Spiced Maple Bread — No sugar, no eggs, no butter, and no kneading in this soft, fluffy, super moist and flavorful quick bread!
Lightly Spiced Maple Syrup Bread
I don’t know if beer is exactly healthy, but let’s say it is.
It would mean that this bread is pure health food. Sure, I’ll go with that.
When I made Honey Beer Bread, I was so pleased with the taste, texture, and ease of the one-bowl, no-kneading recipe, I knew I had to experiment more.
This maple bread is vegan and refined sugar-free. That’s right, there are no eggs in this fluffy-rising loaf with a soft, moist, open crumb.
The natural sweetness from the sweet potato, along with maple syrup and robust dark molasses, provide a gentle and subtle sweetness.
What Does the Bread Taste Like?
This loaf has a firmer outer crust, with a soft, ridiculously moist, dense yet springy interior.
The sweet potato lends tons of moisture and slight texture, reminiscent of the texture you’d find in a grainy or wheaty loaf, minus any whole grains or whole wheat flour used.
The spices and maple flavor are present, but on the fainter side. Normally I go very heavy-handed with spices, but kept them to a modest level.
It makes excellent toast, and I bet it would have made excellent French toast, but the loaf was devoured in record time. My family commented on how soft and moist the bread is, and both of them scarfed down 2 slices of toast.
Then they asked for 2 more slices, each. There went the loaf.
Maple Bread Ingredients
To make this simple quick bread with maple syrup, you’ll need:
- Cooked, mashed sweet potato
- Oil
- Molasses
- Pure maple syrup (NOT pancake syrup)
- Ground cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves
- Salt
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Beer
What Type of Beer Should I Use?
I used one bottle of Stella Artois, chosen by default. Use what you enjoy.
I’m in Aruba and selected it from a local grocery store because it was 12-ounces and many local brews are bottled smaller. The label was in English and I could read it, and I’ve seen people drink it in bars in the U.S., so I figured it wasn’t awful.
How to Make Maple Bread
If you’re an experienced baker like I am, the prep time for this maple syrup bread takes about 5 minutes. Experienced or not, this is a very easy recipe!
Here’s an overview of how the bread is made:
- Microwave one small sweet potato, peel it, and mash it in a big mixing bowl.
- Add a drizzle of oil, molasses, pure maple syrup, and the spices.
- Stir in the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and pour a 12-ounce bottle of beer over it. It’ll foam up and look like a bubbling science experiment, which is the yeast in the beer interacting with the baking powder, and all those bubbles are going to help the dough rise in the oven!
- Turn the batter into a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from the loaf pan!
Recipe Variations to Try
Make it savory: You can take this bread more savory by skipping the molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and replacing with garlic powder, onion powder, curry, seasoning salt, or a favorite grill seasoning. I suggest agave instead of maple because it’s cleaner tasting and won’t compete as much with the savory elements.
Swap the sweet potato: I imagine you could use about 1/2 cup pumpkin puree if you have any lingering and begging to be used.
Swap the flour: I haven’t tested using whole wheat flour, but I wouldn’t use more than 50% or the bread could be very dense and/or not rise well. I have no idea if gluten-free flour blends will work.
Ways to Eat This Bread
You can enjoy this maple bread in savory or sweet recipes. Try it:
- As toast
- As sandwich bread
- In french toast or french toast casserole
- Topped with jam and / or butter
- With maple butter
Pin This Recipe
Spiced Maple Bread
No sugar, no eggs, no butter, and no kneading in this soft, fluffy, super moist and flavorful quick bread!
Ingredients
- about 1/2 cup mashed sweet potato (the flesh from 1 small cooked and peeled sweet potato)
- 2 tablespoons canola, vegetable, or melted coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons light, medium, dark molasses (not blackstrap, too bitter)
- 1/3 cup maple syrup (I used sugar-free)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 12 ounces beer (I used Stella Artois
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- Add the sweet potato to a large mixing bowl (I microwaved the sweet potato for 7 minutes, let it cool momentarily, peeled it, and mashed it with a fork in the mixing bowl).
- Add the next 7 ingredients, through optional salt, and whisk to combine. Some small sweet potato lumps will be present and that’s okay.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and slowly pour the beer over the top. It will bubble and foam. Stir until combined and no white bits remain at bottom of bowl. Batter is thick, gloppy, and dense.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until top is domed, firm and set, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
- Allow bread to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Slice using a serrated knife.
Notes
Storage: Bread is best fresh, but will keep airtight for up to 4 days. I prefer it toasted with butter, and makes good sandwich bread.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 164Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 222mgCarbohydrates: 31gFiber: 1gSugar: 8gProtein: 3g
More Easy Quick Bread Recipes:
Cinnamon and Spice Sweet Potato Bread — 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!Â
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?
Sweet Potato Cornbread — Homemade cornbread just got better because it’s jazzed up with mashed sweet potatoes, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice!
Honey Beer Bread — The easiest beer bread ever! No kneading, no yeast, and guaranteed soft and fluffy results every time!
Really loved, made two batches first time just cuz I knew it was going to be good, and it did not disappoint! I get to eat one and give one as a gift. Posted of FB too, such a great bread for this season!
Oh thanks for the feedback Ruby and glad you loved this recipe and made a double batch from the get-go! Thanks for sharing on FB as well!
This is exactly the kind of bread I was looking for to use up some sweet potatoes I have. Didn’t want anything too sweet and love that you describe it as dense, yet moist. Can’t wait to get my bread in the oven.
Oh enjoy!! Sounds like it will be right up your alley! LMK how it comes out!
I just made this, but swapped the all purpose for 2 cups of whole wheat flour. It is fantastic! Great flavour and texture. Thanks for all the great recipes!
That’s awesome that it turned out great for you with whole wheat flour. Sometimes swapping WW for AP flour can be tricky since there’s less gluten in it and it rises less easily but glad everything worked out so well!
Is there a yeast amount you could substitute the beer for?
Could you substitute ginger ale for the beer? (If you don’t drink…)
I don’t think so because you need the yeast from the beer to help the bread rise.
I have this in the oven now and it literally will not bake… I followed the directions 100% and am an experienced baker. This has been in the oven for an hour and forty minutes nearly, when the recipe says it will be done after forty minutes. Just stuck a knife in it and it’s still batter-y! Very disappointing.
I’m sorry that you’re having difficulty. If your sweet potato was extremely moist, that could be part of it. If you’ve had something in the oven more than 2x the amount of time the recipe says, and it hasn’t charred to crisp, maybe your oven temperature is off. Just trying to brainstorm. Thanks for trying the recipe.
I want to make this bread so bad! I am gluten free and am debating what flour to use … any help?
I would just use your favorite GF baking blend and hope for the best. You never know til you try!
It says to put in a prepared pan. What exactly does that mean? Greased?
Re-read step 1 of the recipe.
This is perfection, yum! I would love to have a go at the savory version too :)
This looks so good! I make my own beer and some of it comes out great and some comes out… not great. Always looking for recipes to use up the “not great” and I think my “maple brown” (blech!) will work well here! Thanks again!!
I actually have another reader who’s told me she and her hubs brew at home and they use their less than perfect stuff in bread :) LMK if you try!
Oh wow this looks really good, and the fact it’s a no knead bread makes it even more appealing. Toasted it looks even better, I love flavoured bread for toast it makes it far more interesting then boring old bread that you need to slather in jam just to add some flavour.
You make everything so moist! The vegan recipe + moistness + sweet potato/maple is everything I love about this recipe you created!
Beer is totally healthy! I love the texture beer adds to bread and you can’t go wrong with maple syrup and sweet potatoes!
What an intriguing combination of flavors! I don’t typically buy beer (since I too am not a huge fan of it), but I’m on board for getting some to use it in baking!
I’m sure this would be devoured in record time for us too! Except Jason doesn’t really care for bread so yes, I would devour this alone in record time. No shame in that at all!
Some of the best and easiest bread I’ve ever made and of all things, I do ‘like’ bread but I don’t love-love it (give me cookies please) but I LOVED this bread!
“I don’t know if beer is exactly healthy, but let’s say it is.”…sounds like a thought that’s run through my head a time or two :)
This sounds incredible! I have been staring at a half-empty bottle of molasses in my pantry just wondering what to do with it post-holidays. What perfect timing! Love the suggestion above in the comments about using hard cider. Beyond switching up the spices, I bet using light, dark, IPA, stout beers, as well as cider, etc. can produce a million different variations.
using light, dark, IPA, stout beers, as well as cider, etc. can produce a million different variations <-- EXACTLY and if you know beer (I am clueless), you could have lots of fun!
This bread looks incredible, Averie!
I made this bread tonight-TWICE! The first time, I followed the recipe but my sweet potato was a bit on the large size, so the bread never quite cooked in the middle-after almost 75 minutes too! The 2nd time I used a half cup of sweet potato. It fared a little better, but had a giant air hole right in the middle all the way through. HELP! What did I do wrong??? The bread smelled amazing while it was baking, and had good flavor-at least the outside that wasn’t mushy, lol
Not sure what to say because I had another lady make it with great success. Are you using a high quality flour like King Arthur? It’s really the best for bread. Is your baking powder fresh? Is your oven running up to par? For the giant airhole, if you give your baking pan a gentle slam on the counter a couple times before baking, that releases air bubbles. I always do that before I put quickbreads or cakes into the oven.
Okay, so since I’m scared of sweet potatoes (I KNOW, you question our friendship every day, right?) I would love to make this with regular potatoes. Or, maybe sometime we’ll be in the same city and you can shop with me and help me know which is a sweet potato and which is a yam. :)
You’re nuts :) Okay most of the time yams are sold as orange ‘sweet potatoes’ but they’re really yams. True sweet potatoes tend to be paler/white and look like a russet potato (similar) in the groc store. So what most people call sweet potatoes, they’re really garnet yams. In technicality, I used a garnet yam but called it a sweet potato b/c 99% of everyone else does. May as well follow along with the misblabing epidemic as to not add more confusion :) But really any tater you want to use, yam, sweet potato, or even just a white plain potato will be fine but honestly you like pumpkin so much, how do you not like sweet pots? They’re so much BETTER than pumpkin puree. You could also just use pumpkin puree in here and bump up the flour by maybe 1/4 cup or so since it’s runnier. Yeah we need to go groc shopping together…or just drinking :)
I love this combination, Averie! I’m sure beer has some healthy qualities. Pinning.
Thanks Jennie for pinning and sure, it’s healthy :)
LOL yes beer is healthy in moderation
Great for your blood, your hair, and I think it has some minerals in it?
Have a great weekend Av.
I love the way you think! Have a great weekend too and stay warm! xoxo
This sounds awesome! Hopefully I don’t finish the beer before making the bread :P
LOL! not an issue for me, but if I was making say champagne bread, that would be a challenge :)
Sweet potato and maple – yes please, sign me up!
I actually really like cinnamon in savory things. I think it plays off those flavors really well. Of course, I am a weirdo, and I don’t eat what most people do. :D
The bread looks fantastic and I can’t believe you were baking bread in ARUBA!!
I love cinn in pretty much everything but if I don’t temper my thoughts a bit, I get all kinds of ‘this would have been so good without out that cinnamon that just overpowers everything’ comments :) We’re the same weirdo, remember!
And yes remember when you were emailing me and I was like Im so busy I can’t even find the beach…yeah, exactly.
Saw this on Pinterest, immediately knew it was yours and I was so delighted. Love the low sugar in this recipe and the idea of using up extra sweet potatoes. PINNED. xoxo
Thanks for pinning and that’s cool that you recognized it immediately as mine. That’s cool when that happens! And yes super low sugar, vegan, and a great way to use up extra sweet potatoes! Have a great 2014 xoxox
I like it when you put up bread recipes. I can TOTALLY eat more bread than cookies because it’s way healthier, right? Right.
Tonight I’m making an apple version of the honey beer bread. Yum.
I love making beer bread! Pinning to try!
I love beer bread and am so happy you’re experimenting with it! This sounds sooooo good!!
Averie!! It’s like this bread was made for me!! I love beer bread because I just can’t seem to stomach yeast breads yet and beer breads are totally user friendly you just can’t screw it up. I never would have thought of adding sweet potato but I always use whole grain flours and sometimes get too dense of a bread and I would love to experiment with this one because I think you’ve found the solution to that moisture! Pinned and can’t wait to try it.
Looks so good, Averie!! Hope you enjoyed your holidays!
The word “vegan” instantly cancels/balances out the word “beer.”
I feel like I learned that at baking school or something. Science!!
Sweet potato beer bread sound (and looks!) like a beautiful thing!! I love that it is quick and easy, but also totally healthy too!! And I do believe that there are proven healthy benefits of beer. Yay!!
Love this Averie!
Oh how I love a good beer bread! Being refined sugar free makes this one a winner in my book. I’ve made a few beer breads myself but they included refined sugar. Going to have to give this cleaner recipe a try!
Sweet potatoes and beer and bread. Nothing can be wrong with that combination! Love this. Pinning!
Thanks for pinning Erin!
I’m so intrigued by this recipe! I love how fluffy and light the bread looks-can’t wait to give it a whirl!
LMK how it goes!
I want to surprise Jon with this for dinner tonight. I’ve made beer bread and sweet potato bread but putting them both together sounds even better! I could easily pick up some beer today, but we have a variety pack of Angry Orchard Hard Cider in the fridge, so I thought the ginger apple flavor might be interesting in this. The photos are mouthwatering, especially the ones with all that melted butter…I’m breaking out the Kerrygold for this loaf!!!
I gave this a go with the hard cider and it is sooooo good! I left out the molasses and just put a pinch of the other spices in because the cider is pretty sweet and flavorful. I love the little pieces of sweet potato in it and had my first piece with butter and my 2nd with PB. The texture is wonderful and it is so easy to mix up–really love this one Averie!!!
So glad you made it and loved it, Paula! On the same day I posted the recipe, no less. That’s great! And being that I know nothing about beer, I bet certain beers could really play up certain elements and flavor profiles. Lucky you, you know way more than me and can have a field day :)
I read this comment early today and then the day just got away from me. But I knew when you said you were making it, you would. And about dinnertime I was thinking of you and wondering if you made it! The photos. Omg Aruba. Lighting is just horrid and I have to shoot in a way I never would in S.D. but glad you like them :) And I hope you broke out the KG! Oh random aside too when you said you put some PB on some. I just made some bourbon PB. I bet Jon would like that too if he’s a PB eater. I know he’s a bourbon guy! http://instagram.com/p/isdwBWxsXs/ ABout 1/4 cup (or a little more -LOL – in at the very end after it’s already smooth). And maybe a little brown sugar if you think it needs it.
That bread looks so light and moist! I love that secret beer trick in baked goods!
The combination of molasses and maple syrup with sweet potato? YUM! This looks like my kinda bread
molasses and maple syrup with sweet potato <---exactly :) My faves too!
I like that this could also be savory. It sounds amazing and imagine it smells heavenly. For the super beer nerds, I bet someone could play around with some of the richer, chocolatier beers for even more added or richer flavor.
I bet you’re totally right on all accounts! You could totally take it more savory, cheesy, or…chocolaty <----love that one :)
The texture of this bread is just amazing. I want to reach out to the pictures and eat a slice. Love sweet potatoes… so I definitely need to attempt making this bread really really soon!
Works as health food in my book! Love this flavor combination…although it makes me want to curl up in front of a roaring fire somewhere. ;)
Thanks Jess!
Beer bread is dandy! I am a fan.