Sourdough Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls

In charge of a Thanksgiving side? I got you. These are not your mama’s dinner rolls. These soft and sweet rolls are the perfect side dish and are a wonderful compliment to any autumn meal.

❤️ Why You’ll Love Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls

These are different than any other dinner rolls I’ve made. Ya’ll have heard me say this a million time, I don’t think bread should be boring. I love to experiment with different flavors and textures with sourdough, which carried over into these dinner rolls. These are sweet, sticky, warm rolls that are a level up from just your average roll – which is why everyone loves them.

🍲 Ingredients

Sourdough – The sourdough starter is the leavening agent to the dinner rolls, which means the rolls are able to rise without the use of commercial yeast.

Sweet Potato – 1 whole roasted sweet potato lends a natural flavor, color, and sweetness to these delicious rolls.

All-Purpose Flour – all-purpose flour is a kitchen staple that almost everyone in the world has in their pantry.

Whole-Wheat Flour – I love the way that the smallest amount of whole wheat flour brings a rustic texture and taste to any kind of bread.

Milk – whole milk works best.

Honey – The sweetener in this recipe that compliments the sweet potato beautifully, but if you don’t have honey, you can easily use brown or granulated sugar instead.

👩‍🍳 How to Make Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls.

• The night before – feed your starter and roast your sweet potatoes. Scrape the inside of the potato out, and transfer it into an airtight container and store in the fridge overnight.
• In the morning – in a small saucepan peel, chop, and boil your sweet potatoes until fork tender. Drain the potatoes and add in the milk, butter and honey. When everything is melted together, use your immersion blender until the puree is a velvety texture..
• In a stand mixer, add in flours, salt, cinnamon and bubbly starter. On low speed, slowly add in the milk + sweet potato puree. Let the dough knead in the stand mixer for 5-6 minutes.
• (if the dough is too wet, or too dry, add in all-purpose flour or whole milk one tablespoon at a time until the dough is more easily handled)
• Cover and let rest on the counter for 5 – 6 hours.
• After resting, turn the dough out onto a slightly floured work surface and separate into 12 equal pieces. Shape into balls by tucking the sides towards the middle and rolling in your hand until a smooth and cohesive dough ball has formed.
• Transfer the rolls into a buttered 9 x 13 baking dish seam-side down. Cover with a tea towel for another 90 minutes – 2 hours.
• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and bake for 22 -25 minutes.
• While your rolls are baking, melt butter, honey and cinnamon on the stove over low heat until everything is fully melted and incorporated.
• When the timer is up, remove the rolls from the oven and immediately brush the cinnamon honey butter over the top.
• Let cool for 30 minutes and enjoy with extra butter!

Bakers Schedule:

9pm: feed your starter a 1:3:3 ratio. (ex. 25 grams starter + 75 grams flour + 75 grams water)

8:30 am: cook your sweet potatoes, and make your puree.

9am: assemble your dough.

Cover and let rest on the counter.

3 pm: Separate the dough into 12 equal pieces. Let rest.

4:30 pm: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

5 pm: Bake for 22-25 minutes.

Melt 2 TBS of butter, 1 TBS of honey, and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon together and pour directly on top of the rolls. Let cool slightly before serving with extra butter.

🪄 Tips and Tricks

• Roast the sweet potatoes the night before so it has cooled down and can be put directly into the dough the next morning.
• If you knead your dough long enough (about 5 minutes) in the stand mixer, there is no need for stretch and folds with this recipe.
• If you want your sweet potato puree to cool down faster, instead of melting the butter, stir it in while its cold and that cool it down quicker.

🗒 Substitutions

I like honey as the sweetener for this recipe, but you can easily substitute this for brown or granulated sugar.

If you don’t have any whole wheat flour, use entirely all-purpose flour instead.

🗒 Best Served With

• Thanksgiving dinner
• Easter dinner side
• Honey butter

👝 How to Store Leftovers

Everyone loves Thanksgiving leftovers, and these rolls are the perfect sandwich vessel to make leftover Turkey sandwiches. Simply place the rolls into an airtight container or Ziplock bag and place on your counter for 2-3 days.

If you want to freeze the dough for another day, place the pre-cooked, separated dinner rolls into an aluminum pan, cover, and place the pan in the freezer.

🤔 Common Questions

5 from 3 votes

Sourdough Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls

Print recipe

These fluffy, sweet and tender dinner rolls are the perfect side for a special dinner. They kick the classic dinner roll up a notch with just a few simple steps, and your whole family will be sure to love them.

Prep Time:30 minutes mins

Cook Time:22 minutes mins

Resting time:8 hours hrs

Total Time:8 hours hrs 55 minutes mins

Equipment

• baking dish
• stand mixer
• Sauce pan
• Measuring cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked sweet potato
• 4 TBS butter softened
• ¾ cup whole milk
• ¼ cup honey
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• ½ cup bubbly sourdough starter bubbly
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Cinnamon Honey Butter

• 3 TBS butter melted
• 2 TBS honey
• ½ tsp cinnamon

Instructions

• The night before – feed your starter and roast your sweet potatoes. Scrape the inside of the potato out, and transfer it into an airtight container and store in the fridge overnight.
• In the morning – in a small saucepan peel, chop, and boil your sweet potatoes until fork tender. Drain the potatoes and add in the milk, butter and honey. When everything is melted together, use your immersion blender until the puree is a velvety texture..
• In a stand mixer, add in flours, salt, cinnamon and bubbly starter. On low speed, slowly add in the milk + sweet potato puree. Let the dough knead in the stand mixer for 5-6 minutes.
• (if the dough is too wet, or too dry, add in all-purpose flour or whole milk one tablespoon at a time until the dough is more easily handled)
• Cover and let rest on the counter for 5 – 6 hours.
• After resting, turn the dough out onto a slightly floured work surface and separate into 12 equal pieces. Shape into balls by tucking the sides towards the middle and rolling in your hand until a smooth and cohesive dough ball has formed.
• Transfer the rolls into a buttered 9 x 13 baking dish seam-side down. Cover with a tea towel for another 90 minutes – 2 hours.
• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and bake for 22 -25 minutes.
• While your rolls are baking, melt butter, honey and cinnamon on the stove over low heat until everything is fully melted and incorporated.
• When the timer is up, remove the rolls from the oven and immediately brush the cinnamon honey butter over the top.
• Let cool for 30 minutes and enjoy with extra butter!

Notes

If you want to freeze these rolls to make ahead of time and bake on a later date, say… Thanksgiving or Easter:) just follow the directions as they are stated, but instead of letting the dough rolls do their second rise, cover and stick them directly into the freezer.

If you want to bake the rolls in the morning, take them out the night before to thaw and rise. If you want to bake the rolls for dinner, remove them from the freezer first thing in the morning and leave them on the counter to thaw and rise before baking! 

Nutrition

Calories: 379kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 29mg | Sodium: 380mg | Potassium: 150mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 346IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 48mg | Iron: 3mg

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Dinner, Rolls, Sourdough, Sourdough Bread

Servings: 8

Calories: 379kcal