Baking Bread: Ube (Purple Yam) Soft Rolls

The title of this series would have made more sense when Breaking Bad was still on the air. Although, I suppose there is relevance because there is Better Call Saul. But digression... I know thee well.

One of my mini goals for this year is to bake more. All things, but bread especially. So I figured, hey... why not a bread a week? One of my recent bread items have been these soft rolls. I had extra cooked purple yam that needed to be used, so why not incorporate it into bread? Ube is all the craze nowadays. 

I found a recipe that called for sweet potatoes and subbed in the yam. The resulting bread came out more dark pink than purple, but still quite delicious. I still have a little bit more yam left, so I will probably make this again.

Japanese Sweet Potato Bread Bun

from Bake with Paws

(my changes and what I used in italics)

400g bread flour (KAF Sir Galahad aka APF)
250g Japanese sweet potato, peeled, sliced, steamed and mashed (I subbed the yam here)
40g caster sugar (granulated sugar instead)
1 large egg
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant active yeast
160ml fresh milk (half & half instead)
60g butter (very soft)

1 egg white and 1 Tbsp water

Sesame seeds (didn't use)

1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add remaining ingredients, except for the last two. Use a mixer or knead by hand until the dough becomes elastic... 15ish minutes

2. Cover bowl and let rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size

3. Punch down dough and divide into 12 equal portions. Round them out and place onto lined baking sheets. You can also use a round baking pan as you can see from the picture above. Allow to rise again until the dough has doubled in size.

4. Brush with the egg white/water wash and sprinkle on sesame seeds. Or don't. I didn't.

5. Bake in a 350 degree oven until you can smell baked bread and the tops are brown... about 30 minutes more or less.

6. Cool in the pan for about five minutes, then take them out and let them cool on a rack.