Swirls of Sweet Potato Rolls
Last week, in sharing about my market find of purpleflesh sweet potatoes, I said I was going to try making sweet bread with it and share the results with you. Well, I did make the sweet bread, and I had extra mashed sweet potatoes and decided to make sweet potato rolls à la cinnamon rolls. My favourite of the two? The sweet potato rolls!
The taste testers liked both baked goods. Everyone said that although they were told upfront about the sweet potatoes present in the bread and rolls, that they did not detect anything different in terms of taste or texture. Frankly, they were not meant to. The idea for me was to see how well the sweet potatoes could be incorporated into baked treats. On the other hand, when they had the yeasted bread and bread rolls last week, they swooned over the texture (tenderness) of the loaf and rolls. Most ate the two with butter and made sandwiches. I personally liked how the colour got a lovely shade of purple when toasted.
The Quick Bread
As the name suggests, quick breads are breads - sweet or savoury - that are easy and quick to put together and never need any resting or rising/proofing time before being baked. You mix and bake immediately. The longest thing about making quick breads is the actual baking time. That can range from 45 minutes to an hour or a little more, depending on the wetness of the mixture and quantity.
The sweet potato sweet bread I made took just over an hour to bake. The oven rise was as expected given the combination of baking soda and baking powder in the batter. The bread needed robust flavouring given the quantity of sweet potatoes in the mixture, so I added more than the usual amount of spices that I normally would. The addition of dried fruit – raisins and cranberries – complemented the sweet potatoes well, and the nuts added another element of texture with their crunch. Tastewise, the bread was good on the first day. The taste testers and I had it plain and with cheese (we liked it better with cheese). However, we all found that on the second and third days, the bread improved in flavour with the spices and was exceptionally tasty on its own.
If I had to change anything, it would be to add a little more sugar. I held back on the sugar because I assumed that the sweet potato would make up with its natural sweetness, but it didn’t. As I write this, I am thinking that perhaps instead of adding more sugar to the recipe itself, it might be better to drizzle the sweet bread with an icing glaze flavoured with orange, lime or lemon. Actually, I think that would be perfect. Be sure to do the glaze if you make the quick bread.
The Swirled Rolls
As I said above, this was my favourite, not just because of the taste. I like pretty food, and once baked, these rolls looked lovely with the ribbons of purple circling the rich dough, glossy from the sugar-water glaze.
Kissed with the flavour of cinnamon, and the mashed sweet potatoes made creamy with condensed milk, these rolls were soft and very moreish. Accompanied with a hot beverage of choice, you can comfortably have 2 of these rolls at one go. I am definitely making this again and will try it with orange-flesh sweet potatoes.
It really is exciting thinking of other ways in which to use familiar ingredients. I hope that you give both or either of these recipes a try. Bring something different to your breakfast, brunch or tea table.
Enjoy!
Cynthia cynthia@tasteslikehome.org www.tasteslikehome.org