Sweet Potato Cinnamon Buns

I will eat cinnamon buns anytime, anywhere, but Sunday mornings are made for cinnamon buns. Am I right?

Take a humble sweet potato and roast it to even more caramelised sweetness. Make some dough with it and slather it with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll and cut that sucker up and bake it to golden deliciousness. Smother it in a sweet, cinnamon-y glaze. And stuff it into your pie hole. Easy.

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Buns
adapted from here
Makes 6

For the Dough:
1 small sweet potato
75ml maple syrup
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g plain flour
125g wholemeal flour (I use Atta flour)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
75g unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the Filling:
30g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
45g pecans, lightly toasted and crushed

For the Glaze:
50g cream cheese at room temperature
2 tablspoons milk
100g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Make the Dough:
Preheat the oven to 200C and line a baking tray with foil.

Prick the sweet potato a few times with a skewer, put it on the prepared baking tray and roast for 45 – 50 mintues, or until tender when pierced with a fork. Leave until cool enough to handle, cut it open and scrape out the soft flesh. Discard the skin, measure 150g and put it into the bowl of a food processor along with the maple syrup, spices, salt and vanilla extract. Blitz until smooth. (I sometimes do this a day ahead.)

Combine both flours and baking powders in a bowl. Add the sweet potato puree and mix to a smooth dough.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough out to a 1cm thick rectangle. Spread the filling all over the dough. Using a long edge, roll the dough tightly into a log shape and cut it into 6 even portions. Line a baking pan with baking paper and put the buns, cut side up, into it, leaving enough room for them to rise and spread.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden.

Make the Filling:
Put all the filling ingredients into a bowl and mix together.

Make the Glaze:
Put the cream cheese into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until smooth. Add the milk, icing sugar and cinnamon and whip until you have a drizzling consistency. Drizzle over the warm cinnamon buns.