Purple sweet potato always wins my heart by its elegant colour and simplifies for cooking. I enjoy this sweet potato bread for breakfast, an afternoon pick-me-up, or an evening treat. It’s great as-is, but it’s also extra amazing if you heat it up and put a generous slather of almond butter on top.
As I was brainstorming recipes ideas, I thought to myself “What do people love as much as bananas?” Maybe I’m just overly obsessed with spuds, but purple sweet potatoes immediately came to mind. Thus, these perfectly sweet, warmly spiced, and oh so dreamy vegan Japanese purple sweet potato soft buns were born. These fluffy buns are actually more convenient than banana bread too. You may not always have some brown and spotty bananas lying around, but you can always steam up some sweet potatoes for this recipe.
I have tried baking purple sweet potato buns a few times, but using local purple sweet potatoes. This round I used the Okinawa, Japan, purple sweet potatoes. Personally, I find the colour of the Japanese sweet potato more intense, and would not turn brown after steaming. It has a smoother texture and sweeter aroma.
I made a couple of potato breads using regular potatoes some time back. I decided to replicate that using these sweet potatoes. And viola, the plan worked perfectly! In a few hours I found myself standing with a knife at the kitchen counter staring at a pale violet coloured bread. I have been a fan of violet, purple, pink, coral and all shades around these colours! In parts where there were small bits of potato, the bread was dark violet and evenly light coloured in the remaining areas. A real treat for the eyes!
So lately, if you have been paying attention, you’d notice that I’ve been somewhat, disturbingly obsessed with this colour here. They are sweet, with a nice purplish hue. especially nice in adding (natural) colour to baked goods! Hey, I swear, I didn’t know I had it in me either. I mean, com’n, pastel purple? What am I, Hanna Montana? But seriously, starting exactly 7 days ago, I swear it came at me like a never-ending nightmare too dazing and beautiful to wake up from, I kept and kept baking things – five loafs of bread as we speak to be exact – obsessively coloured in this gigglish hue which i was never that into even when i was 4. What’s happened to me?
'Would the buns be equally pale inside?' 'Will they be soggy inside from the extra moisture from the potatoes?' I had these questions as I took the buns out from the oven. And boy was I glad to see the result. The buns were bright coloured inside, perfectly moist because of the sweet potato, super soft inside, mildly sweet given the potatoes were sweet and made perfect buns for any party!
Bread baking is my favourite blogging activity. And buns made with different ingredients is something I enjoy a lot. From all the loaves and buns I have made in the past, this one is my favourite! What more does a girl want except a bread that is violet? So, if you love purple sweet potatoes, you are bound to love this recipe! You could even throw some chopped nuts or chocolate chips in the batter if you were feeling extra fancy. But enough chit chat, let’s get to baking!
IF YOU EVER GIVE THIS RECIPE A TRY, DO LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW AND/OR TAG @FRUITYEMZ AND HASHTAG #FRUITYEMZ ON YOUR INSTAGRAM POST! 🙂
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