Saturday, December 11, 2010

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls

As I previously posted, I have a huge batch of sweet potato purée. Since I have been wanting to experiment with Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls, I decided that today was the day. I sat down and wrote out what I wanted to do and headed to the kitchen to test my recipe. This is not a fast recipe, but it isn't difficult, and the resulting rolls were so worth the effort. Unlike some of the heat and eat rolls, these did not seem as overly sweet, the cinnamon sugar caramelized into candy in the spots where it oozed onto the parchment. This produced more than a dozen huge rolls.
I'm pretty sure I heard Hubby purring while he ate one of these, and then after a few minutes he announced he wanted another, LOL



Dough ingredients:
2 (¼ oz) envelopes dry yeast
½ cup warm water (100°-110°F/app. 37°-43°C*)
1 Tbsp sugar
5½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sweet potato puree
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
¼ cup melted butter
zest from 1 orange
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Filling ingredients- mix until well-blended
2 cup light brown sugar (or 2 cups of sugar blended with 2 Tbsp molasses)
¾ cup melted butter
2 Tbsp cinnamon

Glaze ingredients:
1½ cups confectioners sugar
4 Tbsp orange juice
zest from 1 orange

Preparation:
1. Stir together yeast, ½ cup warm water (100° to 110° F/app. 37°-43°C*), and 1 tsp. sugar in a 1-cup glass measuring cup; let stand 5 minutes. While you are waiting, you can:
~reserve ½ cup of flour for kneading, then whisk remaining flour, zest, sugar, baking soda and salt together
~whisk the egg and milk together.
2. Combine yeast mixture and ½ cup flour in a mixing bowl; blend well.
Gradually add butter, mashed sweet potatoes, flour mixture, and egg mixture. Alternate wet and dry ingredients until everything is mixed.
3. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface, and knead in remaining ½ cup flour. Continue to knead until smooth and elastic (app. 4 to 5 minutes).
4. Place dough in a large bowl coated with oil. Turn dough to coat the surface. Cover the bowl with a damp towel, and let rise in a warm place (85°F/app. 30°C*), free from drafts, 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
5. Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a well-floured surface. Roll it into at least a 10'x18' rectangle. Leaving a 1" border along one long edge, spread filling evenly on the dough. Roll the dough at the long side (toward the 1" of dough that does not have filling) to create an 18" long (or longer) log of dough. Slice into 1½" pieces (you can use thread to cut the dough- run thread under the dough, cross the ends and pull).  Arrange on a parchment-lined 13"x9" baking pan and let rise in a warm area (app 85°F/app. 30°C*) for 30 minutes. 
6. Part-way through the last rise, preheat oven to 400°F (app. 205°C*).
7. Bake rolls for 10 minutes, remove at this point to drizzle half of the glaze on the cinnamon rolls. Allow that to soak in, then return the rolls to the oven for 7-10 (until lightly browned and a tester-wooden toothpick comes out clean.
8. Slide parchment onto another baking sheet, allow to cool 20-30 minutes, drizzle remaining glaze on the rolls and serve warm.


*I use an online conversion chart and round up or down, as seems appropriate. Please adjust according to your judgement, and send me a message if you find an error. Thank you.

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