Sweet Potato Rolls

There is nothing better than a soft, homemade dinner roll. These rolls use sweet potatoes to make them even softer and fluffier, similar to our classic potato rolls. The tops are brushed with a honey butter and sprinkled with salt to play up both the savory and sweet side of a sweet potato. You can use sweet potato puree from a can, or if you have leftover baked sweet potato, you can use that as well. If you’re using a baked sweet potato, you’ll want to mash it to be as smooth as you can with minimal lumps. These would be a fun alternative to biscuits or Parker House rolls at Thanksgiving or another big family meal.

How To Make Sweet Potato Rolls

INGREDIENTS

• Granulated Sugar: The small amount of sugar here isn’t to sweeten the rolls, but rather to feed the yeast! Yeast is alive and needs something to feed on to give it energy to produce the gasses necessary to get your dough to rise. A little bit of sugar in warm water does the trick beautifully.
• Active Dry Yeast: This is the most important ingredient in ensuring you serve sweet potato rolls instead of sweet potato hockey pucks. The yeast will help your dough rise, and while it may seem intimidating, I’ve got tips below so that you can become a master bread baker in no time. Just be sure to pay attention to the expiration date on your yeast packet before using it. Dead yeast is dead yeast, and no amount of sugar and warm water will bring it back.
• Sweet Potato: The real reason for the season. I love sweet potatoes so much. The eye-catching color and warm sweetness is coupled by a great starchy source of fiber and vitamins and nutrients. Who doesn’t love a vegetable that tastes like candy and still has all the help benefits?
• Honey: Honey is the perfect addition to any sweet potato dish. The sugary honey kicks up the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes and will also help to give a nice golden brown finish to the top of the rolls. Sticky, sweet, stunning.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

To begin this recipe we first need to activate our yeast so that it will do its thing and help our rolls to rise. Check out my recipe tips below for the best ways to ensure your yeast is properly activated. In simple terms though, simply fill a glass measuring cup or small bowl with 1 c. warm, not hot, water, and 1 tsp. granulated sugar and stir to combine. Then sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes until it has become nice and foamy. Then you can go ahead and stir to combine.

Then, to get the dough going, beat flour and kosher salt on medium-low speed using a dough hook in the large bowl of a stand mixer. You don’t need to beat this mixture much, just enough to get the two combined. Then add in your activated yeast mixture, sweet potatoes, and some of your honey and beat at medium-high speed. This should get the beginnings of your dough started.

Then, while the mixer is running, 1 Tbsp. at a time, add in 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter. Continue beating this mixture for about 5 minutes until a smooth dough forms. Be sure not to overwork the dough, or you may end up with firmer rolls that don’t rise much.

Once smooth, remove the dough from the bowl of the stand mixer and place it in a large greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and set it aside to proof and rise for about an hour, or until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Like I mentioned earlier, various factors of your kitchen environment may make the dough rise quicker or slower than “standard” so just keep an eye on it!

When the dough is doubled in size, take it out of the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 12 roughly equal-sized pieces and then take turns rolling each into a smooth ball. You may need to add a touch more flour to your surface at some point if the dough begins to stick, but you shouldn't need much.

Place the balls in a greased 13" x 9" baking pan. Be sure to give about an inch in between each ball so that they can expand without running together. Cover this pan with the same clean kitchen towel and allow the dough proof for another 45 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 400° and make the honey-butter mixture. To do this, place equal parts butter and honey in a microwavable bowl and heat at 20-second increments, stirring between each, until the butter is fully melted and the mixture is combined. Once the dough has finished rising, brush about half of the mixture over the tops of the balls and then sprinkle flaky sea salt on top.

Transfer the baking pan into the heated oven and cook the rolls for about 25 minutes, until cooked through and the tops are golden brown. Finish the rolls by brushing on the remaining honey-butter mixture and serve while warm.

The full list of ingredients and instructions can be found in the recipe below.

Recipe Tips

• Use warm water, not hot: Generally speaking, yeast needs water anywhere from 98° to 110° to activate—an exact temperature isn’t quite necessary—though any water 139° or hotter will be too hot and kill the yeast. This may sound daunting, but really it sounds scarier than it is in reality. Simply test the water with you finger. You want something warm but not hot: 139° is fairly hot for water, so a good way to think about it is, if the water is uncomfortable for you, it will be very uncomfortable for the yeast.
• Adjust rising time for your kitchen: You know your kitchen better than anyone. Certain elements like the temperature of your house, how often you bake bread from scratch, and even the barometric pressure will affect rising times. If you make bread frequently, there will likely already be some yeast in the air, and so your dough may rise quicker than average. Similarly, if your kitchen is colder than normal, the dough may rise slower. The key here is to keep an eye on your dough and know that it is ready once it has doubled in size.

What To Serve With Sweet Potato Rolls

These sweet potato rolls are the perfect fall side to any dinner. Serve them this Thanksgiving alongside our roast turkey or to sop up some of that delicious turkey gravy. They also go well alongside seasonal greens like our smashed Brussels sprouts or Thanksgiving Cobb salad.

Storage

These delicious rolls will store for up to 2 days in an airtight container at room temperature, or for up to 2 months in a freezer safe bag or container in the freezer. Just be sure to let them thaw in the same container before reheating, so that the rolls will retain as much moisture as possible.