Sweet Potato Rolls

Sweet Potato Rolls
Diana Rattray
Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 22 mins
Rise : 45 mins
Total: 87 mins
Servings: 16 to 20 servings
Yield: 16 to 20 rolls

These soft sweet potato rolls are plain delicious. Featuring the perfect amount of sweetness, they're ideal to serve with strong-flavored soups, salads, and meaty stews. Great for collecting the drippings of sauces, these potato rolls are an amazing addition to special breakfasts or brunch spreads and are fun alternatives to sliced bread when it comes to making sandwiches for school or the office. Perfectly golden-brown with a shiny, buttery crust, these tasty buns are a flexible go-to recipe, as they go well with anything you can think of and are irresistible with just butter. Kneaded in the bread machine and baked in the oven, the rolls are easy to prepare, taking only 20 minutes to bake. Although a bread machine makes things a lot easier, you can knead the dough by hand or in a mixer if you don't have a machine. When fall arrives and sweet potatoes are everywhere, put your sweet potato surplus to good use and make a batch of these tasty rolls—even double the recipe and freeze once baked and cool to have them at hand when in need of an easy accompaniment for your meal.

Bread machines have made bread baking accessible to kitchen newbies who are too nervous to tackle a bread recipe from scratch. Kneading, proofing, and baking might seem like one too many steps to master. Once measured, the ingredients go into the machine in a certain order—though most machines have similar operation manuals. Then, the machine kneads the dough and brings itself to the optimal temperature to proof it. Most people who have already experimented with a bread machine agree that the best results come from doughs made and proofed in the machine but baked in the oven, as the crumb and texture of oven-baked loaves are lighter and there's a better crust, while machine-baked loaves are denser and heavier. If you're thinking of getting a machine or it's your first time using one, do read the manual as the simplest of details can make or break your recipe. For our rolls, we found the oven yields the best result, but if you want to experiment and bake the dough a single loaf in the machine, the results might pleasantly surprise you.

Serve the rolls with butter and honey, use them for smoked ham and Brie sandwiches, or stuff them with egg salad and a touch of hot sauce. No matter how you serve them, these rolls are very versatile and their pillowy texture will make them a family favorite.

Ingredients

  • 2 medium sweet potatoes, 1 cup mashed

  • 3/4 cup milk

  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted; plus extra to top rolls out of the oven

  • 1 large egg, beaten

  • 4 cups/18 ounces all-purpose flour

  • 4 tablespoons sugar

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Peel 2 medium sweet potatoes and cut them into cubes.

  3. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. 

  4. Add the sweet potato cubes to the boiling water and reduce the heat to low. Cover the pan and cook for about 20 minutes, or until tender.

  5. Drain well and mash. Cool completely and measure 1 cup for the recipe.

  6. Add all ingredients to the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer.

  7. Use the basic dough cycle. When the cycle finishes, divide the dough into 16 to 20 uniform pieces and shape them into balls. Place the dough balls in a greased 9-inch square baking pan, so they're just touching but not too close.

  8. Cover the rolls with a cloth and let rise for about 45 minutes in a warm, draft-free place. Preheat oven to 375 F.

  9. Bake in the oven for about 20 to 23 minutes, until nicely browned.

  10. Brush the tops with melted or softened butter while they're hot.

  11. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
136 Calories
2g Fat
25g Carbs
4g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 16 to 20
Amount per serving
Calories 136
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 2g 3%
Saturated Fat 1g 7%
Cholesterol 15mg 5%
Sodium 132mg 6%
Total Carbohydrate 25g 9%
Dietary Fiber 1g 4%
Total Sugars 4g
Protein 4g
Vitamin C 2mg 11%
Calcium 21mg 2%
Iron 1mg 7%
Potassium 102mg 2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)