Comforting fall flavor meets buttery deliciousness in this Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls recipe. With fluffy texture and a subtle, spiced sweetness, these rolls are a perfect match for your favorite fall meals. Serve 'em warm with honey cinnamon glaze to kick the cozy up a notch.
Table of Contents
- 🗝️ Key takeaways: why this recipe is your new favorite
- 🧾 Gather your ingredients: what you'll need
- 📖 Make it your own: yummy variations
- 🔪 Step-by-step guide: instructions for success
- 🍴Must have tools: essential equipment
- 🎥 Watch and cook: step-by-step video tutorial
- 🥫 Leftover love: how to store and reheat sweet potato rolls
- Marye's Tip o' the day
- 💭 Insider tips: things to know
- 👩🍳 Let's answer those questions: FAQs
- 📚 More Southern comfort: related recipes you'll love
- 🍽️ No waste: creative ways to repurpose
- 📞 Wrapping it up: the last word
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
Save this recipe by clicking on the ❤️ heart on the right-hand side of the screen or in the recipe card.
🗝️ Key takeaways: why this recipe is your new favorite
- These rolls aren't too sweet but have a balanced, buttery flavor and just a hint of delicious fall spice.
- Sweet potato dinner rolls are perfect for everything from casual fall meals to holiday dinners—they're a big hit on Thanksgiving!
- Making potatoes for dinner, too? Reserve some starchy potato water to give your rolls a great texture, keeping them nice and soft.
If you've never made bread before, this is an excellent place to start—my easy roll recipe includes everything you need for perfect results and includes make-ahead options, too.
Once you try these delicious sweet potato dinner rolls, you might never go back to classic ones!
🧾 Gather your ingredients: what you'll need
This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the green recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
📖 Make it your own: yummy variations
- Brushing the rolls with melted butter, cinnamon, and honey is optional but adds a lovely, sweet finish.
- Lean into the savory flavors of fall by adding dried and ground sage, rosemary, and thyme to the dough instead of pumpkin pie spice.
- Swap the sweet glaze for garlic butter, if you'd like. Sprinkle the tops with parmesan for a salty finishing touch.
- You can make your own pumpkin pie spice using cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves.
- I like active dry yeast, but you can use rapid-rise yeast in the same amount if it's what you have on hand.
🔪 Step-by-step guide: instructions for success
This is an overview of the instructions. Full instructions are in the green recipe card at the bottom of the page. Click on the image to see it full size.
Combine yeast, water, sugar, sweet potato, butter, salt, and eggs.
Add one cup of flour and pumpkin pie spice. Stir to combine.
Add more flour. Knead until the dough is sticky but workable and smooth.
Let the dough rise in a bowl. Divide into rolls, let rise again, and bake.
🤫 Marye's secret for zhuzhing it up -
Just before the rolls go in the oven I brush them with a combination of melted butter, honey, and cinnamon (to taste). I brush them again as soon as they come out. This gives them a nice, shiny look and a little burst of sweet flavor (but not too sweet).
zhuzh: verb. To make something more interesting or attractive
🍴Must have tools: essential equipment
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🎥 Watch and cook: step-by-step video tutorial
🥫 Leftover love: how to store and reheat sweet potato rolls
Sweet potato dinner rolls are best served warm, fresh out of the oven. Store extras in an airtight container on the counter out of direct sunlight.
Like most homemade bread, leftover rolls will keep at room temperature for up to two days. You can also freeze them (tightly sealed) for up to three months.
Reheat for a few seconds in the microwave or put them in a 13x9-inch pan, cover with aluminum foil, and heat in a 350F degree oven for 10 minutes or until warmed through.
Marye's Tip o' the day
Just add enough flour until the dough is workable—it should still be a little sticky, though. Adding too much flour makes rolls dry.
💭 Insider tips: things to know
- Active dry yeast needs to activate in warm water (110 degrees F) with a little sugar. Skipping this step or using water that's too hot or cold will prevent your rolls from rising well.
- The most accurate way to measure flour is the "spoon and level" method: spoon it into the measuring cup and scrape off the excess with the flat side of a butter knife.
- However, you may not need to use as much flour as I did, or you may need a little more. Trust your gut and how the dough feels.
- I like to use a Silpat mat for kneading the dough so I don't get my countertop all floured up.
- Roll/bread dough rises best in a warm place. If your kitchen runs cool, you can use one of the following methods to help bread rise.
- Sometimes I'll take a photo of the dough (pre-rise) so that I can check it later to compare and make sure the dough has doubled in size. This works better than just letting it rise based on time alone.
👩🍳 Let's answer those questions: FAQs
Have other questions? Ask me in the comments!
I don't recommend it—your sweet potato dinner rolls won't rise as much and won't have the right chewiness. Different types of flours work differently. Learn more about bread flour here.
The yeast, sugar, and water mixture should get foamy after five minutes or so. If it doesn't look any different, your yeast might not be good anymore. (However, you may just have used water that was too hot or cold and damaged the yeast.)
Nope. Rapid-rise yeast doesn't require activation, so you can add it to the ingredients as written without any waiting time in step two.
Some roll recipes require more kneading—others, less. It all depends on the recipe itself, and things like the type of flour and desired end result. These sweet potato dinner rolls don't need a lot of kneading, just a few minutes or until smooth.
Either at room temperature for two days or in the freezer for longer storage. I wrote a full article about homemade bread and roll storage for more information.
⏲️ Marye's time saving hacks -
Make rolls ahead to save valuable time on holiday dinner prep. You can either:
- Make the dough, let it rise, shape the rolls, and freeze 'em unbaked. Thaw in the fridge overnight, then bake as directed.
- Make the rolls and bake them just until done, but not browned. Cool and freeze. When you're ready to serve them, bake until golden brown like brown 'n serve rolls—no need to thaw.
📚 More Southern comfort: related recipes you'll love
- Buttery, soft, and lightly sweet, my Super Soft Potato Rolls are a classic dinner side dish that taste great all year round.
- Rum Sweet Potato Pound Cake is a deliciously moist, dense cake that adds a festive flavor to the holiday season.
- Sweet and spicy, Whipped Chipotle Sweet Potato Mash has a fabulous texture and is so easy to make for any dinner or gathering.
🍽️ No waste: creative ways to repurpose
Sweet potato dinner rolls don't usually last long in my house, but, like regular rolls, they can be used up in many tasty ways:
- Split in half for eggs benedict
- Cubed into the topping for a crustless pot pie
- Used as the base for a fall-themed biscuits 'n sausage gravy
- Torn and dried into croutons (perfect with a nutty cranberry salad!)
- Diced, seasoned, and stuffed into your turkey on Thanksgiving
- Sliced up for fall French toast (use eggnog for extra holiday flavor!)
📞 Wrapping it up: the last word
There's nothing in the world like a soft, fluffy dinner roll piping hot and covered in melting butter. There are so many different kinds, different textures, and different flavors that it can be hard to choose.
Try this just once and I am pretty positive that they will end up on your Fall baking list from now on. This recipe? Well, it's how family traditions get started.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need.
If you love this recipe please comment below and give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls
Print Pin Recipe Rate RecipeIngredients
- .25 ounce active dry yeast, 1 package
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ cup sweet potato puree, from fresh or canned
- 1 cup warm potato water, 110 degrees F/45 degrees C or regular water
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted and browned
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, use ¾ teaspoon if using regular table salt
- 2 eggs, room temperature, beaten
- 4 ¾ cups bread flour, may need a little more or less
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Optional glaze
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Dissolve yeast, warm water, and 1 tablespoon white sugar in a mixing bowl.
- Let stand 5 minutes.
- Add remaining sugar, sweet potato, butter or margarine, salt, and slightly beaten eggs. Stir to mix well.
- Mix 1 cup of flour with the pumpkin pie spice and stir into the sweet potato mixture.
- Stir in 2 more cups of flour.
- Turn out on a lightly floured surface.
- Knead 2 to 3 minutes, adding just enough of remaining flour to prevent sticking.
- Do not over-knead.
- When dough is smooth and slightly sticky shape into a ball.
- Place in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface.
- Cover with a clean tea towel, and let rise about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.
- Punch down.
- Divide into 16 balls, and place on a greased cookie sheet or in a 9x13 inch pan.
- Allow to rise until doubled - about 20-30 minutes.
- Brush with melted butter or the optional glaze.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes.
Optional Glaze
- Melt the butter in the microwave.
- Whisk in the cinnamon and honey until well blended.
- Let cool to 110℉ and brush rolls before baking.
- Brush lightly once more as soon as they come out of the oven.
Notes
- Using water that's too hot or cold will prevent your rolls from rising well.
- You may not need to use as much flour as I did, or you may need a little more. Trust your gut and how the dough feels.
- I find it takes about 5 minutes to cook a sweet potato in the microwave. Push a knife to the center and remove it. Place in the microwave until soft, about 5 minutes, then cut open and remove the peel. Mash with a fork to get out all the lumps.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.
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