confined the black experience to poverty, survival, and soul food.”

She elaborates:

At its core, African American cuisine reflects the blending of two distinct culinary styles. One was crafted by ingenious and industrious field hands in the slave cabin, from meager ingredients, informed by African techniques. The other signifies the lavish cooking — in the plantation kitchen or in kitchens staffed or owned by people educated formally and informally in the culinary arts.”

Her cookbook Jubilee, illustrates this perfectly, including dishes that one would typically think of as “soul food” as well as more unknown (but highly historical) soul food dishes alongside dishes inspired “haute cuisine” from around the world. 

This is a cook book that you will want to cook your way through, dish by dish. And, we love that alongside each dish she gives explanations and cultural significance to place the dish into the broader African American culinary story. 

Sweet Potato Quick Bread Recipe

As Tipton-Marton puts it, sweet potato quick bread is the “pumpkin bread of yesterday”. 

And, after one bite of this moist bread, you’ll wonder why it ever went out of style in favor of pumpkin. 

Seriously, this sweet potato bread makes your favorite pumpkin bread look lack-luster and unimpressive. 

What pumpkin lacks in sweetness (that has to be remedied by sugar or other sweeteners), sweet potato has naturally.

This means that sweet potato bread can use less sugar and still be plenty sweet. Making it the perfect guilt-free breakfast treat that is just as welcome on the dessert table.

Using less sugar also means that the natural flavor of the sweet potatoes shines through in a way that is quite unique and perfectly complemented by some cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. 

The cranberries and pecans that stud this loaf add wonderful texture and really give this loaf flavors that reminded us of Thanksgiving. 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, this bread would be the perfect Thanksgiving hostess gift. (Or appetizer, or breakfast, or snack….) 

How To Bake Sweet Potatoes

To make this bread, Tippon-Marton uses 1 cup of mashed, cooked sweet potatoes.

We baked our sweet potatoes because sometimes we find that boiling can introduce a little too much water into a vegetable for uses such as this. 

We found that 2 medium sweet potatoes baked for 50-60 minutes at 400F yielded slightly over the 1 cup of mashed sweet potato that the recipe needs.

(Remember to let your baked potatoes cool to touch before peeling them and mashing the inner flesh. Then, let your mashed sweet potato cool to room temperature before using it in your batter.) 

Yield: 1 (8x4 inch) loaf

Southern Sweet Potato Bread

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This sweet potato bread is bursting with cranberries and pecans, giving this super moist and easy quick bread a flavor and aroma that reminds us of Thanksgiving dinner!

Recipe adapted slightly from Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin.

Before making this bread, you will need to have cooked, mashed sweet potato on hand. Cooking and cooling the sweet potato can take around an hour.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ c chopped pecans (plus extra for topping, if desired)
• ½ c dried cranberries
• 1 ½ c all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ c brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground or freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 1 c mashed, cooked sweet potatoes, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 6 Tbsp (3 oz) butter, melted and cooled slightly
• ½ c whole milk

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Butter an 8x4 inch loaf pan and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix the pecans and cranberries with 2 Tbsp of the flour. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix the remaining flour with the baking powder, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
4. Add the sweet potatoes, eggs, melted butter, and milk to your flour mixture. Stir the batter until well moistened.
5. Fold in the pecan and cranberry mixture.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the top of the batter with additional chopped pecans, if desired.
7. Bake for 60-70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
8. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan before turning the loaf out onto a wire rack to cool slightly.
9. Serve warm.

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  Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

10

Serving Size:

1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 223

Sarah - Curious Cuisiniere

Sarah is one of Curious Cuisiniere’s founding duo. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.

www.curiouscuisiniere.com/about/