Sweet Potato Sandwich Rolls

To me, sweet potatoes are commonly consumed as mash or chips for mains, or as desserts in Asian cuisine. To incorporate the rich golden colour of sweet potatoes into bread seems to be a great idea to me and I couldn't resist baking these rolls as I saw this recipe from King Arthur flour website. I was excited baking these rolls and I'm glad that Lena, from Frozen wings, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours have both agreed to bake these rolls for our bake-along.

For this bake, one of my colleagues and I had an interesting discussion on how to prepare the mashed sweet potato for these rolls. We were thinking if I should boil or roast the potatoes before mashing them... We both felt that boiled potatoes are usually not as tasty as roasted potatoes as the boiling water absorbed in the sweet potatoes dilute their taste and texture. Our conclusion is that I should roast the potatoes for caramelisation of its sugar and not losing its flavour and richness to the boiling water. Sometimes, I think we both are so funny being so serious with this cooking discussion...LOL

With no sugar in this recipe, these soft rolls have a surprise hint of natural sweetness from the sweet potatoes and really rich in their colour and flavour. What a great recipe!

For our next bake-along, we are baking along with a "Go Bananas" theme, to be posted on 22 September 2011. Please join in the fun... Just cook or bake anything with banana and post your delicious creation on this day with us. Don't forget to let us know if you have "gone bananas" with us...

 

 

Here's the recipe from King Arthur Flour (with my modification in blue)

Make 6 large sandwich rolls

Dough
1/2 cup water
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tbsp (30g) butter, soften
1 tsp salt
1 large egg
3/4 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato (1 medium)
(Being unpeeled, my sweet potato was washed and cut at 3-4cm pieces is roasted at 180°C fan force for 25 min. The roasted potato pieces were then peeled and mashed.)
1/4 cup milk powder
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
(I use 2 1/4 cup flour in a combination of bread flour and Italian OO flour in the ratio of 1:4)

Topping
1 large egg beaten with 1 tbsp water
1/4 cup sesame seeds (optional)

To make the dough: Place all of the ingredients (holding back 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour) into the bowl of your mixer or the bucket of your bread machine, set up for the dough cycle. Mix until you've form a soft, but not sticky dough. Add more flour from your reserved amount if needed to achieve the correct consistency. Knead the dough for 6 min, then place it in a greased bowl, cover and let rise for 45 min to an hour; it will almost double in size and look puffy.

To shape and finish the rolls: After the first rise, deflate the dough and divide it into 6 pieces. You can roll each piece into a ball, then flatten it to make it 3/4-inch thick (this give it a large enough diameter to fit your sandwich on after baking). Or you can roll each piece into a 12- to 14-inch rope, and form into a Kaiser roll shape. Place the rolls either in a hamburger bun pan or on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover with greased plastic wrap, and let rise for 25 to 30 min, until almost doubled. Brush the tops of the rolls with the beaten egg, and sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 17 to 19 minutes, until the tops are a rich golden brown color, and the centers read above 190°F when measured with an instant-read thermometer. Remove the rolls from the oven and cool on a rack for 5 minutes, before removing from the pan and returning to the rack to cool completely.

Note: I've used the Kumara variety of sweet potatoes. Instead of cooking them by boiling, I've roasted them in order to minimise the water absorbed through boiling. I made 7 medium-size rolls with 2/3 of this recipe and bake the roll at 190°C (fan forced) for 19 min. 

Happy Baking
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