Twisted Sweet Potato-Cranberry Rolls

My favorite breakfast rolls that also delicious for snacking in the afternoon with a cup of tea or coffee. The orange flavored cranberry adds a bit of tanginess, and it really perfumed this delicate rolls. If you live in the United States, you can find orange flavored dried cranberry at Trader Joe's. Otherwise, regular dried cranberry will work pretty well for this recipe.

The idea of twisted rolls came when I saw Cindy's posted a mouth watering looking bread called KRANZ. I wanted so badly making this bread, but didn't have the time to invest in rolling and folding the dough required in the recipe just yet. So, based on her idea on twisting the dough, the Twisted Sweet Potato-Cranberry Rolls was born. You can see her step by step instruction on how to twist here, follow the step # 15 through step # 19, then connect both end together to make sweet potato-cranberry rolls.

Twitsted Sweet Potato-Cranberry Rolls

make about 14-16 rolls

~elra~

1 cup mashed sweet potato

2½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp dry active yeast

3 tbs sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup water

2 tbs butter, room temperature

¼ cup or more orange flavored dried cranberries (or regular dried cranberries)

egg wash (1 egg yolk + 2 tsp milk, mix well)

Demerara sugar for sprinkling, optional

• Put everything in a mixer bowl, but leave out the butter. With dough hook attachment, mix on low for 3 minutes, then increase the speed to medium low (speed#2 on a Kitchenaid mixer), mix for 5 minutes (if the dough seems too wet, add a little bit more flour), now, add butter in two addition, continue to mix until the dough is elastic and shiny, it all depends on your machine it could take about 5 to 10 minutes to get the consistency you want it.

• Place the dough into a bowl that has been lightly coated oil, let it rest for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, fold the dough, and place it back into the bowl, let rest for another 40 minutes.

• Preheat oven to 375⁰F.

• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside

• Turn the dough onto floured counter top. Roll into rectangle (more or less about 14 inches by 17 inches), distribute cranberries evenly, press lightly with rolling pin. Cut lengthwise into 3 equal portions, stack each portion on top of each other (cranberries side up), now you have a dough with 6 inch wide and 17 inch long. Cut into strip about 1½ inches wide (take a look at Cindy's step by step photos here).

• To shape: take one strip of dough, holding one end with your left fingers and the other hand with your right fingers, slightly twist the dough in opposite direction (check Cindy's step #19), then connect both end together. Place it into baking sheet and leave enough space in between the rolls. Continue to work in the same manner with the rest of the dough. When you are finish, brush them lightly with egg wash, let rest at room temperature for one hour, or until double in volume. Brush again with egg wash, sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake for 25 minutes, or until dark golden brown. Serve warm or cool. Personally, I like to eat it while it is still warm.

As always, I like to show off my bread baking to Susan at Wildyeast, who created a popular even called "Yeast Spotting". Click here if you are interested to submit yours. I am also sharing this to Natashya who will be the host for BBD #30. This will be my first bread to send to BBD event which was a brilliant idea of Zorra of kochtopf.