As a followup to the successful reception of my grain and nut-free Burger Buns recipe, I’ve made them again, this time with a few adjustments. I’m making them with sweet potatoes this time as I’ve been getting a lot people asking if orange sweet potatoes will work in place of the taro used in the original recipe (Taro is usually not available in a typical American supermarket) Firstly, my decision in using taro in the original recipe was based on my knowledge that there is less moisture in taro than any other starchy root vegetable I could readily get my hands on, and that it would therefore work best in a structural sense, making for the bulk of the final product. Second to the taro is the korean yellow-fleshed variety of sweet potatoes, which is starchier than the orange variety you find most often in North America.

Knowing that orange sweet potatoes contain more moisture, I omitted the coconut milk, added more coconut flour and reduced the eggs to just one. The texture of the final product is in fact moister than the taro bun recipe, even with all the liquid reduction, but given enough time to cool on a wire rack, the buns do hold up a patty. I decided to make them slider-sized this time, which might also have helped it keep its shape. If you decide to make these into full-size burger buns, I would suggest cooking the steamed orange sweet potato further (in a saucepan, stirring constantly) on low heat to remove more moisture content before continuing.

And just for research’s sake, I also recorded the shrinkage of a sweet potato from raw to cooked-and-peeled using a digital scale.

1. 270g, sweet potato is raw

2. 230g, sweet potato has been steamed in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes

3. 188g, sweet potato, cooked and skin removed

4. the amount we are using for this particular recipe (125g)

As this record shows, my sweet potato went from 270g raw to 188g in its final usable stage, which is about a 30% decrease.

INGREDIENTS:

125g orange sweet potato (steamed and tender, easily poked through with a fork)

50g coconut oil

25g coconut flour (homemade recipe here)

1 egg

1/2—1 tablespoon raw honey

1/8 teaspoon sea salt (fine)

PREHEAT

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees.

PREP AND MELT

1. Mise en Place in the photo on the left, sweet potato (mashed with a fork), coconut oil, coconut flour, honey and sea salt.

2. Heat the coconut oil over low heat with the honey until just melted.

BLEND:

3. Place the sweet potato and coconut oil mixture into a high-speed blender and combine until smooth, pictured on the left. Add in the sifted coconut flour mixture and blend until combined. The coconut flour will soak up a significant amount of moisture, making the batter a lot thicker, as shown on the right.





BEAT

4. Transfer the sweet potato batter from the blender into a large bowl. Beat the egg in, scraping down once midway, until a smooth and creamy batter is achieved.





SCOOP AND BAKE

5. Using an ice cream scoop, I was able to get 6 even mounds of batter onto a baking sheet. Flatten each with a spatula or your hands into even rounds.

6. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely before assembling.

I ate mine with 100% beef patties, tomato, onion and baby spinach. The natural sweetness from the sweet potato along with the added honey is quite nice, and actually reminds me of sweet brioche buns smeared with honey mustard when I eat it with the beef and onions! Enjoy!