In addition to making burger buns more nutrient-dense, delectable, and noticeably more attractive, adding sweet potatoes to them offers the ideal chance to overcome your fear of flour amounts and master the art of making dough by feel. These are the ideal hamburger bun in terms of flavor, aesthetics, and texture.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 5 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 16 buns |
Ingredients
- ½ pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup warm water
- 1 (.25 ounce) package dry active yeast (such as Fleischmann’s® RapidRise Yeast)
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 ¼ teaspoons fine sea salt
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, or more as needed
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon water
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, or to taste
Instructions
- Place sweet potatoes into a large pot and cover with salted water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until very tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well. Mash sweet potatoes with a potato masher. Measure out 1 cup and allow to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate remaining mashed sweet potatoes for another use.
- Whisk 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup warm water, and yeast together in a bowl. Cover and and place in a warm place to allow yeast to activate, about 15 minutes.
- Spoon 1 cup of cooled mashed sweet potatoes into yeast mixture and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add egg, melted butter, honey, and sea salt and about 3 cups flour. Mix using the dough hook. Knead for 2 to 3 minutes. If dough seems too sticky, gradually add in remaining flour or as needed to where dough pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl. Continue kneading until dough is very soft, only slightly sticky, and somewhat elastic, about 2 minutes.
- Transfer dough to a floured surface. Shape into smooth ball. Return dough to bowl and drizzle with oil; rub oil over entire surface to prevent dough from drying out. Cover and place in a warm spot until dough has doubled in size, about 2 hours.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently press out air pockets. If needed, use only enough flour to keep dough from sticking. Press into rectangular shape about 3/4-inch thick. Cut dough into 16 equal sized pieces. Gently shape each piece into a ball. Slightly flatten each ball and place onto a rimmed baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. Let rise until double, about 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Whisk 1 egg and 1 teaspoon water together in a bowl. Brush each bun with egg mixture. Sprinkle dough with sesame seeds.
- Bake in the preheated oven until browned, about 15 minutes.
- This recipes makes enough for 8 large, 16 medium, or 32 slider-sized buns.
- Large buns may take an extra few minutes to bake; the sliders-sized may take a minute or two less.
- Nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of sweet potato. The actual amount of sweet potato consumed will vary.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 154 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 26 g |
| Cholesterol | 28 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 170 mg |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 3 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
So good ! I added everything bagel seasoning to mine !! I made mine for Texas sized burgers
The buns turned out great! I am very pleased. I substituted Butternut squash for the sweet potatoes because that is what I had. And caraway seeds for the sesame seeds, same reason. They are golden on the outside and light and fluffy inside. This one is a keeper.
Makes the best dough for cinnamon rolls, too!
I’m not a cook but trying to learn. My first attempt at making any kind of bread. I made a lot of mistake and it still turned out ok! My wife loved them!
Wouldn’t know there was sweet potato in them if I didn’t know. But was a good bun
I even subbed 1 c flour with whole wheat and it was great! Agave instead of honey for babies as well.
I’ve been making these for Many Years. Just wonderful! I even buy the big bag of sweet potatoes from Costco so I’ll always be ready! You can microwave the whole potatoes and then peel and mash on a plate with a fork. Do extra sweet potatoes and freeze in recipe amounts . Saves in tools used & clean up . If you have slightly more or less than recipe requires, just adjust the flour used.
Pretty good rolls. I will do again.
Came out a little yeasty for some reason- prolly try it again
Made these exactly as instructed. To make these into “regular” bun size, I’d use this recipe to shape a dozen buns – rather than 16. Texture and color are perfect – way better than store-bought buns. BTW, even though my kitchen wasn’t particularly warm, it only took about an hour for the first rise.
It came up wonderful, great recipe, keeping for next year.
A very delicious and bulletproof recipe! We have used it in making dinner rolls and hamburger buns! Make them just a little bigger for hamburger buns and using rings very helpful! Definitely a “go to” bread for us!
I don’t have a stand mixer so I did everything by hand. I was worried that it wouldn’t turn out well but it was amazing. And I didn’t have to knead that much, maybe 10 minutes by hand. I don’t have much experience baking, but the recipe is very easy and delicious.
these buns were really good, I’ve made them twice, this time the size turned out better but I only got 4 buns out of the recipes required about of ingredients.
Great recipe !
I used Manuka honey ! It’s delicious. thank you!!
Great recipe.
#bunsnotballs , “an extra bun is not one of my 99 problems“ rofl- cracking me up! Great recipe & especially the demo video. Bread can be tricky, but you make it look easy with good explanations of how to work the dough & adding flour correctly.. Thanks Chef John!
Fun to make, fun to eat
Excellent. Recipe made 36 mini buns for me. I measured the balks to 1 Oz for consistency.
These are now my most favorite dinner rolls! So fluffy & moist and delicious!