This sweet potato buns is easy to make and so appealing to eyes.
Purple sweet potato always wins my heart by its elegant color and simplifies for cooking. If you love the bright purple color the same as me, try to use it in breads and buns.
The recipe today is a Chinese steamed bun with mashed purple sweet potatoes. I have written a post introducing Chinese steamed buns around 3 weeks ago. Though I am not very good at it, I love to make buns and bread the same as most of the girls.
You can choose to mix the mashed purple sweet potatoes and flour all together to make purple buns or make a roll with both white layer and sweet layer.
Making perfect dough for Chinese buns is quite important for those delicious buns. I have listed the entire guide of how to make Chinese dough with yeast in Chinese steamed buns.
Peel the purple sweet potatoes and cut into small cubes. Steaming in a wok around 15 minutes or baking in oven for around 20 minutes. Then mash the purple sweet potatoes with a scoop. Then mix half of the flour prepared with mashed sweet potatoes. And further make dough according to the guide introduced in Chinese steamed buns.
At this step, we get two pieces of dough. One is pure white, which is the color of flour and the other one is purple.
Then roll the two pieces of dough into two rounds. Layer the white one underneath and the purple layer on top. Then roll the two layers up to a cylinder. Cut the cylinder into several small sections.
Purple Sweet Potato Buns
Ingredients
- oil for brushing
for the white dough
- 200 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar , optional
- 100 g water
for the purple dough
- 200 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 100 g water
- 1 middle sized purple sweet potato
Instructions
- Peel and the purple sweet potatoes and cut into small cubes. Steam in a wok around 15 minutes or bake in oven for around 20 minutes. Then mash it with a sticker or scoop.
- Prepare warm water around 35 °C and melt the sugar in. And mix the yeast with the water. Mix well and set aside for around 5 minutes.
- Prepare the flour in a large bowl. Pour the water with yeast slowly to the bowl with flour and stir with a chop sticker.
- Then knead the flour into smooth and soft dough. At the very beginning, it might be a little bit sticky.
- Repeat the above steps, mix flour with mashed purple sweet potatoes to make smooth dough too.
- Let the two pieces of dough rest for around 1 hour or until the paste ball doubles in size. This process can be done by mixer.
- Roll the two pieces of dough into two large and thin rounds. And layer the white round underneath and the purple layer on top. Roll up to a cylinder.
- Cut the cylinder into small sections. Brush some oil on the bottom of each section and put them in the steamer.
- Bring some water to a boiling and steam for 15 minutes.
- Turn down the fire and wait for around 5 minutes. Transfer out and serve hot.
Notes
There might be chunks in the mashed purple sweet potatoes, do remove them out.
Nutrition
Deborah
I can buy purple potato flour/powder. How would I adapt this recipe for the purple flour? Thanks!
Amanda
Y U M M M M M!!! Looks so colourful and delicious! I'm sure my kids love this. Thanks, Elaine!
Monica
Thank you Elaine — these look so beautiful. I just tried purple sweet potatoes for the first time recently, and like them so much more than the orange ones we usually find in the US. Thanks!
Elaine
You are the most welcome, Monica.
Marc
Hi Elaine! Thanks for the recipe. I just made these for the first time and loved them. The only problem I had is that when I rolled the doughs into circles, the white layer was thinner than the purple (which makes sense...since the purple dough has the added sweet potato, the recipe WILL produce more of the purple dough!). Then after steaming, you could see the dark purple layer through the white layer, since the white layer was so much thinner. Do you ever reduce the amount of purple dough to make up for the fact that it is going to be bigger than the white dough?
Elaine
The problem might happen, Marc. I have never noticed the problem. To get a evenly spread color, adding the amount of white dough can work. I will correct this after re-testing the recipe.
Mark
These look beautiful! I wonder, could you bake them instead of steaming them? If so, what temperature and time do you think would be best? I was considering perhaps 15 minutes at 200C?
Elaine
Hi Mark,
Baking dough is different from this one.
Bianca
can it be frozen and if so, do i freeze it after or b4 steaming? thanks
Elaine
Freeze well after steamed.
Ghim
Hi! Is there a reason that sugar is optional for the white dough but not the sweet potato dough? I’m thinking if I can go sugar free for both doughs then my baby can enjoy the mantou..
Elaine
The white dough, if well proofed has a natural sweetness flavor which can be tasted easily. However sweet potato dough get other ingredients added and so more sugar needed to make sure it taste good since sweet potato is not very sweet enough.
Ghim
I see. Noted with thanks!
veron Chung
hi! why didnt I see the dough with any oil to knead with? without oil,, kneading is very hard for me as it is too dry ,,
Elaine
It is ok to skip oil in dough. If you need more skills about how to knead a dough, check the video in black sesame buns.
christina chen
How long/what temp should we bake sweet potato at? thank you!
Elaine
45 to 60 Mins at 200 degree C.
Jackie
Same volume of flour in purple portion of dough?!
Elaine
Yes.
Manon
These are soooo good! I had a leftover purple sweet potato I needed to use up, and this was perfect. I used my rice cooker's steam setting for the potato and the buns, and it turned out perfectly. Thanks for the recipe!
Elaine
Love to see the feedback, Manon!!! You are so good!