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These Sweet Potato Rolls are so easy to make and can be prepared in advance and baked off later. Perfect for the holidays!
Sweet Dinner Rolls From Scratch
I am not a trained chef or baker. I haven’t had years of culinary school or been presented with major awards, but I still make some pretty awesome food and sometimes it turns out so good I feel like it must have been luck. In fact, I tested this one again and ate so very slowly just to think about the flavor and texture perfectly to assure it really was as awesome as I thought.
And you know what? These homemade sweet potato rolls are more than awesome, they may be my new favorite.
We’ve always been HUGE roll snobs at our house. For a long time we would only eat classic potato rolls, which even our readers and friends agree are the best ever. But after months of testing, we finally fell in love with this homemade roll recipe that is soft and delicious. And that’s it! We would only make those two recipes. Which is a good thing, because if you want to know the secret to bread or roll making, well secrets, it’s two things…
First, scalded milk. Always scald your milk. It allows for a fluffier rise and dough. And number two? Well that’s easy, practice makes perfect. And I don’t just mean looks. Practicing bread making only gets you better and better at making the stuff. But these rolls? You really don’t “knead” to do much at all. Ha! I’m so funny.
But really, I don’t knead them at all and they are so light and airy and the flavor is just fantastic. Plus they look beautiful, which is always a crowd pleaser. K, now that I’ve rambled enough, pin this sucker and those other recipes and get baking. I expect lots of good comments about how much you love these!
What’s Needed for Sweet Potato Rolls?
To make these easy dinner rolls, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Milk
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Dry active yeast
- Bread flour
- Kosher salt
- Vital wheat gluten
- Baked and mashed sweet potato
- Egg
How to Make Sweet Potato Rolls
These are yeast dinner rolls, which means they require a couple hours to rise. I’ve given detailed instructions in the recipe card below on how to make this recipe, but here’s an overview of the steps:
- Make the dough. I used a standing mixer, but you can use a wooden spoon and some upper body strength.
- Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours.
- Once risen, turn the dough onto a floured surface. Roll out and cut into 2-inch pieces.
- Gently roll the pieces into balls, then place on a greased cookie sheet.
- Let the rolls rise a second time.
- Bake until done.
How to Shape Dinner Rolls
In case you want to learn a fool proof way to shape your rolls, just watch this video.
[faq]
Can Dinner Roll Dough Be Frozen?
Yes, the best way to freeze bread or roll dough is to let it rise, shape the dough into loaves or rolls, and freeze. Place the shaped dough on a cookie sheet, (make sure to leave space between the rolls or loaves) and freeze.
Once frozen, transfer to freezer bags and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
How to Reheat Dinner Rolls
These sweet dinner rolls can be reheated in the oven.
- Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 350°F.
- Place rolls in a baking dish and brush with melted butter, cover with foil and bake until warm.
The slow cooker is also a brilliant way to reheat rolls.
- Put a kitchen towel in the slow cooker, and place the rolls inside.
- Cover and cook for about 30 minutes.
You can also reheat rolls in the microwave.
- Arrange rolls on a microwave-safe plate.
- Cover the rolls with a slightly damp, clean kitchen towel.
- Wrap the entire plate in a dry towel.
- Microwave until just warmed through, 30 to 45 seconds.
Can I Prep Dinner Rolls in Advance?
- You can make the dough, wrap in plastic wrap in the bowl, and let sit in the fridge overnight. Then, allow to come back to room temperature for an hour or two and proceed as normal.
- You can also make the dough, roll out into rolls on the pan, and cover with plastic wrap in the fridge. Then, let rest at room temp for an hour or two in a warm place and bake as normal.
- Or you can bake them completely the day before, leave them on the pan and cover with foil once cool, and then reheat with the foil over them in a 350F oven until warm. 🙂
[/faq]
Tips for Making Sweet Potato Rolls
- If you’ve never used vital wheat gluten before, it’s generally in the baking aisle by the yeast. Most specialty stores like Good Earth or Whole Foods tend to carry it as well.
- If you don’t have cooked sweet potato on hand, you could substitute pure pumpkin puree in this recipe.
- If you don’t have bread flour, all-purpose may be substituted. Just be sure to sift the flour first to keep these rolls ultra light and fluffy.
More EASY BREAD Recipes You’ll Love:
- Homemade Baguette
- Garlic Parmesan Focaccia
- Buttermilk Biscuits
- Skillet Cornbread
- Homemade Naan
- Best Potato Rolls
- Feta Muffins
- Easy No Knead Artisan Bread
- One Hour Rolls
- 7-Up Biscuits
- Whole Wheat Potato Rolls
- Herbed Focaccia Bread
- Cheesy Ranch Rolls
- All our BREAD RECIPES here!
Homemade Sweet Potato Rolls
Ingredients
- 2/3 Cup Milk
- 5 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, diced
- 3 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Dry Active Yeast
- 2 3/4 Cup Bread Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt, (or 3/4 teaspoon sea salt)
- 1 teaspoon Vital Wheat Gluten, (keep away from the salt when dumping in)
- 1 Cup Sweet Potato, baked and mashed with skins removed (about 1 large sweet potato)
- 1 Large Egg with 1/2 Tablespoon Egg White Removed
- Butter , for tops after baking
Instructions
- In a glass measuring cup, microwave the milk for 90 seconds, but do not allow to boil.2/3 Cup Milk
- Remove from microwave and add the butter to the milk.5 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- Stir to combine and allow the butter to completely melt.
- Once it is warm but not hot, add the sugar and yeast and set aside.3 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar, 1 teaspoon Dry Active Yeast
- In the bowl of a standing mixer, add the flour, salt, vital wheat gluten on the opposite side of the bowl as the salt, and mix with a paddle attachment or stir by hand.2 3/4 Cup Bread Flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt, 1 teaspoon Vital Wheat Gluten
- Add the yeast mixture, sweet potato and egg.1 Cup Sweet Potato, 1 Large Egg with 1/2 Tablespoon Egg White Removed
- Mix again just until the dough comes together and then switch to the dough hook and mix for 90 seconds.
- Drape a light towel or saran wrap over the bowl and allow to rise for 1-2 hours.
- Sprinkle the counter lightly with flour and turn the very soft dough out.
- Sprinkle the top with a little more flour and roll out to about 1/4-inch thick rectangle.
- Starting at the end closest to you, pinch the dough closed and tightly roll into a log.
- Cut about 2-inch pieces and using the palm of your hand, gently roll the dough into balls. (Watch the video in the post for additional help.)
- Place on a greased cookie sheet and cover with another towel or saran wrap.
- Allow to rise for 1-2 hours.
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake for 18-20 minutes, then quickly brush the tops with more butter and serve.Butter
Recipe Notes
- You can make the dough, wrap in plastic wrap in the bowl, and let sit in the fridge overnight, then allow to come back to room temperature for an hour or two and proceed as normal.
- You can also make the dough, roll out into rolls on the pan and cover with plastic wrap in the fridge, then let rest at room temp for an hour or two in a warm place and bake as normal.
- Or you can bake them completely the day before, leave them on the pan and cover with foil once cool and then reheat with the foil over them in a 350F oven until warm.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello. I’m making these rolls now. Question. When mixing in the mixer with dough hook, should these end up as a big dough-ball? I ask because the 2 3/4 cup of flour with the other ingredients definitely does not make a dough ball? I added a couple TBL more flour, but still no dough ball…Can you clarify please? Also, if it is not supposed to form a normal bread doughball when mixing, you might want to add that to your instructions for anyone else who is curious. Thanks!!!
No, it should not end up as a dough ball. It’s a very soft dough and we actually feel that the mixer toughens them a bit so we are careful about that. Instead, the dough actually becomes smooth once it has risen and you sprinkle flour on the counter and a little on the dough then roll it out and it’s perfectly satiny. 🙂
oh. my. goodness. me.
So delicious.
We’re egg free in our home so I replaced the egg with 1 flaxseed egg (1 tbs flaxseed meal mixed with 2.5 to 3 tbs warm water and self to soak into a gel for 5 mins).
Just so good! Thank you!
I didn’t even know you could do that and have rolls turn out! I’m so glad you commented!
I have a “thing” about touching dough–nuts I know. I love “Mississippi Reds” potatoes and real cows butter or red eye gravy. I’m bound and determined to hold my breath and make these rolls.
Wish me luck.
I hope you love them and I’ve totally heard that people don’t like touching food.
I made these and they were delicious. It was my first time baking anything from scratch. My husband, the non bread eater loved them. Wondering though, I used wheat flour and it seemed they came out more dense than maybe they should have. Any tips for that? [it could also be that I am a total newb at baking :)]
Whole wheat flour will always provide a more dense bread. Most whole wheat breads actually just use a portion of whole wheat flour and the rest white flour. You can play around with the measurements. Also, adding soy lecithin will help to soften things up.
I made these last night-they were delicious! I’ve never made yeast rolls of any kind so I was a bit nervous, but your recipe was easy to follow and the video on how to form the rolls helped tremendously! Thanks for a great recipe-I’ll definitely make them again and again!
Oh yay!! I’m so glad that you gave them a go, Kendall. You’ll have to try our potato rolls next!
I made these tonight and they were great!!!!
Thanks for the recipe!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you!
Do you think the S P rolls can be made one day ahead and stored in plastic bags .let me know ASAP.
No – you can’t make them a day early unless you coat them with a little gasoline first and cover them with an oily rag. I guess there are such things as a stupid question.
Not a stupid questions at all. Some doughs just don’t do very well when made ahead. 🙂
Sorry to ask a dumb question, but I don’t think I’ve seen “bread flour” in baking section before. Any help? I see cake flour and all purpose.
Thanks!
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne, Bread flour is in a smaller package normally, but it’s there! If you need to you can always use all purpose and sift it to keep it light. 🙂
These will be perfect with our Christmas dinner! I’m hoping to prep them a few days ahead of time and freeze them. (I have more freezer space than fridge space!) How long do you think they should sit out before baking? Seems 1-2 hours might not be enough time to recover from frozen and fully rise…
And I have another question about the egg. I noticed the “1/2 T white removed,” is that just to adjust the amount of egg, or is the white used later to brush the tops or something? Forgive me if I missed this in the instructions.
Another rising tip for the sake of general sharing… I like to use my dryer! I run it on full heat for about 5 minutes (empty), then slip my pan of bread in and close the door. Nice warm environment!
That’s a great tip! If they are frozen it could take 4-6 hours depending on how warm your house is, but the fridge should only be an hour or two. The egg white adjustment was to change the amount of egg, but you could always whisk that up and brush it on top or not!
I’d never made bread before and my first attempt at these turned out ridiculously perfect and amazing. Thanks for the recipe. Has anyone tried making it with spelt flour?
That is awesome!! I’m so happy to hear that!