Sourdough Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls

Ultra-soft sourdough dinner rolls, with some fun festive color and flavor from the addition of sweet potato puree. You can cook and puree your own sweet potatoes for these, or use one (15 ounce) can of sweet potato puree.

Adding potato to bread makes for ultra soft and tender results, and these rolls are no exception! There's not an overwhelming sweet potato flavor here, but the potato definitely makes a difference in the texture of the rolls, adds a bit of sweetness, and gives them a great festive color. They are a great addition to any autumn dinner!

(And I think would make for some excellent Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches!)

These are adapted from my usual sourdough dinner rolls. I love the dough for being easy to make and easy to work with (readers do, too!), and the rolls are SO soft and flavorful. The liquids in this recipe have been reduced to accommodate the generous amount of sweet potato puree, but they're every bit as rich, and are even softer!

The sweet potato

I went to great lengths to get an entire (15 ounce) can of sweet potato puree in these rolls, which is by far the easiest way to make them! You want a can that contains 100% sweet potato - no added sugar or any other additives.

You can make your own sweet potato puree if you'd like to for these rolls. Peel, chop, and boil 2 large sweet potatoes until fork-tender. Drain well and transfer to a food processor. Process until completely smooth. You don't want any chunks in this!

Be sure to weigh out the puree when adding to the recipe if you're making your own.

How to make sweet potato rolls

Start by melting butter in a skillet. Once it's melted, remove from heat and add in the milk. This is my favorite way to get milk and butter that are the perfect temperature for dough with no wait time - the butter and skillet warm the milk, while the milk cools the butter. Be sure to feel it before adding it to your dough - it should feel like bath water.

Combine sweet potato puree, starter, egg, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the warm milk and butter mixture, and mix again to combine.

Add the flour and salt and mix until no dry flour remains. Switch to the dough hook and knead on LOW speed for 8-10 minutes, until the dough begins to look smooth. Keep in mind this is quite a wet dough, so it won't be pulling away from the sides of the bowl as some dough does!

Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 12-14 hours. Here's what it will look like after rising:

Still quite wet, but lots of air pockets throughout the dough. I like using my glass KitchenAid bowl for this, since it's hard to see how the rise is going just by looking at the top of the dough. Any clear vessel will work though!

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and divide into 15 pieces. If you want to weigh your pieces, they will be about 101 grams each. Shape into rolls (for photo guidance on how to shape rolls, see this sourdough burger bun post), and arrange in a 5-by-3 grid in a greased 9 by 13-inch baking dish.

Cover the rolls and let rise until puffed up. This will take about 1 ½ - 3 hours.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until baked through and beginning to brown. Brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle with flakey salt. Serve warm!

Don't skip the butter at the end - it keeps these so soft and makes the salt stick on the top!

Variations

I've kept these as a pretty basic roll recipe, which means they're a great jumping off point to some fun variations! Here are a couple ideas:

• Instead of using regular butter to brush the rolls with after baking, you can add minced garlic and rosemary for a herby garlic roll.
• Add dried cranberry to the dough before the first rise for a cranberry + sweet potato roll.

You can also serve these with a variety of butter to spread. They're good on their own, but you can't go wrong with a cinnamon butter or an herby garlic butter.