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Brown Butter Honey Sweet Potato Bread
Turn butter, honey, and sweet potato into amazingly soft and fluffy sweet potato bread. This is another level of Asian bakery style milk bread.
Fall is when my kitchen is stocked with sweet potatoes and all sort of squashes, and I have a very delicious sweet potato bread recipe for you today. If you have some sweet potato at home, you must give this brown butter honey sweet potato bread a try. Forgive the literal name of this bread, it is quite a mouthful I admit, but I guarantee you and everyone you serve will enjoy every single bite of this bread.
Mashed/pureed sweet potato
Start by making a batch of mashed/pureed sweet potato. For this recipe, even one sweet potato should yield more than enough puree for one batch of this recipe.
After making this bread for a while, I think my average is 1 sweet potato = 2 batches of this bread.
If you are making this for a family/friend gathering, you may very well need to prepare two batches anyway since everyone will want a second serving! If you want a shortcut, you can also use canned sweet potato puree. :D
Plain vs. sweet red bean paste filling
Maybe because I am Asian, I am very fond of sweet red bean paste. I have this crazy unexplainable tick to always stock my fridge with some red bean paste.
If sweet red bean paste is not your favorite food, feel free to omit. This bread is still super lovely and super yummy even when plain!
If you are like me, then you can either make ahead some sweet red bean paste, or just buy some koshi-an.
Brown butter
The last key ingredient for this bread is the brown butter.
No you cannot buy brown butter in the grocery. You need to make this at home, and it is a very simple process.
Basically you heat some unsalted butter in a small sauce pot on medium (or low-medium) heat until it turns into golden toffee brown color.
This extremely easy step transforms regular butter into brown butter, which tastes amazing compared to regular butter.
Of course, using brown butter will make your bread extra special, perfect for all those special occasions where you will want to serve this bread.
Brown Butter Honey Sweet Potato Bread
Ingredients
- 140 gram/5 oz./10 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 packet (7 gram/0.25 oz./2.25 teaspoon) active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) lukewarm milk (~ 38 Celsius/100 Fahrenheit)
- 360-400 gram (~ 3 cups) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (100 gram/7 oz.) brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup mashed/pureed cooked sweet potatoes
- 16 tablespoon sweet red bean paste (optional)
- 2 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Brown butter: melt unsalted butter in a small sauce pot on medium until foamy and light brown, then transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Yeast solution: mix together yeast, sugar, and lukewarm milk. Set aside until foamy.
- Bread dough: whisk together all-purpose flour, brown sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Make a well, then add 4 tablespoon of brown butter, all the yeast solution, egg, and sweet potato. Knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky. You may need to add 1-2 tablespoon of flour if the dough is too sticky. Kneading time is around 20 minutes.
- Transfer dough in an oiled mixing bowl. Cover with a wet kitchen towel/saran plastic, proof until the volume is doubled, about 1 hour.
- Line a 9-inch round cake pan with a parchment paper. Set aside.
- Melt 4 tablespoon brown butter (it may well be in solid state by now) and stir in 1 tablespoon of honey.
- Punch the dough down to deflate and let out air bubble. Transfer to a floured surface, knead for 2 minutes, and divide dough into 16 portions.
- Option 1 (Plain): Roll each portion into a ball.
- Option 2 (Filling): Flatten each portion into a circle, add 1 tablespoon of sweet red bean paste, and roll into a ball.
- Coat each portion with honey brown butter, and arrange on the prepared pan. Cover the pan and proof again until the dough fills the pan completely, about 1 hour in a warm kitchen.
- Preheat oven to 180 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit). Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Glaze: Melt the rest of the brown butter with the remaining tablespoon of honey to make the glaze.
- Once the bread is out from the oven, brush the top with glaze for extra shine and even more brown butter honey goodness. Serve hot.
Comments
Hello, 1/2 cup mashed potato=how many in grams? Thanks. Angie
Hi Angie, 1/2 cup mashed sweet potato is about 125 gram.
I love the sound of sweet potato bread. I've never actually tried it but need to make this soon.
Oh my goodness all these flavors sound AMAZING together! I need to try this now.
These look awesome, I could eat all of them.
Oh my these brown butter honey sweet potato bread looks amazing! The golden brown tops have the perfect color.
I love sweet potatoes for sure and this bread option sounds interesting. Have to try them out.
Thank u so much for this recipe! It’s absolutely delicious and Have been my family fav ever since! I just swap the filling and loaded it with cheese 😬
Hi, instead of active dry yeast, can i use instant yeast instead?
Certainly, Carmen. Feel free to use the same amount of instant yeast. Please skip step 2, instead add instant yeast, sugar, and milk from step 2 into step 3.
Now this is THE bread recipe that I need to try! Fantastic looking result and just what I have been craving for so long!
This bread sounds so good. I love sweet potatoes in anything. I've never had them in a bread. And then the browned butter is the icing on the cake. So yummy!
Wow this looks so delicious! Saving to make later this week! :)
I can't wait to make this! Looks so delicious!
I couldn't stop at just one! Love it
My mouth is watering. Your brown butter-based bread sounds yummy and delicious. And how much I love all your baking goodies, especially bread! The best recipes ever to follow!
These look so delicious and yummy! I can't wait to make this! My family is going to love this!
These sweet potato rolls look luscious! Need to add these yummy bread to my holiday baking!
Super delicious, soft, buttery and yummy. I am drooling with your recipe description. Sweet potatoes sounds so interesting in your recipe.
This sweet potato bread is perfect to make for the holidays! They make a great base for slider sandwiches too.
How would I finish this as a loaf? Approximate same rising time? How long to cook?
Hi Karen, to make this into a loaf bread, please divide the dough into 4 pieces, roll each piece into a log shape and coat with honey brown butter. Place the 4 logs side by side into a 9x5 loaf pan and let rise until the dough fills the pan. The baking time should be very similar (about 30 minutes) using the same temperature. You can also double check with a thermometer. If the center of the loaf reads at least 190°F, it means the bread is done.
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