Amish Cinnamon Rolls with Mashed Potatoes

These Amish cinnamon rolls with mashed potatoes are a real winner as a dessert with their light and soft texture. They’re also a great recipe when teaching your kids (or grandkids) to bake. Putting mashed potatoes into a dessert is odd, but it will capture their attention.

It’s also an excellent recipe for entertaining or making ahead because it makes an “Amish-sized” batch of three dozen. That’s a dozen to enjoy immediately, a dozen to take to a potluck, and a dozen to tuck away in your freezer for later.

Amish Cinnamon Roll Recipe Ingredients

• Potatoes: Though it may seem odd to put potatoes in a sweet roll, they’ve been used in yeast-based breads for centuries to make the dough softer and moist.
• Yeast: Some cinnamon roll recipes use baking powder, but most call for yeast because it creates a soft, lush and pliable dough.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar plays a couple of roles in these rolls. It’s a sweetener, of course, but also helps feed the yeast which makes the rolls light and fluffy.
• Butter: Butter contributes to making the dough softer and it also brings richness to the filling and the icing.
• Eggs: The eggs in a yeast bread add richness and help make the dough softer, while the whites’ proteins also contribute to the rolls’ lightness by complementing the gluten in the flour.
• Nonfat milk powder: The milk powder brings added protein to the finished dessert, but it also helps give the rolls their pillowy softness.
• Salt: Salt contributes to the flavor of the dough and  helps slow the growth of the yeast so the dough won’t rise too quickly and become overdeveloped.
• Vanilla extract: Vanilla brings its signature mellow, rich flavor to both the dough and the icing.
• Brown sugar: The brown sugar combines with butter and cinnamon in the rolls’ filling, giving it a sweet stickiness that’s the hallmark of a good cinnamon roll.
• Cinnamon: Cinnamon gives the rolls their distinctive flavor, and perfumes your entire home while the rolls are baking.
• Confectioners’ sugar: This powdered sugar gives the simple icing its texture and sweetness.
• Milk: The milk in the icing moistens the sugar and makes the finished icing thin enough to drizzle artistically over the rolls.

Directions

Step 1: Boil the potatoes

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Place the potatoes in a saucepan with enough water to cover them. Bring them to a boil and reduce the heat, cover the saucepan and simmer the potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes or until they’re tender. Reserve 1/2  cup of the potato water and set it aside, then drain the potatoes. Mash them and set aside 1 cup for the cinnamon rolls and use the remainder for another purpose.

Step 2: Make the cinnamon roll dough

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Heat the reserved potato liquid to 110° to 115°F. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar in the potato liquid and let this stand for five minutes. Add the warm water, mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, sugar, milk powder, salt, vanilla and flour (5 cups). Beat this mixture until smooth and then stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Step 3: Knead the dough

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Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead the dough for six to eight minutes, until it’s smooth and elastic. Transfer it to a greased bowl and turn it once to grease the top of the dough. Cover the dough and refrigerate it overnight.

Step 4: Roll the dough

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Remove the dough from your refrigerator and punch it down. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into three equal portions. Roll each portion to a 12×8-inch rectangle and spread butter over the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle them over the dough.

Step 5: Form the cinnamon rolls

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Roll up each rectangle jelly-roll style starting with a long side and pinching the seams to seal them. Cut each log into 12 equal slices. Place the slices cut side down in three greased 13×9-inch baking pans. Cover the rolls and let them rise until they’re almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

Step 6: Bake the cinnamon rolls

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Bake the cinnamon rolls at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes, until they’re puffy and golden brown. Combine the icing ingredients in a mixing bowl, beating them until they come together to form a smooth icing and then drizzle the icing over the cinnamon rolls.

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Amish Cinnamon Roll Variations

• Upgrade your icing: The simple glaze this recipe calls for is perfectly appropriate but is not intended to be noteworthy in its own right. For an easy upgrade, ditch it and make a batch of cream cheese icing instead. You can thank us later.
• Add some pecans: These cinnamon rolls are soft, sweet and delightful all on their own. But you certainly can’t go wrong by adding nuts. Scatter 1/2 to 3/4 cup of pecan pieces over the filling of each portion of dough, after the cinnamon and sugar but before you roll them up. You can decorate the tops of the rolls with additional pecans while the icing is soft and wet, if you wish.
• Turn them into sticky caramel buns: Make the cinnamon rolls as directed in the recipe but don’t pack them straight into the baking pans. Instead, line the pans first with brown sugar and heavy cream, as shown in our recipe for caramel-pecan sticky buns (you’ll need three times the quantity, that recipe only makes one pan) and then place the cut cinnamon rolls in the pan. Let them rise and bake normally. When they come out of the oven, give them 10 minutes to cool and  invert each pan onto a cooking rack or serving tray. Don’t let them cool completely in the pan or the caramel will set and cement the rolls into your pan.

How to Store Amish Cinnamon Rolls

Any cinnamon rolls that don’t get eaten at the first sitting (and this is an Amish-sized batch so most of us will have leftovers) can be kept in a food storage container with a tight-fitting lid, bagged or simply covered on a plate.

Can I make this Amish cinnamon roll recipe ahead of time?

Yes, you can easily make them an extra day ahead of time. It’s already a two-day recipe but this means you won’t have to fuss on the day you plan to serve them.

How long do Amish cinnamon rolls keep?

If they’re packed airtight they’ll be good for about two days at room temperature and up to five days in the refrigerator. You could stretch that by a day or two if you don’t mind dunking a slightly past-its-prime cinnamon roll in your coffee or tea.

Can I freeze these Amish cinnamon rolls?

Yes, they freeze pretty well and it’s actually a great way to work with this big recipe. To freeze them unbaked, follow the recipe up to the point where the rolls are cut and put into the pan. At this point you can freeze them in an airtight freezer bag. When you want to bake a pan of cinnamon rolls, transfer them from the freezer to your fridge overnight to thaw. Then let them rise at room temperature as you normally would. To freeze baked cinnamon rolls, omit the icing and wrap them individually or package them in serving portions. You can glaze them when they’re thawed and served.

Amish Cinnamon Roll Recipe Tips

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Why are there potatoes in the dough?

Potatoes have been used in yeast doughs for centuries. Bakers quickly learned that bread and rolls containing potatoes came out soft and moist. The potatoes’ starchy, nutrient-rich cooking water also seems to help yeast grow vigorously. We have several potato bread recipes on the site (including an Amish potato bread) and many large commercial bakeries also make potato bread or rolls.

Can I bake these Amish cinnamon rolls without resting the dough overnight?

Yes but they won’t be the same. That long, slow overnight rise improves the dough’s flavor and gives the cinnamon rolls their fine texture. Also, the chilled dough is much easier to roll and handle. If you let the dough rise immediately at room temperature it will try to tear when you roll it. It will also be hard to cut neatly and the finished cinnamon rolls (while still tasty) will be relatively dry and coarse. If you want a same-day cinnamon roll, you’re probably better off trying one of our dozens of other cinnamon roll recipes (consider the Speedy Cinnamon Rolls if you’re really in a hurry).

How can I dress up these cinnamon rolls for company?

These cinnamon rolls are tasty but you can certainly make them prettier if you choose. Adding pecans is a good starting point (see the Variations above), especially if you drizzle the finished cinnamon rolls with caramel and pecans instead of icing. Alternatively you could bake some of the rolls in a cast iron skillet, which also makes an appealingly rustic serving piece. For a really eye-catching option, turn it instead into a cinnamon roll wreath.