SO. If you keep up with my constant stream of food-obsessing on Instagram - (hi and you're awesome!) - you probably saw these rolls make an appearance the other day. It was a total case of spur-of-the-moment baking that turned into something I had to share ASAP. So once again, my bread-loving self is going to gush about how good this bread is. READYGO.
A few years back I made these sweet potato cinnamon rolls which were basically the best thing in the world (think the softest-ever sweet rolls swirled with loads of cinnamon sugar), and later I made these dinner rolls - the equivalent of heaven in bread form. This is a blend of the two - potato rolls that are super-soft, tender, and oh-so-fluffy. I <3 them.
I love love LOVE sweet potatoes, but even if you don't it's not a big deal here because the rolls don't actually taste especially like sweet potato. Instead, the potato is mostly there to make the bread ultra pillowy-soft, with a pretty orange tint and a hint of that SP flavor in the background. It basically does it's own form of silent magic to take these rolls from good to oh-my-gosh-good, and for that I have to give them a great big thankyouuuuu: thank you for turning my bread into little bites of warm and cozy heaven.
Since this recipe is great for Thanksgiving, here's a tip for making completely perfect sweet potato rolls AND doing lots more fancy-schmancy stuff like cooking turkey to golden perfection (something I have yet to even attempt, so I give major props to those of you who do it every year). THIS is one of my favorite new kitchen gadgets -------->
The DOT is a super-handy, probe-style kitchen thermometer, which means that you can use it to constantly monitor the temperature of whatever you're cooking and know exactly when it reaches a target temp. - in this case, the temperature when your rolls are baked through but still extra light, soft and fluffy. It's really, really easy to use since there's only, like, three buttons on the whole thing. All you do is choose your target temperature, stick the probe in whatever you're cooking, and wait until you hear an alarm that tells you your food is ready. What you see in the picture above is one of the ways I like to use mine: to keep track of the internal temperature of my rolls while they're baking so I can be sure to cook them jussssst enough. It's pretty nifty. :)
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Recipe Card
Sweet Potato Rolls
These pillowy-soft Sweet Potato Rolls are nothing short of the perfect bread for almost any occasion. As a big batch baked in a casserole dish, pull-apart style, they're great for sharing with family and friends at Thanksgiving or any other big gathering.
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 12 rolls 1x
Ingredients
- 8 ½ ounces (1 cup) milk
- 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cubed
- 11 ½ ounces (1 ½ cups) cooked and mashed sweet potato*
- 1 lb 7 ⅜ ounces (5 ½ cups, spoon and level) bread flour, divided
- 4 ¼ ounces (1 cup, spoon and level) whole wheat flour
- 1 (¼ ounce) packet instant yeast (I highly recommend Red Star Platinum!)
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushing (I prefer salted here)
Instructions
- Scald the milk by warming in the microwave for about 1 ½ - 2 minutes, until the temperature reaches 180ºF on an instant-read thermometer**. Add the cubed butter and allow to melt and cool while and prepping the mashed potatoes [see recipe notes] and mixing the dry ingredients.
- In a bowl, whisk together 1 lb 3 ⅛ ounces (4 ½ cups, spoon and level) bread flour with the whole wheat flour, yeast, sugar, and salt.
- Combine the mashed potatoes with the milk/butter mixture and whisk together until smooth. Make sure the temperature registers between 120º-130ºF before adding to the dry ingredients. If needed, heat briefly in the microwave or allow to cool to reach desired temperature.
- Add the potato mixture to the dry ingredients along with the egg. Use a spatula to combine everything together as best as possible, and then use your hands to finish kneading the ingredients into a single ball of dough.
- Turn dough out onto the counter and knead for about 10 minutes, until soft and elastic, incorporating up to another 4 ¼ ounces (1 cup, spoon and level) bread flour as needed to prevent the dough from getting stuck to your hands or the counter. Shape into a smooth ball, cover with plastic wrap, and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
- Grease an 9" x 13" baking dish with nonstick spray. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions (I like to do this by weight) and shape each portion into a ball by stretching the dough out with your palms to form a smooth top and pinching the edges together underneath. Cup the sides of the dough ball in your palms and rotate it gently to further smooth it out. Arrange balls of dough in the prepared baking dish in a 3x4 pattern. Cover with greased plastic wrap and leave to rise for about 45 minutes, until the dough is taking up most of the space in the baking dish and reaches the rim of the dish at its highest point.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Bake fully risen rolls in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until puffy and turning golden on top, preferably until the internal temperature reaches 180ºF***. Remove from oven and immediately brush tops with melted butter.
- Serve warm. Rolls can also be covered tightly with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature. Reheat before serving.
Notes
*To make the mashed sweet potatoes, peel two large sweet potatoes and cut into ¼"-½" thick slices. Place in a large microwave-safe bowl along with 2 ounces (¼ cup) water. Microwave for about 10 minutes, until soft and tender. Purée with an immersion blender until fairly smooth. Measure out the amount needed for the recipe, reserving remainder for another use.
**I use a Thermapen for all my basic temperature-gauging needs in the kitchen, and it's awesome! You can read more about why I love it so much here.
***To check the temperature of the baked rolls, you can either use an instant-read thermometer again after 20-25 minutes of baking, or monitor the temperature the entire time with a probe-stye thermometer like the DOT
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Andrea says
Where exactly do you incorporate the whole wheat flour? The directions don't say.
alexandra says
Whoops! It gets added along with the initial bread flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. The recipe is corrected now. Thanks for pointing that out!
Barb says
These rolls were everything and more that you said they would be. Absolutely the best I ever made! Thank you!
alexandra says
Yay, that's awesome to hear! Thanks for letting me know. :)
Alexandria says
Thanks for the recipe. The rolls were so moist. I used purple sweet potatoes which gave it a nice lavender color!
alexandra says
Ahh how fun! So glad you liked it!
Heather L. says
I plan on making turkey and rolls! The DOT would come in handy!!
Samantha says
I'm hopeless at cooking cakes, I always want to peek and then ruin the cake and it flops, so I"d use it to make the perfect cake.
annette brown says
Desperately need thermometer always overcook rare beef and undercook
Poultry.
Janey Mckeever says
I'd love to try this recipe- these sweet potato rolls look delish!!!!!!!! and that Thermoworks DOT would be great for the roasts and the turkey I plan to bake!
Annette says
I always overcook my roast (I like it medium rare), so I'd use the Thermoworks DOT to cook it just right.
Joyce says
These sweet potato rolls look delish - and I would love to use the DOT to bake them as well as for roasting my very first ever Turducken!
Ashley says
Woweeeeee! I found this recipe at the perfect time! I'm in charge of rolls for my family's thanksgiving dinner and nothing sounded appealing until I saw these! Can't wait to test them tomorrow.
Ashley says
Also I would use the thermometer for everything and anything!
alexandra says
Oooh yay! I'd love to hear how it goes!
Brittany Koelmel says
I would use this for sooooo many foods, mostly chickens and breads:)
Carla S says
I would use it to help make turkey and ham.
Josh Nightingale says
Smoked Turkey!
Brad Sanford says
Excellent recipe. I'm going to try this. Also gives me a great idea and possible ratio on a sweet potato gnocchi. Thank you very much.
alexandra says
Oooh sweet potato gnocchi sounds amazing!