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Gluten free sweet potato browned butter rolls are soft, tender and packed with flavor. Use up your extra roasted potatoes.
Table of Contents
These are pretty special rolls, these super soft gluten free sweet potato brown butter rolls. They're made with browned butter, which takes butter from one of my favorite things (what can I say?) straight to my favorite.
Plus, they're made with sweet potatoes. I truly love sweet potatoes, but I always know that if I talk about them at all, I run the risk of getting one of those eye-rolling lectures from someone about the difference between sweet potatoes and yams and how grocery stores the world over name them all wrong. I don't know the difference, and if you try to tell it to me, I'm gonna class it up and stick my fingers in my ears (or in my eyes, if you write it out here on the Internet).
Oh, and guess what? The bread dough is so dreamy and easy to work with that there is absolutely no need for any sort of long, slow refrigerator rise. You will want to chill the dough a bit, though, after it rises since it's just much easier to work with cold dough and that's a fact.
If you're afraid of browning butter, I promise It's super easy—just take it slow.
I most like these super flavorful rolls made full-size, because they make amazing hamburger buns and I just don't see the point of making “sliders” at home since, well, double the work for exactly the same enjoyment. But if you'd prefer sliders, go ahead and divide the rolls into as many pieces as you like before baking (say, 12?).
Gluten Free Sweet Potato Browned Butter Rolls
Equipment
- Stand mixer fitted with dough hook attachment
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter, chopped
- 3 ½ cups (490 g) Gluten Free Bread Flour, plus more for sprinkling (click thru for details; you must use this blend)
- 1 ⅔ teaspoons (5 g) instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons (12 g) kosher salt
- ¾ cup (5 ¼ ounces) roasted mashed sweet potatoes, from about 3 small sweet potatoes (See Recipe Notes)
- 1 tablespoon (21 g) honey
- 1 ⅛ cups (9 fluid ounces) milk, at room temperature
- Egg wash, (1 egg + 1 tablespoon water, beaten), for brushing
- Unsalted butter, for brushing the tops
Instructions
Brown the butter.
- Place the butter in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. First, the butter will melt, and then it will boil and foam. Continue to stir, and watch carefully. The protein solids will separate and drop to the bottom of the pan.
- As soon as you begin to smell a nutty smell and begin to see a golden brown color start forming around the edges of the saucepan, remove the pan from the heat and continue to stir. Once the bubbles clear, you will be able to see whether the protein has begun to brown. If not, return to the heat briefly, stirring constantly, and remove once the butter has begun to brown.
- Continue to stir, as it will continue to brown off the heat. Pour the brown butter into a small, heat-safe bowl and set it aside to cool until no longer hot to the touch.
Make the dough.
- Place the bread flour and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer, and use a handheld whisk to combine well. Add the salt, and whisk to combine. Add the cooled browned butter, sweet potatoes, honey and milk, then attach the dough hook to the stand mixer, and mix on low speed until combined. Raise the mixer speed to medium and mix for about 5 minutes. The dough should be smooth and stretchy.
- Spray a silicone spatula lightly with cooking oil spray, and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl or proofing bucket large enough for the dough to rise to double its size, and cover with an oiled piece of plastic wrap (or the oiled top of your proofing bucket).
- Set the dough in a warm, draft-free environment to allow it to rise to double its size (about 1 1/2 hours).
- Once it has doubled, place it in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes or until it is chilled. This will make it much easier to handle.
Begin to shape the dough.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and, using the scrape and fold kneading method and a very light touch, sprinkle the dough with more flour and knead it lightly, sprinkling with flour when necessary to prevent it from sticking, scraping the dough off the floured surface with a floured bench scraper, then folding it over on itself. Repeat scraping and folding until the dough has become smoother. Do not overwork the dough or you will incorporate too much flour and it will not rise properly.
Shape the buns + the final rise.
- With a floured bench scraper, divide the dough into eight pieces of equal size. Shape each piece into a round, and place the rounds on the prepared baking sheet, about 3-inches apart from one another.
- Sprinkle the tops of the rounds lightly with flour. Cover the baking sheet with lightly oiled plastic wrap, and place in a warm, draft-free location until nearly doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours).
Bake the buns.
- About 25 minutes before the buns have finished rising, preheat your oven to 375°F, then remove the plastic wrap and brush the rolls generously with the egg wash.
- Allow to finish rising, and then place the baking sheet in the preheated oven and bake for about 10 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to 350°F, remove the buns from the oven, and brush the tops with the melted butter.
- Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake until the internal temperature of the buns reaches about 185° and they are golden brown all over (about another 8 minutes).
- Remove from the oven and cover with a tea towel as they cool before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These would be great with turkey, cranberry relish, some lettuce and orange slices on there. Don’t forget the mayo!
I’m confused by how much GF flour to use after looking at step 1. The ingredient list states 3 1/2 cups, but the step one is confusing me – sorry!
Step one is about browning the butter, Lori. Step two discusses when to use the flour.
I get so disappointed when I click on a promising recipe and it has not one, but two, dairy ingredients. There are a LOT of us dairy-free bakers out here, probably more in the GF than in the general population. Please give us substitution ideas, hopefully ones you have tested. Ok, margarine probably doesn’t brown, but what about the whey powder? Thanks!
Nicole has provided for dairy substitution of the whey protein isolate in her book “Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread” where this bread flour is actually published, and she provides the exact amount needed. I know one of the alternatives is pea protein powder. As far as “brown butter” you can Google “dairy free brown butter.”
Pam, I’m afraid I don’t have any experience substituting browned butter for anything dairy free. I like Mare’s suggestion of googling “dairy free browned butter.” And yes, I give dairy free protein powder substitutes on pages 10-11 of my book. I recommend rice protein isolate or pea protein isolate. You must increase the liquid by 150%.
I use Earth Balance butter for cooking dairy free – works amazingly well. I made sugar cookies with it recently and they turned out AMAZING!! I have also made cakes and several other desserts! I am betting you could brown it!
I’ve been adding a little bit of sweet potato to my baking for a couple of years .. never tried browned butter though. Hmmm.
Literally drooling here at my desk!!! Did you use orange or yellow sweet potatoes?
Hi, Mare! I used regular orange ones. I never find that the lighter color sweet potatoes ever actually get truly soft when roasted.
Do you think they would work with butternut squash? For no reason except that is what I have on hand?
I’m honestly not sure, Becky. Butternut squash, even when roasted, tends to have a higher water content than sweet potato, so I think you’d have to drain it. I’d try it with the sweet potato at least once, though, so you have something to compare it to.
Ok, thank you, that makes sense.
These look fantastic!! However, I have a family member who is rice intolerant. Any suggestions for alternative GF flour blends?? Please and thank you!
I’m afraid you can’t make anything but my Paleo recipes without rice flour, NicAndy. Sorry!
Beautiful! I have this on the “To Bake” list!
My youngest won’t touch sweet potato/yams, what she don’t know won’t kill her :)
Thanks Nicole!
Oh you can definitely get away with this, Lucy! She’ll never know and I certainly won’t tell. :)
these look awesome and I can never tell the difference between those buggers either. but I thought of more DIY Fridays: browned butter, clarified butter and all the things you can do with them!
Interesting idea, Jennifer! Browned butter and ghee are a great idea. I wonder if there’s anything else that might fit into that category… Hmmmm….
I’m going to like these babies! I know how to brown butter (love those Snickerdoodles!), sweet potatoes are awesome, and rolls are a necessity. Hey, did you know there is a difference between yams and sweet potatoes? Most grocery stores label them all wrong, too. Can you believe they would lead us astray like that? ;) There, now I get to have the image of you covering your eyes and saying, “nooooo, not the sweet potato/yam debate!”
Anneke, please don’t make Nicole poke herself in the eyes!
P.S. Seems like for Thanksgiving, these are just crying out for some homemade pumpkin butter smeared on them?
Yes they are begging for that, Donia!
oooo.. yeah!
Anneke! You’re cruel. :)