The Food That Made Me

Kids, when you are with friends, life will feel less frustrating. I made sweet potato bread with Uncle Butters yesterday. We started at 7:30 am. It was supposed to be 7 am, but we were both lagging in the morning. So, we called each other on a video call and started mise en placing. Flour…. honey…. I didn’t have any, so I swapped it with sugar, and it worked. He didn’t have bread flour, so he had to go to the grocery store and get some. It was kind of chaotic for the first hour because I was baby-wearing #1 while trying to prep and bake the sweet potato. But your grandma came to the rescue and played with you after the first hour, so, yay. Then there was a lot of waiting time for proofing, so Uncle Butters and I played a few rounds of Codenames, which is kind of like charades with more words. We won the first game, but then we just got really aggressive in our word giving, and things went downhill fast.

Anyways, it was great. Throughout the whole process, I didn’t feel paralyzed by the messiness or the chaotic nature of having a baby around. Wins.

Here is the recipe.

Here are tips I learned from the process.

1. Read the recipe beforehand. Honestly, I didn’t read the recipe beforehand. That’s why I didn’t realize that I didn’t have enough honey.
2. Baking the sweet potato took more time (around an hour total at 400 degrees), but it was an easier process than shaving it and then cutting it and then boiling it. Sorry, Sally.
3. Make the honey butter or the cinnamon butter! Missed opportunities! I just did butter and salt.
4. Using a glass dish had its perks. I was able to see the prettiness of the goldening of the sides and bottom.
5. I need to figure out another way to portion the rolls. I just rolled them into small balls, which I think, at the end of the day, were too big and hence they were a little underbaked.
6. Don’t use more than a cup of sweet potatoes. I was really tempted too. But, ina the end, the amount wouldn’t taste more sweet potatoey.
7. I put more sugar this time around, and the yeast bloomed a lot more.
8. 5 cups of flour was a lot for my stand mixer to handle, so I had to do the slowest setting in order for the flour to not go everywhere.
9. Flaky sea salt and butter rocks! Niece #2 kept wanting to eat another bun. Sorry, I just had one for each person.
10. Hm… how can I make more next time? I think that I’m looking to scale my bread now because people can’t get enough of it.