Miss Kitty and the Sweet Potato Rolls

Once upon a time in the Land of St. Honore' Elle had been missing seeing some of her friends. One was Miss Kitty, a delightful, intelligent and funny woman who is a fantastic cook and a huge Giants fan. Now that baseball season was over and Elle was putting work into perspective, she invited Miss Kitty and her hubby over for lunch. Sweetie wanted to plan the main course, so Elle gathered the last tomatoes of the season for the mixed greens salad and then she decided to make some dinner rolls that suited the season.

She started them the night before so that they could retard in the fridge overnight. On the day of the luncheon she carefully divided the dough into 24 pieces and created plump round dough balls which baked up, after rising, into the most beautiful golden rolls! One of the best things was that the house was fragrant with the delicious smell of freshly baked bread when the guests arrived for lunch. There was plenty to eat and even extra rolls to take home.

Plus, Miss Kitty brought dessert...a decadent chocolate hazelnut mousse cake! The sun was shining, good conversation and laughter flew around the table, and we basked in the small luxury of good food shared with good friends. St. Honore' would have been please with both the rolls and the cake...Elle, Sweetie, Miss Kitty and PowerMan were!

Of all the people who read the blog, Miss Kitty is probably the most enthusiastic. Her feedback is always such an encouragement, so Elle decided to create a dinner roll just for Miss Kitty.

The finished rolls were golden in color from the mashed yams, soft, warm, just slightly sour from the sourdough starter and very tender. (Since the photos were taken later, at night, the rolls may look a little more golden than they were, but not by much!)

The starting point for the recipe was the recipe for Sweet-Potato rolls found in The Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham, but many things were changed to make this special for Miss Kitty.

Garnet yams were used instead of sweet potatoes, a sourdough starter was the base instead of dry yeast (although a little commercial yeast was added), mashed potato flakes added to the tenderness. The dry milk was left out because none was in the pantry, and butter was used instead of shortening...bah on trans fats! Last, but not least, some of the proportions were changed and some white whole wheat flour was used instead of all regular flour.

Do you have someone you'd like to surprise with some fragrant, soft, totally decadent rolls, glowing with autumn gold? Try this recipe and see if they, too, want to take home some extra rolls...always a compliment to the cook! Thanks Miss Kitty! Hope to see you soon.

Sending this along to Susan at Wild Yeast for her weekly Yeastspotting event...a fabulous wonderland of yeasted bread recipes...check it out!

Sourdough Sweet Potato Rolls
Adapted from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham
Makes 24 rolls

1 ½ cup sour starter (or a smaller amount of starter that has been fed with a 100% hydration flour-water mixture to equal 1 ½ cups total, and then let sit at room temperature for 2 hours to mature)
½ cup warm water
¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons dry mashed potato flakes
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
3 ½ cups flour (I used a mixture of 1 cup King Arthur White Whole Wheat and 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour)
1 egg, slightly beaten
½ cup cooled, cooked, mashed sweet potato (I used Garnet Yam instead)
5 tablespoons butter, softened

Place the starter in a stand mixer bowl.

In a small bowl mix the barely warm water and the active dry yeast to proof for 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl whisk together the mashed potato flakes, sugar, salt and flour(s). Set aside.

Add the proofed yeast to the sourdough starter in the stand mixer bowl and stir with a wooden spoon to blend. Add the egg, sweet potato or yam mash, and butter and stir with a wooden spoon to blend.

Attach the dough hook to the stand mixer and put the mixer bowl in place. With mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the sourdough mixture, starting with ½ cup at a time and finishing with a Tablespoon at a time until you have a soft dough. Knead with the mixer for 5 minutes.

Turn the dough out into an oiled container big enough for rising the dough. Turn dough over to coat with the oil, then cover lightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight or at least 4 hours.

Remove from the ‘fridge and let sit at room temperature to warm for at least ½ hour, or until dough is no longer cold.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Punch down and shape into a rough square. Using a sharp knife or a bench scraper, cut the dough into four even pieces. Set three of the pieces aside and take the remaining piece and divide into 6 pieces. Using floured hands, shape each piece into a plump ball, pulling the edges under. Place an inch apart in greased cake pans. Repeat with each large piece of dough until you have 24 balls of dough in the pans. Cover each pan with oiled plastic wrap and cover with a tea towel. Let rise an hour or two until doubled in size.

Bake in preheated 400 degree F. oven for about 15 – 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on racks.