Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls with Pear Butter Filling

Even though these sound very seasonal, I would encourage you to keep my recipe for Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls in rotation year round. The sweet potato flavor is faint and mostly used as a component to keep the dough incredibly tender. A co-worker of mine brought me a jar of homemade pear butter from the pears in her tree so I used that instead of butter in my filling spread. Thanks Kelly! The pear butter added a great flavor mixed with cinnamon and is a natural fit with sweet potato.

Tender sweet potato dough from scratch rolled up with a sweet pear butter/cinnamon filling and baked until fluffy on the inside and slightly crisp on the outside. Drizzle with maple glaze and enjoy this over-the-top but simple-to-make breakfast treat!

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls
makes about 20 mini rolls
1 cup cooked sweet potato, small dice *
3 tbl melted coconut oil (or canola)
1 cup ice cold water
3 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tbl organic cane sugar
.3 oz active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt

Use a counter top mixer with a dough hook to make this dough or a large bowl to do it by hand.
In the mixing bowl, add the sweet potato chunks, oil and water. Mix to combine. Add the flour, sugar and yeast and mix on low speed into a cohesive ball of dough, 3 minutes. Add the salt and continue mixing for 5 minutes until the ball is smooth.
If mixing by hand, knead for 10-15 minutes.
Set the dough in a greased bowl and cover. Let sit in a warm spot for 1 hour or until it has doubled.
**If you don't have a warm spot, a good trick is to turn your oven on to 350 and sit the bowl on top of the oven where it can be in contact with residual heat.
Once the dough has doubled, cut it into two pieces and roll out to 1/4" thickness. Divide the pear butter spread in half and spread on each piece of dough, covering completely. Roll up tightly into long logs. Use a serrated knife to cut rolls 1" wide. Place the cinnamon rolls on a baking sheet (or individually in a large muffin tin for perfectly circular rolls) and let rise in a warm spot again for 30-45 minutes or until they have doubled in size.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
While they are still warm, remove and drizzle with glaze.

* I prefer to use fresh sweet potato as oppose to buying canned sweet potato that is usually sitting in corn syrup and sugar. Just roast one large sweet potato directly on the oven shelf for 35 minutes in a preheated oven set to 350 or until fork tender. Peel and dice when cool enough to handle.

Pear Butter Filling
1 cup organic light brown sugar
3 tbl pear butter
1 tbl cinnamon

Combine all of the ingredients into a smooth spread.

Maple Glaze
1 cup organic powdered sugar
2 tbl vegan cream cheese (optional)
3-4 tbl maple syrup

Combine the powdered sugar, cream cheese and maple syrup and whisk to combine into a smooth glaze. Add more maple syrup to desired consistency if necessary.