Soft and fluffy and slightly sweet, these Sweet Potato Buttermilk Crescent Rolls are perfect for a holiday. These homemade crescent rolls are so much better than store bought!
Love baking with yeast? Try this Artisan Bread of this White Bread.
One thing I’m always adamant about at any holiday dinner is I have to have homemade bread. So I usually end up volunteering to make the bread.
For years, my go to recipe has been my Lion House Roll recipe. Those things are soooo good. But this year, they may have some competition.
I recently remade these Sweet Potato Buttermilk Crescent Rolls and was reminded just how much I love them. In fact, I ended up making this recipe again 3 times in 2 weeks. And I’m considering making them again here in a couple of weeks.
They are soft and fluffy, and they taste amazing. These are not boring dinner rolls. A little bit sweet with lots of flavor, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with these rolls, just like I have.
Ingredients in this Crescent Roll Recipe
- Mashed Sweet Potatoes – This can be done well ahead of time. I just scrub my potatoes clean and poke some holes in them with a fork. Bake in a 400ºF oven until they are tender enough to pierce through with a fork. Baking time will depend on how big the sweet potatoes are. Then just let them cool enough to handle and remove the peels. I just mash them with a potato masher, but you can run them through a potato ricer if you don’t want any lumps at all. I actually don’t mind a few small lumps and they don’t seem to affect the rolls.
- Buttermilk – this makes the rolls super tender. You can make homemade buttermilk if you need to in a pinch (milk plus some lemon juice or vinegar).
- Egg – I use a large egg. The egg will help with the texture and the flavor of the rolls.
- Butter – This is your fat (along with a bit from the egg yolk). The butter will help the texture of the rolls, giving them a tender crumb. The butter also adds a lot of flavor. I use unsalted butter. If you use salted butter, just cut back on the salt by about a teaspoon.
- Sugar – You get some sweetness from the sweet potatoes, and also from the sugar. These aren’t sweet rolls, though. They have just a hint of sweetness. The sugar will actually help to feed the yeast which is what causes the bread to rise.
- Yeast – I use active dry yeast. I have never used fresh yeast, so I don’t have a lot of experience with that. I would steer clear of RapidRise yeast because these rolls do have a double rise, and it is intended for recipes that only have one rise.
- Salt – You can use sea salt or regular table salt in these rolls.
- Bread Flour – The difference between all-purpose flour and bread flour is the protein content. The extra protein helps the bread to produce gluten, giving it the best texture. If you don’t want to have an extra type of flour in your kitchen, you can substitute all-purpose, but bread flour will give you the best result.
How to Make Sweet Potato Buttermilk Crescent Rolls
1: To make these crescent rolls, first start by combining the sweet potatoes, buttermilk, egg, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix these together until they are combined, then let the mixture sit for a few minutes.
2: Using the paddle attachment on the mixer, mix in 1 cup of the flour. Continue to add in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time.
3: Once you have a soft dough, change to the dough attachment and knead the dough for 6-7 minutes, adding more flour as needed, until you have a smooth dough that is stick tacky but not overly sticky. You may need less flour, you may need more.
4: Scrape the dough into a large bowl that has been oiled and turn the dough once to coat it. Or, as you can see in the photo above, you can just leave the dough in the mixer bowl. This is my lazy shortcut, but it only works if you don’t need your mixer bowl for anything else. And when you go to remove the dough from the mixer bowl, it will stick to the sides some – it won’t just slide out like it would out of an oiled bowl.
5: Cover the bowl with a towel or with a piece of plastic wrap that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.
6: Let it rise until it has doubled.
7: When the dough has doubled, punch it down and then pour it out onto a counter that has been sprinkled with flour. Cut the dough into 3 equal pieces. I will sometimes use a kitchen scale to make sure I have divided the pieces evenly.
8: Working with one ball of dough at a time, roll it out into a circle about 12-inches in diameter. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 12 wedges.
9: Starting at the wide end of the wedge, roll the dough into a crescent shape. Place on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or a silpat liner. Place seam side down so that it won’t unroll while rising or baking.
10: Repeat with the remaining dough. I can fit 12 rolls on each baking sheet.
11: Cover the rolls with another towel or plastic wrap and let the rolls sit until they have doubled in size.
12: While the rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 350ºF.
13: Once they have risen, bake the rolls (I do it one tray at a time) until they are golden brown, about 15 minutes.
14: When they are done, remove them from the oven and brush with the melted butter.
These crescent rolls are the best they day they are made, but they are pretty darn good as leftovers as well. Store in an airtight container – I like a bread bag or a ziplock bag – and keep for up to 4 days.
More amazing dinner bread recipes:
Lion House Rolls
Cheesy Crescent Rolls
Easy Dinner Rolls
Easy Focaccia Bread
Easy French Bread Recipe
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Sweet Potato Buttermilk Crescent Roll Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed sweet potatoes at room temperature
- 2 cups buttermilk at room temperature
- 1 egg at room temperature
- 1/2 cup butter melted and cooled
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (2 packets)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 6-7 cups bread flour
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Combine the sweet potatoes, buttermilk, egg, butter, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low until combined. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes.
- Using the paddle attachment, add in 1 cup of the flour. Add in more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until a soft dough forms. If you are using a stand mixer, switch to the dough hook and knead the dough for 6-7 minutes, adding more flour as needed to form a dough that is tacky but not overly sticky.
- Scrape the dough from the bowl and form into a smooth ball. Grease a large bowl and place the dough in the bowl.* Turn the dough to coat in oil. Cover with a towel or a piece of plastic wrap that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Let the dough rise until it has doubled.
- When the dough has doubled, punch the dough down and turn it out onto a counter that has been lightly floured. Cut the dough into 3 equal pieces.
- Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough into a circle about 12-inches in diameter. Use a pizza cutter to cut the circle into 12 wedges.
- Starting at the wide end, roll up the wedges into a crescent shape. Place the rolls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat liner. Repeat with the remaining 2 balls of dough.
- Cover the rolls loosely with a towel and let the rolls rise again until doubled.
- While the rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Once the rolls have doubled, bake them in the preheated oven until they are browned and cooked through, 15-20 minutes.
- Melt the butter while the rolls bake.
- Remove from the oven and brush with the melted butter.
Shoko says
Thank you so much for this recipe! The rolls were just perfect and everyone enjoyed them! I was a little skeptical before trying the recipe out because it had no ratings, but I am sure glad that I tried it out.
I was wondering if I could double the amount of sweet potato without changing the quantities of the other ingredients. I actually would like to increase the nutritional value with the doubled amount. Do you have any experience with this?