Sweet potato rolls are a nice twist on conventional dinner rolls.
You can emphasize the sweetness of these rolls by adding raisins, or make them nice and savory by adding chopped green onions. Either one of these options makes a great dinner roll recipe and gives you the flexibility of changing the rolls to suit what you are serving them with.
Using them as breakfast rolls? Add the raisins. The raisins would also be a fabulous addition to the rolls when you are serving them with something like ham, which would go nicely with the sweetness in the rolls.
Other times you’ll want to emphasize the savory, so go ahead and add the chopped green onions. Make sure you include the fresh part of the green as well, because the contrast between the orange colored roll and the green onions is really pretty.
You can also use your own creative ideas. How about sweet potato rolls with bits of ham in them, or ham and green onions? Wow, what a great lunch roll that would be, served with hot soup or a great salad.
However you decide to make them, if you are a bread lover, I think you will really love these slightly sweet rolls.
How to Make Sweet Potato Rolls
Sweet Potato Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 sweet potato, large, about 12 ounces or 375 grams
- 3/4 cup raisins, OR 2 green onions, thinly sliced (both are optional)
- 3 cups flour, (to 3 1/2 cups)
- 3 tablespoons milk powder
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 packet rapid-rise yeast
- 1 teaspoons salt, (to 1 1/2 teaspoons)
- ½ cup water, (warm but not hot - 115°to 120°F, 46°to 48°C)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, or vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Bake the sweet potato until it is tender, about 1 hour. When it's cool enough to handle, peel the potato and transfer it to a large bowl. Mash the sweet potato until it is very smooth. Stir in the green onions or raisins if you are using them and mix well.
- Stir in 3 cups (750 ml) of flour, the dry milk, brown sugar, yeast, and salt. Stir in 1/2 cup of warm water and 2 tablespoons of oil until well combined. Turn the dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, adding remaining ½ cup (125 ml) flour if necessary to make a fairly stiff dough that's slightly sticky.
- Transfer the dough to lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place until it is doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Punch the dough down, cover, and let it rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.
- Punch the dough down again and cut it into 12 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment, or look below for directions to make crescent rolls from the dough (as in the images). Cover and let rise until puffy, about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, the preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Brush the rolls with milk and bake them until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom, which will be about 30 minutes.
- Let them cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
Makes 12 rolls.
Making Crescent Shaped Sweet Potato Rolls
Rather than making the traditional round dinner rolls, make this wonderful sweet potato dinner roll recipe into crescent rolls.
Instead of shaping each roll into a ball where the directions above say to do that, roll out the dough into a large circle as pictured in the image below. Slice the dough across until you have 12 triangle shaped pieces, fairly equal in size.
Roll each triangle starting from the outside, large edge. The point in the middle will end up on the top of the roll. Turn the ends of the rolled dough inward a bit if you want that really distinctive crescent shape.
Lay each roll on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper as it says above. Cover them and let them rise until they are puffy, which should be about 15 minutes. Follow the recipe above to finish the rolls.
I love making these into crescent rolls. The orange color of the dough, studded with either dark raisins or green onion pieces and shaped into little crescents is so pretty on the dinner table. That said, these dinner rolls are so deliciously good, they won’t last long whatever shape you make them.
Letting Yeast Dough Rise
I have given approximate times for the dough to rise, but working with yeast dough can be a tricky business. Temperature is SO important. If your room is really cool, or there is a window open that blows a cool breeze on the dough, it won’t rise that quickly. So let the rolls rise until they are puffy, even if that means you have to leave them for 30 minutes or so.
Find a draft free, warm corner to let your bread dough rise. And always cover the dough as the recipe says. It helps to keep the dough warm and prevents a dry crust from forming on the outside of the dough.
Sweet or Savory?
These sweet potato rolls are so versatile. Add raisins to them if you want to emphasize the sweetness of the rolls, or add the green onions if you want the rolls to be more savory. For regular dinner rolls, you can omit them both and make them plain. Eaten warm with butter, they’ll be amazing any way you serve them. I just love having options.
Subscribe to the site here and never miss a great recipe.
If you like this recipe, please share it on social media. Thanks for your support. It means a lot.