Sweet Potato Dutch Oven Bread

This Dutch oven bread is tender with a brilliant orange hue and a touch of sweetness. Don’t miss our guide to buying the best dutch oven. For more on Dutch oven bread and our step-by-step tutorial for mastering it, get our latest September/October issue! 

5.0 from 4 reviews
Sweet Potato Dutch Oven Bread
Serves: 1 loaf
 
Ingredients
  • 4 cups (508 grams) bread flour
  • 1½ cups (380 grams) lightly mashed baked sweet potato (see Note)
  • 1 tablespoon (9 grams) kosher salt
  • 2ÂĽ teaspoons (7 grams) instant yeast
  • 1ÂĽ cups (284 grams) warm water (105°F/41°C to 110°F/43°C)
  • Corn flour, for dusting
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, place bread flour, sweet potato, salt, and yeast. Add 1ÂĽ cups (284 grams) warm water, and stir by hand until fully incorporated and a sticky dough forms. (Alternatively, place bread flour, sweet potato, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add 1ÂĽ cups [284 grams] warm water, and beat at medium speed until a sticky dough forms, about 30 seconds.)
  2. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place (75°F/24°C) for 2 hours. Then, refrigerate for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight).
  3. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and gently press dough just to level and even it out. Starting on left side and working clockwise, fold edges of dough toward center, pressing lightly. Turn dough ball over, and using both hands, cup dough, and pull it toward you. Turn dough 90 degrees, and repeat until you have a smooth, tight, sealed round. (See Shape Your Boule on page 46.)
  4. Heavily dust a sheet of parchment paper with corn flour; place dough on parchment, seam side up. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place (75°F/24°C) for 1 hour.
  5. When dough has 30 minutes left to rise, place a 6- to 7-quart Dutch oven and lid in a cold oven. Preheat oven to 500°F (260°C).
  6. Carefully remove hot Dutch oven from oven, remove lid, and quickly turn bread into Dutch oven so seam is now on bottom. Score top of bread (being careful not to touch hot sides of Dutch oven). Cover with lid, and place back in oven.
  7. Immediately reduce oven temperature to 450°F (230°C). Bake for 25 minutes. Remove lid, and bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted in center registers 190°F (88°C), 10 to 15 minutes more. Immediately remove loaf from Dutch oven, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
Note: For mashed sweet potatoes: Wash sweet potatoes, prick with a fork, and bake in a 425°F (220°C) oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

 

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11 COMMENTS

  1. Made this recipe a couple of weeks ago, fantastic!! Light, soft with a chewy crust, served with a tasty think stew… absolute heaven. The whole fall issue is filled with amazing recipes.

  2. If you refrigerator overnight is a one hour rise sufficient? I’m never sure if the dough needs to come up to room temperature

    • It depends on the temperature of the room. In perfect conditions, 75 degrees Fahrenheit it should take thirty minutes for the dough to puff back up and adjust to the temperature. In a colder room, it could take nearly an hour. Don’t sweat it though, as long as your dough is no longer cold to the touch, you should be good to bake it!

    • Hi Sev,

      Thank you so much for your question! You can absolutely substitute canned sweet potato or pumpkin in this recipe. Just be sure to drain them if they’re in syrup, and note that if using pureed, you might not get the exact same texture as the lightly mashed baked sweet potato seeing as lightly mashing them allows for small chunks of sweet potato to incorporate throughout the dough.

      Happy Baking!

  3. yummy! this resulted in a gorgeous loaf that has INSANE moisture retention- it’s day 3 with absolutely zero staling. color and flavor is great, and the floral notes of the purple sweet potato I used really come through. i was able to achieve a pretty decent height and uniform crumb- my loaf came out both more open structured and taller than the loaf in the pictures, which was a wonderful surprise. I attribute this to using a makeshift proofing basket (a colander) to hold my dough for the final proof.

    things i did differently
    – swapped normal sweet potato for purple sweet potato
    – swapped 1.5 cups of bread flour for white whole wheat flour
    – “cold start method” (instead of preheating my oven and dutch oven, I put my dutch oven
    with the bread inside and then preheated it and added that onto the baking time
    – used a colander as a proofing basket to hold my dough for the final rest to achieve
    better structure
    – had to bake for nearly an HOUR more- my bread would likely have been severely
    underbaked if I didn’t

    tips:
    – don’t be afraid to swap out some whole wheat here: I did 1.5 cups to no detriment
    – I would recommend exceeding the baking time, especially if your oven runs colder than
    indicated, and taking the loaf out once it has reached a very deep brown color otherwise
    the risk of underbaking may be high
    – use a proofing basket or bowl to hold your dough in the final proof if you have one, you’ll
    a taller bread!

    I am excited to try this recipe again in the future- perhaps going with the recipe’s original route of orange sweet potato, maybe increasing the whole wheat percentage to 50%, and maybe trying some add ins like raisins or walnuts! I think this is a wonderfully straightforward base recipe great for personalizing that will easily become a household staple.

  4. yummy! this resulted in a gorgeous loaf that has INSANE moisture retention- it’s day 3 with absolutely zero staling. color and flavor is great, and the floral notes of the purple sweet potato I used really come through. i was able to achieve a pretty decent height and uniform crumb- my loaf came out both more open structured and taller than the loaf in the pictures, which was a wonderful surprise. I attribute this to using a makeshift proofing basket (a colander) to hold my dough for the final proof.

    things i did differently
    – swapped normal sweet potato for purple sweet potato
    – swapped 1.5 cups of bread flour for white whole wheat flour
    – “cold start method” (instead of preheating my oven and dutch oven, I put my dutch oven
    with the bread inside and then preheated it and added that onto the baking time
    – used a colander as a proofing basket to hold my dough for the final rest to achieve
    better structure
    – had to bake for nearly an HOUR more- my bread would likely have been severely
    underbaked if I didn’t

    tips:
    – don’t be afraid to swap out some whole wheat here: I did 1.5 cups to no detriment
    – I would recommend exceeding the baking time, especially if your oven runs colder than
    indicated, and taking the loaf out once it has reached a very deep brown color otherwise
    the risk of underbaking may be high
    – use a proofing basket or bowl to hold your dough in the final proof if you have one, you’ll
    a taller bread!

    I am excited to try this recipe again in the future- perhaps going with the recipe’s original route of orange sweet potato, maybe increasing the whole wheat percentage to 50%, and maybe trying some add ins like raisins or walnuts! I think this is a wonderfully straightforward base recipe great for personalizing that will easily become a household staple! I would definitely recommend this.

  5. Wow, amazing 🙂 I 2nd the person who wrote it should be cooked longer. mine definitely needed more time, but it was still good a bit underbaked, as it cooked more sliced up in the toaster! I did not have a dutch oven so I cooked mine in a pot with a baking sheet as the lid. Parchment paper under bread. Took the baking sheet off for the last 15 minutes like the directions said. I ate with vegan broccoli cheddar soup.

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