Fluffy and supremely tender, these Purple Potato Dinner Rolls add a fun, unexpected splash of color to your table! Leftover potatoes never tasted so good!
Fall on this blog means lots and lots of brown and orange food. So sorry. I know they’re not the prettiest crayons in the box.
I swear, it’s not intentional – but I can’t help loving everything that fall is, including its colors. Trust me, when I browse Pinterest and Instagram, I ogle those rainbow-hued smoothie bowls and multicolored salads. Little pops of color…they’re gorgeous, too. So today, we’re going with that.
Just a little smudge of purple on the otherwise warm palette that is my fall food life. Here goes.
Purple Potato Dinner Rolls.
So, they look a tad unnatural. I promise, they’re as normal as squid ink pasta and beet-dyed mozzarella cheese (which I found out is a thing this week.)
Since my husband and I have been together, I’ve firmly jumped on the rice bandwagon. It’s a staple in Dominican cooking and is such a cheap, easy starch to work with.
However, being Polish and German, I could never give up the potato roots I grew up with – no pun intended.
I have no real potato preference (I love them all), but purple potatoes have become pretty common in our house. I love to pick up the fingerling medley bags and have them on hand for when the mood strikes.
Did you know, though, that aside from their surprising color, they also have their own unique flavor?
Mild yet distinctly nutty and earthy, purple potatoes have a low sugar content and high starch content. They’re delicious in all sorts of salads, roasted medleys, or as an intriguing mash to get your littles to eat their veggies.
And if they don’t? Well…use them in these fluffy rolls!
I’ve always always always loved store-bought potato rolls (blame my many years at Publix) – so soft and tender and delicious without anything on them at all. So good, I could eat half a bag without a second thought.
(And I have.)
Ingredients
Include these items on your shopping list before you head to the store!
- All-purpose flour or bread flour, or 1:1 gluten free flour
- Active dry yeast – you can also use rapid-rise yeast here if you want to speed up the rising process
- Purple potatoes – you can really use any potato in this recipe if purple isn’t your thing
- Granulated sugar or honey
- Unsalted butter
- Large eggs
- Kosher salt
How to make potato rolls
- First, you’ll want to boil the potatoes until they’re fully softened and mashable. Drain them through a fine mesh colander, but reserve at least 1 cup of the potato water. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm (112-115 degrees F) potato water and allow it to sit for 8-10 minutes, until the yeast has bloomed and is foamy.
- While the yeast is blooming, mash the potatoes and place them in the bowl of a stand mixer (or another large mixing bowl). Add the sugar (or honey), softened butter, eggs, salt, remaining potato water, the bloomed yeast mixture, and 2 cups of flour. Using the paddle attachment (or a wooden spoon), beat until smooth, adding enough flour to form a shaggy dough.
- Switch to the dough hook on your stand mixer. Continue to stir/knead in remaining flour to form a soft dough that’s just slightly tacky to the touch, 5-6 minutes on 2nd speed, or roughly 8-10 minutes by hand.
- Form the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it’s doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes.
- Lightly grease two 9×13-inch pans and set them aside.
- Lightly dust a large cutting board or workspace with flour. Tip the dough from the bowl onto the floured surface and punch down dough to gently deflate it.
- Divide the dough into thirds, then cut each third into 10 pieces each, equaling 30 pieces total (weighing about 1.3 ounces each.) Round each piece into a smooth roll.
- Place the rolls into the prepared pans, closely for a pull-apart style roll, or further apart if you’d like more browning on each roll.
- Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let them rise for 30-60 more minutes until doubled.
- In the last 15 minutes of rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown on top. Remove them from the oven, and transfer the pan to a cooling rack. Brush with melted butter, if desired.
Can I make this roll dough ahead of time?
Yes! Make the recipe through the point where you form the rolls, then place the baking pans in the refrigerator up to 24 hours in advance. When you’re ready to bake, remove the pans and let the dough come to room temperature, then proceed with the remaining recipe.
Can I freeze these rolls?
These potato rolls are easily freezable, and taste just as good as the day they were made when they’re thawed and warmed up! Making them in advance for the holidays will not only free you up to do the other 50 things on your list – you’ll also have warm, soft, homemade rolls to brag about. To store them, simply pop them in a resealable plastic freezer bag and they’ll be ready to go for a couple of months.
Can I bake these on a baking sheet?
Yes, you can! If you like your rolls with a little crust on the outside, spacing them out on a baking sheet is the perfect way to get them nice and golden brown.
How can I make the dough rise faster?
There are a couple of tricks to create a warmer environment for the yeast to react to. You can try one of these options, or a combination of them:
(1) Use rapid-rise yeast instead of active yeast
(2) Turn the oven on low (about 200 degrees F) and set the covered bowl of dough on top, towards the back part where the vents are kicking out heat
(3) Alternatively, you can place a pan of hot water inside the oven, turn it off after it heats, and simply place the bowl of dough inside. This effective steam proofing method is what most bakeries use to get their baked goods to rise quickly
More potato side dishes!
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Purple Potato Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 packages active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water or reserved potato water
- 1 cup purple potatoes mashed & still warm (can use any potato here)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar or honey
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened, plus more for brushing
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm (potato) water. Allow to sit for 8-10 minutes.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or other large bowl,) combine mashed purple potatoes, sugar (or honey), softened butter, eggs, salt, remaining water, yeast mixture and 2 cups flour. Using the paddle attachment (or a spoon,) beat until smooth, adding enough flour to form a shaggy dough.
- Switch to the dough hook on your stand mixer. Continue to stir/knead in remaining flour to form a soft dough that’s just slightly tacky to the touch, 5-6 minutes on 2nd speed, or 8-10 by hand.
- Form the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it’s doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes.
- Lightly grease two 9″ x 13″ pans and set aside.
- Lightly dust a large cutting board or workspace with flour. Tip the dough from the bowl onto the floured surface and punch down dough to gently deflate it.
- Divide the dough into thirds, then cut each third into 10 pieces each, equaling 30 pieces total (weighing about 1.3 ounces each.) Round each piece into a smooth roll.
- Place the rolls into the prepared pans, closely for a pull-apart style roll, or further apart if you’d like more browning on each roll.
- Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let them rise for 30-60 more minutes until doubled.
- In the last 15 minutes of rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown on top. Remove them from the oven, and remove them to a cooling rack. Brush with melted butter, if desired.
Cookbook says
I can almost smell it! And of course I have to be reading this post during lunchtime haha.
Teresa D says
Can you use purple yams (Filipino Ube’) instead of potatoes? Just wondering as my grandson absolutely loves Ube rolls his mommy and Lola get from a Filipino bakery
Erica says
Hello Teresa! I’ve not tried these with purple yams, but I don’t see the harm in trying it out – the starchiness of the ube SHOULD work!