Sweet Potato Chancay
These sweet potato rolls are great with any meal. Adding some spices and sweet potato to this traditional Peruvian bread, elevates its nutritional value. They are great to help you power on when hiking your local trails or for a surprise afternoon visitor. I like to freeze the left over buns and pull them out for afternoon tea or coffee. And they also work well as a dinner roll served with a warm winter soup! This recipe makes plenty for entertaining or for freezer meal prepping.
Equipment
- Scale
- Thermometer
Ingredients
Sweet Potato
- 2 Sweet Potato Orange Flesh
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 1 Star Anise
- 2 Cloves
- Pinch Salt
Sponge
- 2 1/2 tsp Dry Active Yeast
- 3 Tbsp Sugar
- 4 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 ½ Cups Sweet Potato Water (warm) About 110°
Dough
- 2 tsp Dry Active Yeast
- Sponge
- ½ Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Anise Seeds Toasted and Ground
- ½ Cup Sweet Potato Water (warm) About 110°
- 1 Egg
- 1 Stick Butter Room Temperature
- 4 ½ Cups Bread Flour
- Cooked Sweet Potato Mashed
Other
- 1 Egg Beaten for egg wash
- 3 Tbsp Sesame Seeds Toasted for topping
Instructions
Prep all of your Mise en place. It always makes a difference to have your ingredients measured out and ready before each step.
- Gather and measure out all of your ingredients.
- For the Sweet Potato
- Preparing sweet potato for the dough: Weigh out about 400g and use remaining in another dish. You may also like to use the peels to make Sweet Potato Peel Chips.
- For the Sponge
- For anise seed: Add to a dry pan on medium heat toast until you can smell them and remove from the pan immediately so that they do not burn.
- Grind your toasted anise seed with mortal and pestle or spice grinder.
- For the dough
Sweet Potato
- Peel the sweet potato and cut in quarters. In a small sauce pot, cover the sweet potato with water and add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil then turn down to a medium low heat. Cook until there is no resistance when pierced by a pairing knife. Then remove from heat and set aside.
Sponge
- In a large mixing bowl, add sweet potato water, yeast and sugar. Let it ferment about 10 minutes. Once dissolved and bubbling, add the flour and mix thoroughly.
- Cover with a damp cloth or loose plastic wrap and set aside in a warm part of the kitchen for 2 hour.
Dough
- In a small bowl, add the egg and sweet potato. Mash and mix with a fork.
- Mix with your hand the sugar and butter into the sponge. Then mix in the all but 1/2 cup of the flour.
- Once the dough comes together, dust a work surface and knead dough for about 20 minutes, working the remaining flour into the dough.
- Place dough in a greased large mixing bowl. Turn the dough to light coat and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm area of the kitchen for 1 hour.
- Punch down dough. Knead back into a ball, then portion it into small (40g) balls. Once weighed, take two balls, one in each hand and roll them into smooth round balls. This is done by applying a little pressure and rolling them in a circular motion on your work surface.
- Place dough balls in a greased pan or cast iron skillet. Set about half an inch apart. Cover and let double in size.
Baking
- Preheat the oven at 400° degrees
- Place in the oven for 10 minutes then turn down to 350° degrees for the remaining time. You may also want to turn the pan at this time.
- Once the tops turn golden brown they should be done. You can check the internal temperature, which should be 195° degrees. Remove and let cool for a few minutes. Best served warm.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!