Updated August 2024
Who doesn’t love a good soft pillowy dinner roll? If you answered me, I think you might be lost. This is a recipe for sweet potato rolls, and this is a bread baking website. Maybe I can convert you, and in that case.. please take a seat haha. Welcome to the wonderful world of bread baking. But yes, we all do. Potato buns and rolls often have a softness you don’t find in other rolls. I never really knew why until I started baking bread and it’s because the potato adds moisture and almost a gelatinous quality to the dough which allows it to retain moisture longer. Sort of like Soft Milk Bread Buns.
Now, I’m going to say something controversial. I don’t like potatoes. Yikes. I know you’re thinking who is this lady who doesn’t like cake or potatoes? Why would I listen to her? I think I lost some of you already but I have to be honest. I’m not a psychopath who doesn’t even like potato chips or anything, but generally chips and like fries are where I draw the line.
I don’t mind sweet potatoes in some forms. So I decided to make sweet potato rolls. I thought the softness it would bring to the bread and the hint of sweet would be good and man I was right. Plus they are a perfect soft orange, sherbet color that I love.
Baking Tips
If you don’t have baker’s dry milk it’s okay. These sweet potato rolls still have a lot of moisture in them from the mashed potato. But this is one of my favorite bread ingredients to help get really soft fluffy bread, and you don’t need a ton for most recipes so it lasts quite a while.
If your sweet potato turns out to be less than 250g, just adjust your flour. Around 200g of flour I’d start with about 360g/3 cups of flour. You don’t want your dough to be too dry or too wet and sticky.
If you want BIG sweet potato rolls, make this in a 9×9 pan with only 9 rolls. If you want regular dinner size rolls, make this in a 9×13 pan. Everything else about the recipe will be the same.
Sweet Potato Rolls Key Ingredients
- Sweet potato – Some potato bread recipes use dried potato flakes (like my Potato Burger Buns) or potato flour. But these use mashed sweet potatoes. It takes a little extra time, but it is SO worth it once you see these come out of the oven.
- Bread flour – Bread flour has higher protein levels which allow the gluten to form a stronger network. Chewier – in a good way – bread that can be a little loftier. That’s what we want! AP will work in a pinch, but I’m an advocate for having bread flour on hand if you enjoy bread baking. King Arthur is my go to. Besides, you’ll be wanting to make these sweet potato rolls again and again, or trying all the other bread recipes!
- Milk – Milk will add more tenderness to your crumb than water will because of the extra fat. Make sure to have it at room temperature before adding to the dough.
Ingredients
- 1 Medium Sweet potato ~250 g when mashed
- 400 g Bread flour ~3⅓ cups
- 1½ tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Dark brown sugar
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Baker's Dry Milk
- 2¼ tsp Instant Yeast
- 1 Large Egg Room temperature
- ½ cup 2% or Whole milk warm (~90°F)
- 2 tbsp Unsalted butter softened
Topping
- 1 tbsp Salted butter melted
- 1 tbsp Dark brown sugar
Instructions
- Peel and dice your sweet potato. Place all the potato into a sauce pan and fill with enough cool water to cover the potatoes. Place the pot on the stove over medium high to high heat and bring to a boil.
- Boil your potato until it is fork tender (15-20 minutes). Remove from heat, drain the water and mash until very smooth. Let cool until lukewarm/room temperature.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with dough hook attached, weigh out about 250g (this should be about 1-1½ cups) of mashed sweet potato. Then combine all your dough ingredients except for the 2 tbsp of softened butter. Mix until dough comes together. Dough can still have dry spots but it will have formed a rough ball.
- Add your softened butter and continue mixing the dough.
- Knead dough for 10-20 minutes until dough is smooth and stretchy. It will still be a little sticky.
- Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm area for 1-2 hours, or until dough has at least doubled in size.
- Line a 13×9 (smaller rolls) or 9×9 (larger rolls) baking pan with parchment paper.
- Remove dough onto a lightly floured or greased counter and divide into 9 or 12 equal portions (depending on which size pan you're using).
- Taking each dough piece one at a time, shape into a ball and cup hand over dough on counter and make circular motions to create a uniform ball with tension. Place into pan and repeat with the rest of the remaining dough.
- Cover the dough and allow to rise for another 45 minutes to an hour. Dough will be puffy and about twice the size.
- About 30 minutes into proofing, preheat oven to 350°F.
- Bake rolls for about 25 minutes on center rack. Rolls are done with the tops are beginning to be golden brown.
- While rolls are warm, whisk together brown sugar and 1 tbsp melted butter. Use a pastry brush and brush the tops of the rolls.
- Rolls can be eaten right away, or stored in an airtight container for about 3 days, but are best enjoyed the day they are made. Enjoy!
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