Sweet Potato Cinnamon Bread

This bread is a cold-weather dream come true, with sweet potatoes, spices, and a crunchy topping that will make you lick your fingers. It can be frozen and it makes great sweet toast.

Originally posted in December 2013 , this post has been updated with images and text to serve you better. The recipe remains the same.

I made this spice bread years ago for a baking group and thought it perfect for a repost since, for most of you reading this, the weather is cold and it's the perfect season for bread baking.

Also, you might need a new bread recipe. As if you didn't bake enough for the holidays, right?

Why this recipe works:

• Breakfast and brunch. This sweet potato bread makes great sweet toast. The cinnamon sugar caramelizes and adds even more crunch. You don't even need a topping.
• Freezable. The recipe makes 2 loaves so my top recommendation is to slice leftovers and freeze them.
• Flavor. It reminds me of cinnamon bread with a different undertone. The spice swirl is what makes it sweet and moist, and the crunchy topping, well, you'll love it! It's a traditional streusel, but it adds a layer of flavor that makes the whole so much better than the parts.

About sweet potatoes

It's a root vegetable with a starchy sweet flavor and texture. Depending on where you are in the world, you might have easy access to different varieties. Most easily available ones are suitable for this bread.

• Japanese: it has pinkish-brown skin (image below) and a light yellow interior. It's the one I get year-round and use for this bread.
• Beauregard and Jewel: both types are easily available in the US and have similar skin but an orange interior. They give the bread a very different color.
• Hannah: both the skin and flesh are a pale yellow. I never baked with them but they should work just fine as the texture is similar.

It turns out that baking them into a bread is perfect, they will add moisture and an undefinable flavor – a good thing sometimes – but still, we do have to add some kind of enhancer or tugboat to throw them into the limelight.

In this case, spices, a crowd-pleaser, and one of my favorite things in the history of ever. Spices make my kitchen come alive.

How to make sweet potato puree?

Let’s not forget they’re more on the dry side, there’s never a need to drain them like we need to do when making pumpkin or squash puree.

• Microwave: this is a method I've used to years and it's fantastic because it takes anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes for a sweet potato to be easily pierced, depending on the size.
• Oven: this good old reliable method is just as good but it takes longer.

The dough

A stand mixer is highly recommended. As with most bread, you can make them by hand, even those like the golden Pandoro recipe that has butter, but it's laborious to integrate well.

Ingredients

• Yeast - using active dry or instant is the easiest, but you can use fresh (3 times more in volume).
• Sweet potatoes - this recipe uses puree, and it needs to be at room temperature. See above for different types.
• Buttermilk - it adds a slight tanginess that goes well with the sweetness of the rest of the ingredients, but you can use milk.
• Flour - use all purpose or bread flour as they have better gluten content than cake flour.
• Sugar - I use both granulated regular white and brown for the different parts of this recipe. They work great together and each adds its own personality to the bread.
• Oil - a neutral type such as sunflower or canola are great because they don't add an extra flavor.
• Egg: make sure it's at room temperature.
• Flavorings: lemon zest is my first choice, but orange or tangerine also work very well.

How to make this recipe

Making the dough and assembly

Mixing and kneading

The dough is easy to make as all ingredients are added and the stand mixer does the job. The final dough should be sticky and slightly wet. Don't be tempted to add flour until it completely clears the sides of the bowl because that will make the bread dry.

Mise en place

This means measuring and having ready all ingredients for the final assembly before you start rolling and filling.

Rolling and filling

Both the working surface and the rolling pin have to be lightly floured. Make sure you move and flip over the dough periodically so it doesn't stick, and lightly flour as needed.
The filling is similar to cinnamon rolls and, since the butter is melted, a brush is the easiest way to spread it.

Make a roll

Make it as tight as you can without overworking or tearing the dough. It will still unravel a little when baked, so don't be overly concerned with perfection.

The crumble

The dough is cut in half and fitted into the prepared pans. It's then topped with the crumble. It will be loose.

Baking

This is a cross between a cinnamon roll and a bread. And with yeast recipes, it's important to have that last full rise that will translate into a plump and fluffy (within reason as this is a denser dough) bread.

The loaves might crack open in the top, something I absolutely love about baked bread and loaf cakes, and here it has the bonus of the caramel oozing out too. I could’ve eaten the streusel and caramelized edges forever. Who says I didn’t, right?

Not too sweet as a whole, it does have a spicy syrup that forms while baking and looks almost like pumpkin or apple butter and a streusel that will be hard to leave alone.

The bread is all about the filling and the crunchy topping. You'll crave for more of both. It makes delicious toasts and bread pudding the day after. It’s spice bread after all, and it’s all good.

Other recipes you might like:

Let me know in the comments below if you made this recipe and loved it, and also if you had issues, so we can troubleshoot together. I love to hear what you think, always. Thanks for being here, it's much appreciated.
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Sweet Potato Spice Bread

• Author: Paula Montenegro
• Prep Time: 150
• Cook Time: 50
• Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
• Yield: 2 medium loaves 1x
• Category: Bread
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: International

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

For the bread:

• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• Pinch of sugar
• ¼ cup warm water
• 1 cup warm buttermilk
• 1 cup sweet potato purée (see Notes below)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons sunflower or canola oil
• 1 egg
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• About 4 to 4 ½ cups bread flour

For the spice streusel:

• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• Grated zest of 1 orange or lemon
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• Pinch each of ground ginger and allspice
• ⅓ cup all purpose flour
• 4 Tbs 60g butter, cold, cut into pieces

For the spiced sugar:

• 1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted + additional for pans

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Instructions

For the bread:

1. Butter two 9x5 inch loaf pans or use vegetable spray.
2. Mix yeast, a pinch of sugar, and ¼ cup warm water in the bowl of the stand mixer, and let stand until foamy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add the sweet potato purée, buttermilk, oil, sugar, egg, zest, and 1 cup of flour to the yeast mixture and mix with the paddle attachment until it's all integrated.
4. Change to the dough hook attachment and mix at medium speed, adding half a cup flour at a time, until the dough starts to combine and come together. The dough will be slightly sticky and not completely clear the sides of the bowl. Be careful not to add too much flour or you will end up with a dry dough. 
5. Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a draft-free place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours. Check at half-hour intervals to see how much it's rising. If the room is warm it might take less. 
6. Transfer to a lightly floured board. The dough will be less sticky. 
7. Deflate gently and roll (lightly flour the rolling pin) make a rectangle about ¼ inch thick. You might need to let it rest a few minutes between rolls to get it to the right thickness as it might be slightly elastic and shrink back. But you will be able to roll it a bit further with each resting period. 
8. Brush evenly with melted butter and sprinkle with the spiced sugar. It might seem like a lot but the result is wonderful. Carefully start rolling from the long side, as you would a cinnamon roll, trying to get a fairly tight rope.
9. Cut the dough in half and place each piece into one pan.
10. Sprinkle with the streusel (recipe below), dividing evenly. 
11. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise again until puffed, about 45 minutes.
12. Preheat oven to 350ºF / 180ºC about 20 minutes before baking.
13. Bake loaves until golden and a tester inserted comes out clean, from 45 minutes to 1 hour. 
14. Let stand a few minutes after you remove them from the oven, and then invert them onto a wire rack. If you don’t do this while the bread is warm, the caramelized rim will harden and make it impossible to remove it later. You’d have to pop them again into the oven for 5 minutes to loosen it up if this happens.
15. Keep leftovers well wrapped in the freezer, already cut in slices preferably if you plan on toasting them.

For the streusel:

1. Mix all ingredients except butter in the food processor. Or in a bowl if making by hand, with a fork or pastry cutter. 
2. Add butter and mix until it starts to clump. Reserve, covered, in the refrigerator. 

For the spiced sugar:

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

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Notes

• Sweet potato purée: microwave the sweet potato, skin on, for about 8-10 minutes, and check by piercing it with a fork. It should go straight through it, no resistance at all. It needs to be at room temperature before using it for this recipe. 
• Yeast - using active dry or instant is the easiest, but you can use fresh (3 times more in volume).
• Buttermilk - it adds a slight tanginess that goes well with the sweetness of the rest of the ingredients, but you can use milk.
• Flour - use all purpose or bread flour as they have better gluten content than cake flour.
• Sugar - I use both granulated regular white and brown for the different parts of this recipe. They work great together and each adds its own personality to the bread.
• Oil - a neutral type such as sunflower or canola are great because they don't add an extra flavor.
• Flavorings: lemon zest is my first choice, but orange or tangerine also work very well.

Keywords: sweet potato bread

Adapted from Bread For All Seasons, by Beth Hensperger

Paula Montenegro

I'm Paula, a baker for more than 30 years and your designated recipe finder, sharing the best ones on this blog, with simple ingredients + easy-to-follow instructions.