Sweet Potato Fortune Rolls

A delicious and fun idea for Thanksgiving!

First, an apology to my fellow Canadians that I missed posting this before our Thanksgiving. I only just made them and realized that they are perfect for Thanksgiving, so, it's one for all my American friends for the upcoming holiday :-) I actually didn't get around to making Thanksgiving dinner back in October and am doing ours this weekend which will most definitely feature these rolls.

I saw this idea of putting a little message in a bread roll on Pinterest. It came from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog as "Thankful Rolls" and I immediately pinned it. You were to write a little message on a small piece of paper, fold it up, wrap it in foil then place inside a bread roll and bake. I absolutely loved this idea. 

Then I was flipping through an old Canadian Living magazine and saw these Sweet Potato Rolls which were made by folding them over and thought, gosh, those are just made to house a little fortune inside! So, the two ideas were forged together and here you go: Sweet Potato Fortune Rolls, absolutely perfect for Thanksgiving dinner :-)

The original idea was to put a little message of thanks in each roll but to be honest, we're not all that sentimental (ha!) so I pretty much knew mine were going to house comedy fortunes, or in the case of the first test batch I did here, Dr. Who quotes for my son ;-) In any case you can write whatever you like inside, have fun with it!

My son really enjoyed the Doctor Who Fortune :-D

As for the buns themselves - Oh. My. Word. They are absolutely delicious!! I pretty much exclaimed after my first bite that they were the best bread roll I've ever eaten in my life and I stick by that. The sweet potato and hint of brown sugar does not make these sweet but just gives them great flavour, and do not omit the spring onion here, they really make these rolls. Believe me when I say I'll be making these with or without the fortunes many times!

Sweet Potato Fortune Rolls

Yields: 8 large or 16 small rolls.

• 125g (1 cup) sweet potato (peeled weight) cut into 1" dice.

• 125ml (½ cup) reserved potato water

• ½ Tbsp packed brown sugar

• 80ml (1/3 cup) dairy free milk

• 1 tsp quick rise yeast *see original recipe for using active dry if you prefer, keep in mind I've halved the recipe here.

• ¼ cup finely chopped spring onion

• 1 Tbsp vegan butter

• 350g (2½ cups) strong white bread flour, plus extra.

• 1 tsp salt

Boil the sweet potato in unsalted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking water. 

Add the measured cooking water to a saucepan with the dairy free milk and heat to 130F / 54C or until hand hot. You should be able to leave your finger in there tolerably.  

Mash the sweet potato with the brown sugar and vegan butter until smooth.

Mix together the flour, salt and yeast. Add the liquid, potato and spring onion to the flour mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until it comes together.

Transfer to a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, adding more flour as needed, until smooth and elastic and shape into a ball. Transfer to a large greased bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Once risen, you should be able to poke the dough and leave an indentation, it should also have risen very well. Now roll out the dough and cut out circles, any size you like really, I used a large (3") circle cutter but found these much too big for a dinner roll so would make them smaller next time. The size is ultimately up to you but you should get 8 large or 16 small rolls out of this. If you are not making fortune rolls, simply cut into 8 or 16 pieces and shape into balls for plain rolls.

Take the circle and roll it out a little to make a slight oval shape. Place the fortune or message of thanks that has been wrapped tightly in foil in one end, wet the end with a bit of water and fold over the dough, sealing the message. Press down slightly to ensure the two ends stick together.

Place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, cover loosely with cling film and leave in a warm place while you preheat the oven to 200C / 400F. When the oven is at temperature, remove the cling film and bake the rolls for about 18 minutes, rotating the pan with 10 minutes left to ensure even baking. The rolls should have risen again, be golden brown and sound hollow underneath when tapped.

I now like to brush the rolls with vegan butter, it gives them a lovely gloss and adds nice flavour. Serve immediately as these are best fresh from the oven. Just split them open at the crease to reveal the fortune, slather them with vegan butter then mop up all that vegan gravy with them. Sigh, these might just be my most favourite part of Thanksgiving dinner now!

 ♥

Sources: Fortune idea from "The Girl Who Ate Everything" blog; recipe based on Canadian Living's Sweet Potato Rolls.

Nutritional Information: based on 1 large roll out of 8.

Calories: 213
Protein: 7.5g
Carbs: 40g
Sugar: 2.4g
Fibre: 3.2g
Fat: 2.7g
Sat Fat: 0.5g
Sodium: 345mg

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