Sweet Potato Rolls

Ingredients:

for the rolls:
4 cups flour
1 cup mashed roasted sweet potato
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 oz dry yeast
2 eggs, at room temperature

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast on the water. Using an electric mixer with a dough hook combine the yeast, butter, water, sugar, egg and sweet potato. Add the flour and mix on low until smooth. The mixture should become a sticky dough at this time but it shouldn’t feel damp or look wet. If it does, mix in a small amount of flour. Knead on a floured surface or in a stand mixer until smooth but still slightly sticky. Place the ball of dough in a buttered bowl. Cover with a tea towel or loose plastic wrap and let rise for about 45 minutes or until it doubles in size.

Preheat oven to 350. Remove dough from bowl and break into 10 even pieces. Roll each into a ball. Place in two 9 inch round cake pans that have been lightly sprayed with nonstick baking spray, forming a circle with one roll in the middle. Allow to rise for 20 minutes.

Bake for 15 minutes or until fully cooked. Remove to a wire rack to cool for a minute then invert and pull apart to serve.

My thoughts:

Oh my, these were good. I am honestly not a huge fan of sweet potatoes, they are just too, well, sweet for me to eat at a regular meal. Too dessert-y. However, everyone else I know likes them so I am always trying to find a new way to use them that everyone (including me!) can enjoy. These completely fit the bill. They were a lovely light orange color and tasted like sweet potatoes but were still firmly a savory dinner roll. They were great spread with butter along side dinner but I am imagining leftovers transformed into rolls for sandwiches. They were wonderfully light and fluffy but substantial enough to hold some serious filling.

Note: This is a really forgiving recipe. Letting it rise for longer than the times listed here is perfectly fine.

14 Comments

  1. What a great way to mix up the ol' dinner roll! I actually love sweet potatoes, and so does the rest of my family. Did you just use canned sweet potatoes or did you use fresh ones?

  2. I roasted a sweet potato the day before I made the rolls.

  3. Can these be made ahead?

  4. Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite comfort foods! These rolls look so soft and warm and I love what potatoes do for the texture of bread.

  5. Do you mean fully baked ahead of time? Leftovers were okay the day after but I won't recommend any further ahead than that.

  6. Oh my GOSH, I can't wait to make these! Thanks for the recipe. 🙂

  7. Your sweet potato rolls look yummy! Thanks for the recipe!

  8. These are PHENOMENAL. The sweet potato flavoring is delicious, and not too much. I actually forgot to make them with the eggs and they were still unbelievable. I will be making them again.

  9. All I can say is "YUM!" These simple ingredients will make it easy to put together. They look kid friendly too!

  10. Sweet potato rolls! Fab. I have left over mash from last night that will make this recipe a cinch. Thanks for you post.

  11. WOW I'm excited!! I have these in the oven right now!!!

    OK so I have a couple of comments/questions:
    You have salt in the ingredients but not in the procedures.. I just mixed it in with the flour. I hope that's right.

    Secondly… These are looking HUGE! I think this recipe could easily make 15-20 rolls instead of 10. Right now 5 rolls are about 2 inches above the pan and have been cooking 20 minutes and still not close to done.

    I'm glad I did a dry run of these before tomorrow, but I am so lookig forward to these being on the table!!!

    Thanks for this fabulous recipe!!

  12. These are so, so good! A big hit at Thanksgiving dinner. Really quite easy to make, but they seem special because of the great sweet potato flavor. Thanks for the recipe!

  13. Emeryldmist:
    I don't find they bake as well (as evenly or as tastily) when formed into smaller rolls than what I call for.

  14. Jen @ Savory Simple

    I think I'm going to make this! I was charged with making mashed regular potatoes and some kind of sweet potato dish. And I wanted to do biscuits but was worried about time since I'm also doing 3 desserts. This will be perfect! Thank you so much for the recipe.