Healthy Sweet Potato Buns
Healthy sweet potato buns! They're nice and soft with a tasty sweetness and light (optional) onion flavor. They taste a bit like Hawaiian rolls or brioche buns. They don't have an overpowering sweet potato flavor, the sweet potatoes just add softness, sweetness and rich color! In fact, if you didn't know there were sweet potatoes in them you probably wouldn't notice. That makes these perfect for sneaking veggies into picky eaters! The recipe contains two whole (medium) sweet potatoes, and each bun has about 133% of your daily value of vitamin A from beta-carotene. Sweet potatoes have a ton of health benefits, you can read about them here: https://bit.ly/2PCsmRe On top of being packed with beta-carotene but tasting like an unhealthy roll, these are made with 100% whole wheat flour. That means these have plenty of B vitamins, minerals, and 5 grams of fiber per bun!
I really mean it about not tasting too much like sweet potatoes... My sweet potato hating father thought these smelled good while they were baking so I had him try one (without mentioning the sweet potatoes)... And he liked them! He made a pulled pork sandwich with one and ate it with no complaints. I love these with my garlic and herb pulled pork: https://bit.ly/31wAJDn
These buns are also perfect for any kind of burger: veggie, turkey, regular, etc. Speaking of veggie burgers, I have a great veggie burger recipe: https://bit.ly/30Ft5HK
I like to make these with an onion roll flavor, with a tablespoon of onion powder in the dough topped with dried minced onions. But, that's totally optional! You can leave it out entirely or replace it with poppyseed or sesame seeds. Leaving out the onions makes these healthy sweet potato buns even more versatile. I like to use the plain ones for peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches. Strawberry jam over grape jelly any day.
Ingredients
- 2 medium sweet potatoes (about 12 oz)
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tbsp molasses
- 1 packet active dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)
- 1/4 cup butter (melted)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 tsp salt
- pinch ground ginger
- 4 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp onion powder (optional)
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp dried minced onion (optional)
Topping
Instructions
Cook two sweet potatoes in the microwave: poke holes in them with a fork, microwave on high for 3 minutes, flip them over and microwave for another 2 minutes. They're done when soft all the way through.- Let the sweet potatoes cool until they're cool enough to handle.
Peel off all of the skin: cut them down the middle and just peel it off with your fingers.- Place in a large bowl and mash well with a fork.
Add one cup of room temperature water (or cool water if the sweet potatoes are still hot) to the mash and mix well.
Make sure the sweet potato mixture isn't too hot, it should only be a little warm. If it's too hot it'll kill your yeast. Add the yeast to the bowl along with the brown sugar and molasses and mix well. - Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.
- Add the flour, melted butter, buttermilk, salt, ginger, and optionally onion powder to the bowl, mix together.
When it starts to come together knead the dough, in the bowl without adding additional flour, with your hands for about 7 minutes. It'll form a sticky dough.- Cover the bowl and place it in the fridge for about 2 hours.
Remove from the fridge when the dough has at least doubled in size.
Punch down the dough and knead it for a couple of minutes.- Grease or butter a sheet pan.
Cut the dough into 12 pieces, lightly roll into a ball and place on a sheet pan. 
Cover the pan with a damp cloth and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.- Turn the oven on to 400°F and let it preheat.
- While the oven preheats, crack an egg into a small bowl and add 1 tablespoon of water and whisk thoroughly.
Brush the egg mixture on top of all the buns. when the oven is fully heated, put them in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.
You'll know they're done when they're browned on top. To make extra sure you can use a meat thermometer, they're done when they're at least 200°F inside.- Let cool fully before wrapping. Enjoy!