Hidden Veggies: Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls That Impress

A family-friendly recipe for soft and savory rolls with a hidden veggie

We figure plenty of people like us might have overbought their sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving and still have a couple of them rolling about the pantry after the holiday. Fresh sweet potatoes are pretty hardy and will last a while, but it's best to get them used up to avoid waste. We decided to mash some more of them, and instead of making something common, hide them in a dinner roll.

Hidden veggies are, in our opinion, the best when you have little ones. Our little one is not so little any longer - he has instead entered the "I subsist entirely on processed garbage and carbs" phase - and this still worked quite nicely for him. Even after he realized there was a vegetable (gasp!) in his bread (the affront!), he still ate more of them than anyone else at the table.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mashed sweet potatoes

2 1/2 to 3 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons water

3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup warm milk

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

small amount of butter or olive oil, for greasing the bowl and pan

Tools:

10 inch cast iron skillet or large Dutch oven

measuring cups and spoons

knife or bench scraper (for leveling flour and separating dough)

mixing bowl(s)

instant-read thermometer (useful but not strictly necessary)

stand mixer with dough hook (useful but not strictly necessary)

While we started with fresh sweet potatoes, and peeled, boiled, drained and mashed them, you don't have to. You're welcome to begin with baked sweet potatoes, frozen or even canned if you can find the unsweetened kind.

The important part is to have half a cup, post-mashing, with minimal to no other ingredients, and to allow that half cup to cool to room temperature.

Heat your water to somewhere over 100 degrees but less than 115. This is where a thermometer comes in handy, but if you don't have one, here's a little trick to guess the water temperature. Run the water at the kitchen tap and hold a finger under it until you can feel the water getting good and hot. Just before it gets too hot to keep your finger in the water, fill the cup and turn off the water. (Career cooks and servers, please disregard this advice and find a thermometer, as your heat tolerance is generally higher than average.) From this full cup of water, measure out the three tablespoons you need. Add the dry yeast to it, stir, and sprinkle in a pinch of sugar.

Assuming your sweet potato mash has had a chance to cool, add it to the mixing bowl (or the mixer, if you're using one like we did). Measure in the sugar, salt, butter and warm milk. Stir until combined.

Add in the yeast/water/sugar mixture and give a quick mix before measuring in one and a half level cups of flour. Make sure not to pack the flour into the measuring cups, and to use the flat side of a knife or the edge of a bench scraper to take any excess off the top.

Mix with a dough hook or knead by hand until dough starts to form. It'll be sticky at this stage. If you're using a stand mixer, this is the last stage you'll want it to work on. Even the vaunted KitchenAid will struggle with dense doughs, and this one is about to get dense.

Add another half cup of flour to the sticky dough ball in the mixing bowl. Knead it in by hand. If the dough is still feeling sticky - not tacky, but well and truly sticky - add up to another three quarters of a cup of flour. Do so slowly and stay very hands on, because it probably doesn't take as much as you think to go from sticky dough to dough that's too dry to take on any more flour.

At the point the dough is smooth and just a bit tacky, turn it out onto a floured surface and work it by hand for 5 minutes. Grease the inside of a clean mixing bowl (either clean the one you were just working in, or grab a clean one) and plop the dough ball in. Cover it - with a pot lid, a cutting board, plastic wrap, foil, a clean towel, whatever you have - and allow it to sit somewhere warm to rise for at least an hour.

After it's doubled in size, punch it down, roll it over in the greased bowl, and turn it out onto a flat surface. Using a knife or bench scraper (if you use something sharp, do so on a mat or a board, and not on your countertops!) divide the dough into 16 pieces and roll them into balls.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, grease the inside of the skillet or Dutch oven, and move the dough balls to the skillet for a second rise. Let them sit and rise for at least 20 minutes, then bake for 25 minutes. Brush the tops with butter for extra appeal.

Website 

Call: (214) 599-0055

Additional Reading

Healthy and Flavorful: A Caponata Recipe That You'll Love

Get Your Protein with This Buddha Bowl 

Fall Comfort Food: How to Make Perfectly Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

Impress Your Guests with This Easy-to-Make Apple Pecan French Toast Bake

The Art of Homemade Garlic Rolls: From Dough to Delight

A Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Warm, Flavorful Dinner Delights

Hey there, welcome back folks! This week, we're diving into the delicious realm of garlic rolls—because, let's be honest, is there ever a bad time for garlic rolls? As March marches on, what better excuse to indulge in these savory delights? Think of them as the dinner equivalent of cinnamon rolls—warm, comforting, and oh-so-satisfying. We're thrilled to guide you through the process because trust me, these rolls are worth every bit of effort. Get ready to tantalize your taste buds and make your dinner table a whole lot happier. Let's roll into it!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 heaping teaspoons active dry yeast

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 cup milk or water, warmed to 110 degrees

2 eggs

20+ garlic cloves (to taste)

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup butter

Tools:

9x13 baking pan

measuring cups and spoons

rolling pin

thermometer

mixing bowl

small oven-safe dishes

aluminum foil

knife

Optional:

stand mixer with dough hook

food processor

Before getting too deep into things, toss your garlic cloves in a little olive oil and season them with salt and pepper, wrap them loosely in aluminum foil (allowing a little room for steam to vent) and nest the foil in a small oven-safe dish. Set the dish in the oven and bring the oven temperature up to 400 degrees, Let the garlic bake for 45 minutes like this.

Heat up the water or milk (we like to use milk, but it's totally optional) and test the temperature before adding any yeast. Too warm and the yeast will kick the bucket on you without doing its job, but too cool and it will fail to activate. Aim for about 100 degrees.

When you're sure the liquid is the right temperature, move it to the mixing bowl and pour the sugar and yeast in and stir gently. Let it all sit for about ten minutes.

After your ten minutes are up, you can add the flour and eggs and either knead by hand or utilize a stand mixer. Work the dough until it comes together, but avoid overdoing it. Knead too much and you'll be left with a tough, chewy bread rather than soft. You should have a slightly sticky, mostly smooth ball of dough,

Dump your dough ball into a clean, lightly greased mixing bowl. Cover it tightly in aluminum foil, then drape a kitchen towel over the top and set it somewhere warm to rise. Leave it alone for at least two hours.

During the rise, you can double back and check on your garlic cloves. Once they're removed from the oven, let them cool a few minutes so they'll be safe to handle. Dump the contents of the foil into the food processor and pulse, or onto a rimmed plate and mince with a knife. Melt the quarter cup of butter in a heatproof dish, then add the garlic mixture to it and stir well. Set this aside for a little while - you'll need it later.

After letting the dough rise, remove the towel and foil and turn it out onto a floured surface. Punch it down, then dust the top lightly with flour and roll it out to a little over a quarter inch thick.

Retrieve your garlic/butter mixture and spread a thin layer on the rolled out dough. Make sure to get close to the edges but not overfill any spots. Once you've used up all your filling, take the nearest long edge of the dough and begin rolling it over to enclose the filling. Repeat the rolling motion until you're out of single layer dough and have created one long log.

Trim the edges, as those are likely to be uneven and have little to no filling. Cut the rest of the log into eight or ten even pieces. (Since we work directly on a countertop, we accomplish the cutting step with a plastic knife. Please choose your tools appropriately to avoid damage to your kitchen.)

Line your baking pan with some foil, then move the rolls to your pan. They do not need to touch - in fact, it's much better that they don't. Leave a little space between them. Re-use the aluminum foil you had covering the mixing bowl, because it's time for a second rise. Leave the rolls alone, covered in a warm place, for another hour. 

When the second rise is done, your rolls will have expanded to the point they look like they're going to overflow the pan. Don't worry. They'll just be big and fluffy.

Preheat your oven (unless it's been heating this whole time because your kitchen is chilly) to 375.

Optional step: If you have any of your garlic filling mixture left over. brush it on the top of the rolls. If not, you can utilize a little olive oil (spray or liquid). Once the top of the rolls has been moistened, we like to add a light dusting of cheese (parmesan, mozzarella, or sometimes both), Italian seasoning (with extra oregano), and/or cracked black pepper. You're in charge here, add what you like best - if you choose to add anything at all.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Allow to cool before removing from the pan.

As always if you made this one, let us know over on our Facebook page, we’d love to hear how it turned out!

If you’re in the Addison area and your appliances are malfunctioning, we’d be happy to help! You can reach out to us via our website or by giving us a call at ((214) 599-0055).

Additional Reading

If you’re looking for more wonderful bread-y recipes, check out this set from our archives!

Punchy Potato & Cheddar Rolls 

Escapee From New York: Chocolate Bagels

Pepperoni & Canadian Bacon Stromboli