If you’re looking for an amazing dinner roll to serve for a holiday, these sweet potato dinner rolls do not disappoint. Slightly sweet and incredibly fluffy, these yeasted bread rolls are not dense and instead are pillowy soft. Bake these dinner rolls to impress your guests and they’ll be coming back for seconds and thirds.
I love a good potato bread, especially when I make burgers and hot dogs. These sweet potato dinner rolls take what is good from a typically dense and flavorful potato bread and infuse it with sweet potato flavor and color. The flavor is a little sweet considering it is an enriched bread, but the flavor of the sweet potato comes through really well without being dense.
Typically, I love serving my honey butter yeast rolls with some good honey butter. For this bread roll recipe though, I served them with brown sugar cinnamon butter that is reminiscent of sweet potato toppings in restaurants. I’ll include a quick recipe for making that as well.
If you’re looking for a perfect dinner roll to serve for a holiday gathering like Thanksgiving or Christmas, this is an ideal option in the fall and winter. These sweet potato dinner rolls go great with ham and turkey and can be used for sandwiches with any leftovers you may have. If you love yeasted bread rolls, my honey butter yeast rolls are amazing too.
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🥘 Ingredients for Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls
Most of the ingredients are baking staples, though I do recommend bread flour over all-purpose. You will probably only need 1 decent sized sweet potato as well.
Sweet Potato – Use a medium to large, sweet potato here and do not use canned. You’ll peel and chop it, then boil it until soft. Reserve a bit of the water you cook it in, and once mashed, you only need 1 cup of the mashed sweet potato.
Flour – While you can probably use all-purpose flour here, I do recommend bread flour. The added protein creates more gluten and makes for more pillowy but chewy dinner rolls.
Yeast – This recipe calls for a single packet of dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons). Whether using instant or active dry yeast, I always recommend proofing it first. This lets you know if the yeast is good or not before using a bunch of ingredients and waiting 1-2 hours only to find out the yeast is dead.
Honey – I use honey here as the sweetener. Use a bit to feed the yeast while proofing, then add the rest for making the dough.
Eggs – Use two large eggs at room temperature since this is an enriched dough.
Milk – Use whole milk to hydrate the flour here. While whole milk is best, you can use almost any other milk as well. In addition to milk, I like to use a bit of reserved water when you boil the sweet potato.
Butter – Again, since this is an enriched dough, you’ll use a good amount of unsalted butter to flavor the bread.
Salt – Add this late so that it doesn’t prohibit the yeast from rising the dough. If using salted butter, omit the additional salt.
🔪 How to Make Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls
Mashed Sweet Potato & Proofing Yeast
Start by peeling the sweet potato and chopping it into roughly 1” chunks. Place in a saucepan over high heat with just enough water to cover the sweet potato. Bring to a boil and cook until the sweet potato is fork tender, about 10-15 minutes.
Drain the water, reserving some of it for the dough. Place the sweet potato pieces in a large bowl and mash with a fork or potato masher until smooth. Set aside to cool.
In a heat-proof measuring glass, add the whole milk and heat until warm, about 100-110°F / 38-43°C. Add 1 tablespoon of the honey and the packet of yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons). Give it a stir and set it aside to proof for 5-10 minutes. If it looks foamy and rising, the yeast is good.
Make the Dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, add 1 cup of the mashed sweet potato, ¼ cup reserved water from boiling the potato, the yeast mixture, both eggs, the rest of the honey, the sliced butter, and 1-2 cups of bread flour. Mix on low speed until everything is thoroughly combined, about 2-3 minutes.
Switch the paddle attachment to the dough hook and start adding the rest of the flour, a bit at a time, until the dough starts coming together. Add the salt and scrape down the sides of the bowl so that all the flour is incorporated.
Once the dough has come together and all flour has been added, let the dough knead on low speed for another 5 minutes or so. The dough should be coming cleanly off the sides of the bowl and be tacky but not sticky. If the dough feels too wet and sticky, add more flour a tablespoon at a time, until the dough is only slightly tacky. If you can press a finger into the dough and it slowly springs back, the dough is ready.
If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can also do the kneading by hand after mixing in all the flour. Once all the flour has been mixed in, place the dough on a floured surface and knead by hand for 5-10 minutes.
First Rise & Shaping
Once kneaded, add the dough to a lightly oiled mixing bowl and turn to coat every side. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and place in a warm area to rise until doubled in size, 1-2 hours.
After the dough has doubled in size, punch it down to release the air and place it on a lightly floured surface. Stretch and shape the dough into a large rectangle and divide it into 4 equal strips. I use a bench scraper for this as it easily cuts through dough.
Taking each strip of the dough, divide again into 5 equal pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a ball with a smooth top and tuck the edges underneath, rolling the bottom gently to seal it. Place each ball of dough into a 9x13 baking dish. Repeat this process until you have 20 balls of dough nestled in the baking dish.
Second Rise & Baking
Cover the dough balls again and let rise a second time for 30-45 minutes. About halfway through the second rise, preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C.
Once risen and poofy again, place the dough in the middle of the oven and bake until the tops are golden brown, about 18-24 minutes. As soon as you remove from the oven, brush the tops with melted butter and allow to cool 15-20 minutes before serving or removing from the baking dish to cool and store.
Serve with honey butter, or even better, make brown sugar cinnamon butter for them.
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Butter
This part is optional, but the brown sugar cinnamon butter is a perfect addition to these sweet potato dinner rolls.
Leave ½ cup butter out when you start making the sweet potato dinner rolls so that it will be very soft when the rolls are done.
In a mixing bowl, add the softened butter, ¼ cup brown sugar, and ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Use a fork to mash and mix the ingredients together until the sugar is fully incorporated.
Alternatively, add the ingredients to a mixing bowl and use a hand mixer to combine everything. Once combined, increase the speed and mix for another minute or two for a really soft, whipped butter.
Store in the refrigerator when not being used.
💭 Frequently Asked Questions
I do not recommend using canned, mashed sweet potato here. They tend to be thinner in consistency and very wet, which can throw off the hydration level of the dough.
No, if you only keep all-purpose flour on hand, that works fine as well. Bread flour has more protein, which creates stronger gluten strands in bread dough. This is what gives certain breads more of a chew in their texture.
No, instant yeast doesn’t need to be proofed and can be tossed in with the rest of the ingredients. However, even though you don’t need to proof it, I always recommend proofing yeast whether instant or active dry. Taking an extra 5 minutes at the beginning of a recipe is better than spending over 2 hours to find out the yeast was bad, and you must throw everything out and start over.
🍽 Recommended Equipment
There’s not a lot of equipment being used here to make sweet potato dinner rolls; however, I do recommend the following two items.
Stand Mixer – If you do a good amount of home baking, I cannot recommend a good stand mixer enough. They can be a bit of an investment but are definitely worth the money when making bread dough, cookie dough, and pretty much any kind of dough or batters.
Bench Scraper – Also called a pastry cutter among other names, a bench scraper is a handy tool when working with different kinds of doughs. They can cut dough and fold dough without using your warm hands. They can also scrape your work surface clean when finished and you have little bits of dough stuck on your counter. I like this bench scraper because it also has measurement markings.
❄️ Storing Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls & Making Ahead
Once cooled completely, you can store leftover sweet potato dinner rolls in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days. If you’d like to store them a little longer, you can also refrigerate them for up to a week.
If you have a lot of leftovers that you’d like to freeze, you can do that as well. Store in an airtight container or wrap a grouped bunch tightly with plastic wrap and again in foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. When you plan on serving them, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm in a 350°F oven for 5-10 minutes, until warmed throughout.
You can partially make these ahead of time too if you need. Follow all the steps in the recipe through shaping the dough balls. Place them in the 13x9 baking dish and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. The next day, remove them from the fridge and allow them to sit and rise a second time for 1-2 hours. Bake as directed.
📋 Recipe
Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls:
- 1 medium sweet potato, use 1 cup after mashing
- ⅔ cup whole milk, see note
- 1 packet of dry yeast, 2 ¼ teaspoons
- 4 tablespoons honey, divided
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ¼ cup softened butter, sliced into ½ tablespoon pieces
- ¼ cup reserved water from boiling sweet potato
- 5 cups bread flour, see note
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted, for topping
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Butter (Optional):
- ½ cup softened butter
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
Mashed Sweet Potato & Proofing Yeast:
- Start by peeling the sweet potato and chopping it into roughly 1” chunks. Place in a saucepan over high heat with just enough water to cover the sweet potato. Bring to a boil and cook until the sweet potato is fork-tender, about 10-15 minutes.
- Drain the water, reserving ¼ cup of it for the dough. Place the sweet potato pieces in a large bowl and mash with a fork or potato masher until smooth. Set aside to cool.
- In a heat-proof measuring glass, add ⅔ cup whole milk and heat until warm, about 100-110°F / 38-43°C. Add 1 tablespoon of the honey and the packet of yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons). Give it a stir and set it aside to proof for 5-10 minutes. If it looks foamy and rising, the yeast is good.
Make the Dough:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, add 1 cup of the mashed sweet potato, ¼ cup reserved water from boiling the potato, the yeast mixture, 2 large eggs, the rest of the honey (3 tablespoons), the sliced ¼ cup of butter, and 1-2 cups of bread flour. Mix on low speed until everything is thoroughly combined, about 2-3 minutes.
- Switch the paddle attachment to the dough hook and start adding the rest of the flour, a bit at a time, until the dough starts coming together. Add the salt and scrape down the sides of the bowl so that all the flour is incorporated.
- Once the dough has come together and all 5 cups of flour have been added, let the dough knead on low speed for another 5 minutes or so. The dough should be coming cleanly off the sides of the bowl and be tacky but not sticky. If the dough feels too wet and sticky, add more flour a tablespoon at a time, until the dough is only slightly tacky. If you can press a finger into the dough and it slowly springs back, the dough is ready.
- If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can also do the kneading by hand after mixing in all the flour. Once all the flour has been mixed in, place the dough on a floured surface and knead by hand for 5-10 minutes.
First Rise & Shaping:
- Once kneaded, add the dough to a lightly oiled mixing bowl and turn to coat every side. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and place in a warm area to rise until doubled in size, 1-2 hours.
- After the dough has doubled in size, punch it down to release the air and place it on a lightly floured surface. Stretch and shape the dough into a large rectangle and divide it into 4 equal strips. I use a bench scraper for this as it easily cuts through dough.
- Taking each strip of the dough, divide again into 5 equal pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a ball with a smooth top and tuck the edges underneath, rolling the bottom gently to seal it. Place each ball of dough into a 9x13 baking dish. Repeat this process until you have 20 balls of dough nestled in the baking dish.
Second Rise & Baking:
- Cover the dough balls again and let rise a second time for 30-45 minutes. About halfway through the second rise, preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C.
- Once risen and poofy again, place the dough in the middle of the oven and bake until the tops are golden brown, about 18-24 minutes. As soon as you remove from the oven, brush the tops with melted butter and allow to cool 15-20 minutes before serving or removing from the baking dish to cool and store.
- Serve with honey butter, or even better, make brown sugar cinnamon butter for them.
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Butter:
- This part is optional, but the brown sugar cinnamon butter is a perfect addition to these sweet potato dinner rolls.
- Leave ½ cup butter out when you start making the sweet potato dinner rolls so that it will be very soft when the rolls are done.
- In a mixing bowl, add the softened butter, ¼ cup brown sugar, and ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Use a fork to mash and mix the ingredients together until the sugar is fully incorporated.
- Alternatively, add the ingredients to a mixing bowl and use a hand mixer to combine everything. Once combined, increase the speed and mix for another minute or two for a really soft, whipped butter.
- Store in the refrigerator when not being used.
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