Sweet Potato Buttermilk Dinner Rolls

I first saw these rolls posted them on her blog a few months ago. They are an adaptation of the Williams Sonoma’s potato rolls that I have seen on other blogs recently. I bookmarked them even though I didn’t think I would make them because husband does not like sweet potatoes. I find this annoying because I love sweet potatoes and I have barely eaten them for years now. Oh, the things you do for love.

When I saw that this month’s Bread was bread with potatoes, I immediately thought of this recipe. While I have decided to do something else for Baking Day I still made these dinner rolls with some soup when I had the day off from work on Presidents Day. What’s a better way to celebrate great Presidents than with, um, potato rolls? UPDATE: Since hubby ended up making our other potato bread (Bacon and Potato Ciabatta), who is hosting this month’s Baking Day.

I halved the recipe to make 8 rolls, the only issue with doing that is that there is only 1 egg in the whole recipe. So I beat my egg and weighed it on my trusty kitchen scale and then divided it in half. I used my stand mixer to knead the dough, which took about 4 cups of flour.

The dough rested for about 2 hours before it had doubled in size. I was worried because I was expecting it to take only about an hour, but I knew my yeast was alive and kicking, so I waited somewhat patiently.

The dough finally did rise, and after deflating I measured it out on a scale in 8 pieces, each weighing a little less than 4 ounces. I let the dough pieces rest for a few minutes before I formed them into balls.

I was a bit worried about forming them because this was my first attempt at dinner rolls and I have never formed bread like this before. It was quite easy. The dough is already smooth which makes it easy to shape and I only had to gently coax it into a ball. I pulled the skin taut and tucked it under the bottom of the ball. I sprinkled some flour on each roll, which is so cute, the flour gives the baked roll a little character.

They baked for about 23 minutes and achieved a great golden brown top. As I watched them cool, I couldn’t resist picking one up and touching and smelling it. The first thing I noticed when I picked one up was how heavy it felt. I expected them to be very dense when I bit into one, but they actually have a fairly light texture.

Taste wise, I really enjoyed the potato flavor and the butter gives it just a tad of richness. The color that the sweet potato adds to the roll is just gorgeous, but it didn’t have as strong of a flavor as I was expecting.

Overall, these are an excellent choice for a potato roll. And, happily, these are not really bad for you. YAY! (These are the types of things that make me happy. Healthy food and nifty cleaning products. I’m a dork. ) I used low fat buttermilk in my recipe, and there is only ½ Tbsp. of butter in each roll with a very small amount of egg. You could also use whole wheat flour if you are so inclined, but you may have to adjust the volume of liquid due to the increased protein percentage.

I will definitely be making these again in some form, and other dinner rolls as well. I am all about the dinner roll right now. Next I want to make the Parmesan pull-aparts from this month’s Gourmet magazine that I have seen around the blogosphere.

How great is that color? This is the batter before the kneading begins.

They bake up into pretty large rolls, I am glad I only made 8.

Who doesn’t love a basket filled with fresh rolls?