Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls

These sweet potato cinnamon rolls are filled with a pecan-brown sugar rub and topped with caramelized marshmallow glaze. So yummy!

Continue to Content

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls

Yield: 10 -12

Print

Ingredients

• Dough
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2/3 cup almond milk, or regular milk
• 1 cup mashed sweet potato
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 packages yeast
• 4 1/14 cup all purpose flour, or cup for cup Gluten Free Flour
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• Filling
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Glaze
• 6 tablespoons marshmallow cream
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons softened butter

Instructions

1. Heat butter and milk over low heat until butter melts and the mixture is warm. Remove from heat and cool about 10 minutes.
2. Add the two packages of yeast to the milk. Stir it and then let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
3. In the mean time, combined mashed sweet potato and eggs with an electric mixture.
4. In another bowl, whisk together white sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.
5. Add the flour mixture to the sweet potato mixture, about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing in between each addition. Make sure the dough is slightly sticky to the touch and doesn't get overly dry.
6. Slowly pour the yeast mixture into the flour and mix in - do not overmix!
7. Using a dough hook, knead the dough for about five minutes. Alternatively, you can use hand kneading. I just think a dough hook is easier!
8. Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise for about an hour.
9. After an hour, punch the dough down and roll into a large rectangle, about 1/2 of an inch thick. Make sure the surface you roll it on is well-floured so it doesn't stick.
10. Using softened butter, spread butter liberally on the dough.
11. Mix together the pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon, and spread evenly on top of butter/dough.
12. Roll up, and cut into slices. Place on a greased pan.
13. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.
14. Remove from oven. While cooling, prepare the glaze.
15. Combine sugar and water in a pot and heat until boiling. Stir until sugar dissolve.s.
16. Whisk in marshmallow cream and butter until everything is combined. Let it lightly boil for a minute or two, whisking the entire time.
17. Remove from heat and let cool for 30 seconds to a minute.
18. Drizzle on top of warm rolls.
19. Serve immediately

I never had sweet potatoes growing up. I literally cannot think of one time I had one. Thanksgiving dinner never had a place for sweet potato pie or casserole and sweet potato french fries didn’t become popular until I went to college. To be honest, I don’t even know if I knew sweet potatoes exist.

Considering how much we eat sweet potatoes now, it’s a little odd that I never had any growing up. I’m guessing that’s partially due to the fact that my mom and dad don’t really love sweet potatoes. Maybe it’s because my mom grew up in Idaho, so those were the only types of potatoes she thought we should eat. Who knows. Needless to say, Forrest was a little surprised when he found out that sweet potatoes weren’t really a thing I ate growing up.

Fortunately, he’s helped correct my ways, and they’ve quickly become one of my favorite foods! I love sweet potato casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, sweet potato french fries…everything! They just have such a yummy flavor to them, and I don’t feel too  bad about eating them. They are actually pretty nutritious!

I saw this recipe for sweet potato dinner rolls, and it got me thinking – why not make sweet potato cinnamon rolls?! I had never seen such a thing done before, so I did a quick google search and find just a couple of recipes. I decided to base my recipe off of this from Eat, Live, Run. I wanted it to have a sweet topping that had a caramel-marshmallow flavor, and I also wanted it filled with pecans.

They didn’t turn out super beautiful, but they sure tasted delicious.

I’m not going to lie, this was a pretty time intensive recipe. But really, aren’t most cinnamon roll recipes kind of time intensive? Luckily, the payoff is more than delicious.

A few tips for success:

• Make sure to use yeast that isn’t super old, and be sure to allow it to proof long enough. We always use Fleischmann’s yeast packets, and they never let us down.

• Add the flour slowly. One thing I’ve learned about making bread is that you don’t always need to put in the amount that the recipe calls for. Doing this sometimes results in very dry bread dough. Just remember this – you can always add more flour, but you can’t really take it out!
• When making the glaze, let it set for about 30 seconds to a minute off of the stove top. It needs time to caramelize a little bit – otherwise it will be really liquidy.

• The bread recipe isn’t super sweet – if you want them to be a little sweeter, just add a little more sugar to the recipe!
• Letting them rise and bake in a glass dish is a good idea – ours was dirty, so I just use a jelly roll pan…however, putting them in a glass dish always works better in my experience!

I really think this is the perfect dish for Thanksgiving breakfast, or Christmas brunch! It’s a little different than a traditional cinnamon roll recipe, however, I think it’s worth the risk. For more delicious Thanksgiving recipe inspiration visit breadworld.com and karosyrup.com