Sweet Potato Hamburger Buns

I came across this recipe while looking through Chef John/Foodwishes.com videos and wanted to give it a go. Preparation was fairly simple but takes a few hours for the dough to proof, nothing out of the ordinary from other bread baking recipes.

Start out by boiling peeled and cut up sweet potatoes in salted water until they're fairly soft -



Mash them and let them cool -



In the meantime start proofing the yeast -



Knead with the dough hook in the stand mixer. To the starter mixture add the sweet potato, honey, melted butter, one egg, salt and the rest of the flour. Once the stand mixer has done its job, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball -



Place in an oiled bowl and let rise for 90 - 120 minutes -



And after that time it's risen to about twice its size -



This recipe makes 16 buns of which I only needed 8 so I froze half the dough for another occasion. Punch the dough down, shape into a rectangle and cut into equal sized portions -



Pull each piece into a smooth ball, then roll it on the counter with a cupped hand to tighten it up. Flatten each dough ball when placing on the baking sheet -



Let rise once more in a warm spot for about 45 minutes -



Brush each bun with an egg wash and apply sesame seeds. After 15 minutes of baking in a 400 deg F oven they look like this -







I couldn't believe how nice these turned out! Just as good looking as in Chef John's video!

What to do with them? Well I wasn't making burgers this evening but did have a roast beef I made two days ago that was perfect for sandwiches -



Sliced -



And warmed on the stove in a cast iron pan with the jus -



Roast beef piled high with some Swiss -









OK, so how were they? As awesome as they look. Light, buttery, a bit of sweetness due to the sweet potato and the honey. Definitely a keeper recipe! It sure beats the heck out of store bought buns.

As always, thanks for checking in on this post. And give these a try!

Regards,
-lunchman

Shrimp Cakes

Thanks all, for the kind words. These were fun to make and even better to eat.

Now, to make further use of the remaining rolls I baked yesterday, an extra added attraction - Shrimp Cakes!

I looked at a few different recipes and used parts of each to come up with my own variation. Recipes from Chef Tom/atbbq.com (crab cakes), Chef John/foodwishes.com and America's Test Kitchen.

All recipes state to use raw shrimp, but I normally purchase cooked shrimp so that's what I used. Honestly, I don't think it made much of a difference.

Two sizes of shrimp -



Ingredients for the Shrimp Cakes (garlic, celery, onion, red pepper) -



I placed half of the shrimp into the food processor with less than a tablespoon of mayo and created a paste. I then added the remaining shrimp and pulsed it to break it up, leaving some good sized chunks. I mixed that with the red pepper, onion, celery and garlic. It was still a bit too moist so I reluctantly added some bread crumbs to the mix along with an egg to help firm it up and bind it together. I then coated each patty in Panko bread crumbs -





Out onto the Blackstone griddle in 18 deg F weather! -



Along with some frozen fries, seasoned with Weber Veggie Grill seasoning -



And of course, the Sweet Potato Buns -



Plated -









For something I cobbled together from a few different recipes, these turned out pretty good. Next time I probably won't add the mayo to the initial mix but I did so as I didn't think the cooked shrimp would have sufficient moisture to create a paste. Learn by experimentation.

Anyway, it made good use of the Sweet Potato Buns and we've still got Shrimp Cakes for the weekend.

Thanks for checking out tonite's dinner!

Regards,
-lunchman