Potato cinnamon rolls for two.
Rebecca Rather is my baking idol. She runs a bakery in the Hill Country of Texas named 'Rather Sweet.' Everything Rebecca makes is the best version of itself, entirely from scratch, and completely mouth-watering. Just for example, instead of the classic Tres Leches cake, she makes Muchas Leches Cake.
I've been making the pages of her cookbook, Rather Sweet, sticky for years.
Her recipe for 'Jailhouse Potato Cinnamon Rolls' caught my eye in the breakfast chapter not only because they are perfect pinwheels of deliciousness, but also because the recipe is based on a version of leftover mashed potato rolls served in a nearby prison.
Only Rebecca could take such a recipe and spin it into a crave-worthy beauty. It's the first recipe in the book, so you know she'd hang her hat on it.
The full-size recipe always turns out great; although, two people can (and should) only eat so many cinnamon rolls. I scaled down Rebecca's recipe to make just two cinnamon rolls. When baked in a bread loaf pan, the serving size is just right.
Don't be afraid of baking with yeast, I'm going to walk you through this one. This recipe even works in the dead of the winter when your kitchen is a bit chilly.
The best part is: you don't even have to have leftover mashed potatoes. We're going to boil a potato from scratch, and use the leftover starchy cooking water in the final dough.
So carb-alicious:
We're only dealing with a handful of dough to make these cinnamon rolls (see photo below).
If you find dough to be intimidating in general, please, start with this small-batch recipe. You'll work your way up to yeast superstar in no time.
While we have 2 rise times in this recipe, you can use a preheated oven that is turned off for a quick rise. You'll have these rolls out of the oven in about 2 hours. Not bad, right? If that's too much to ask for in the morning, I've had great luck using Rebecca's instructions to store the dough in the fridge overnight after the first rise.
I'm convinced this recipe is flawless.
Potato cinnamon rolls step-by-step:
If your'e looking for a no-yeast recipe for small batch cinnamon rolls, I have you covered. But I think you should try this yeast version at least once.
Potato Cinnamon Rolls for two
Yield: 2 large cinnamon rolls
Ingredients
- 5 oz. russet potato, peeled*
- 1 ½ teaspoons active, dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons sugar (plus a pinch for the yeast)
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted (plus ½ tablespoon extra for bowl)
- 1 ½ cups flour
For the filling:
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- splash of milk
Instructions
- See the note about the potato below. Place the raw potato and 1 cup of cold water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until the potato is done (it slides off a knife when pierced after 10-15 minutes).
- Drain the potatoes, reserving the cooking water in a glass liquid measuring cup. Add enough fresh water to the reserved water to equal ¾ cup TOTAL. (Note: you may not have to add any water at all). Place a thermometer inside the water and wait until it cools down to 108-115-degrees F.
- Meanwhile, mash the drained potatoes and set aside in a medium bowl.
- Once the water has cooled to the ideal temperature range, add the yeast and a pinch of the sugar. Stir to dissolve, and then let rest until foamy, about 5 minutes. If the yeast does not foam, it's dead. Start over with fresh water and fresh yeast. (If this does happen to you, you could use all plain water for this step--no need to boil extra potatoes).
- Next, to the bowl with the cooled mashed potatoes add the sugar and melted butter. Stir very well to combine--no lumps! Then, add the yeast-water mixture. Stir well.
- Finally, add the flour, and mix until combined. Grab the sticky dough in one hand, and smear the extra butter up the sides of the bowl. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes-1 hour, or until doubled. If your kitchen is cool, turn on the oven to 200-degrees for 5 minutes, turn it off, and place the bowl inside to rise.
- After rising is complete, the dough can be punched down and refrigerated overnight to bake in the morning. I've had great results make the dough the night before.
- If not refrigerating overnight, flour your hand, then punch down the dough very well after its first rise. Gather the dough into a ball and roughly knead it a few times. Add enough flour to get it going into a ball that you can roll out. For me, this varies between 1-4 tablespoons, depending on the humidity that day.
- Next, we'll roll out the dough and fill it: Dust the counter with flour, and dump the dough onto the flour. Flour your hands, then pat out the dough into a 6" square. In a small bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon. Let it sit for a minute or so, then spread it evenly on the dough--almost to the edges.
- Gently, roll up the square, starting on the edge of dough closest to you. Roll tightly, and pinch the edge together when you get to the end (see photo for reference). Slice the roll in half, then place in a greased loaf pan.
- Let the rolls rise in the loaf pan in a warm place for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375. Bake the rolls in the oven for 25 minutes. The rolls will be brown, don't be afraid of color.
- Take the rolls out of the oven, and combine the remaining ½ teaspoon cinnamon, powdered sugar, and splash of milk. Pour the glaze on the warm rolls, and serve.
Notes
*Most russet potatoes weigh more than 5 ounces, so either grab a tiny organic one, or pull out 5 ounces worth of raw potatoes while making mashed potatoes the night before. Store the raw potato pieces in cold water overnight, and they'll be fine in the morning.
*This recipe was updated to eliminate confusion about how much water to add. The amount of water leftover after boiling the potato varies, so add how ever much needed to equal ¾ cup TOTAL. Also, this dough is very sticky and slightly looser than the average cinnamon roll recipe. This is due to the potatoes. Add flour during kneading and rolling to make it not sticky. For me, it always varies between 1-4 tablespoons. If your dough is thin, do not worry! Keep going, and you'll see that after 2 rises, you'll have very tender rolls. I have added an extra ½ cup of flour to the recipe to help address this issue.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 874Total Fat: 24gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 62mgSodium: 207mgCarbohydrates: 152gFiber: 6gSugar: 63gProtein: 13g
Christie says
I've not had luck in the past with yeast and have been intimidated to try again but this simple recipe is giving me courage!
If I put the dough in the fridge overnight, does it need to come to room temp before moving to the next step? If so, how long of a wait?
Christina Lane says
Hi Christie!
Thanks for writing. When I refrigerate the dough the night before, I just proceed with the recipe as normal. The only thing is, it will take a little longer for the rolls to rise in the pan before baking. Give them 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes in step #11.
Best of luck! Happy baking :)
Christina
Caroline says
This recipe is amazing! (un)Fortunately, it made wayyy more than two rolls. After the second rise, a total of nine rolls filled a 9X9 pan from bottom to top, nearly overflowing! (I was nervous that they would overflow in the oven, but luckily they didn't.) A spoon and knife was needed to remove the somewhat-amorfous rolls from the pan after baking, but they were definitely worth it. These rolls are incredibly light and fluffy with a pleasant starchy aftertaste... I ate three almost immediately, so much for self-control! :) I'm not sure what I did differently than you; my dough was very moist, almost batter-like, but I only added flour until it become workable (maybe 1/4-1/3 cup).
I opened a brand new jar of yeast for this recipe, so perhaps it was just over-eager!
Either way, certainly a delicious recipe!! (=
Mel says
I got 4 large rolls from this recipe !
Lisa says
I already have leftover mashed potatoes... so I'm wondering how much of those to use? What's equivalent???
Thelma says
Hi do you have a recipe for potato rolls? Can this recipe be adapted to make potato rolls? Thank you.
Christina says
Think this would work with sweet potatoes? 🤔
Alyssa says
I made these, but they definitely needed salt! It was rather humid out and it turned into more of a monkey bread/loaf situation, but the lack of salt made me not be able to eat. I would make again, but add a pinch of salt!
Wendy says
I doubled the recipe, since I needed 4 rolls, but I am thinking it would be super easy to get 4 rolls out of the recipe as it is.
Mine are just now starting their second rise and they are HUGE. 1 roll will easily feed two people, generously.
I will say, the dough was very, very soft, but handled gently, it was super easy to pat out into the 6” square, no rolling pin needed. I am very curious to try the finished product, so I will update once they are baked.
Wendy says
Updating- these baked up very large! The basic recipe will easily make 4 rolls. I added a pinch of salt, which it definitely needed. The texture was almost a cross between a biscuit and a bun, soft with a bit of a biscuit crumble. Super easy and nice change up :)
Jamie says
Well, these were a flop for me. I've made LOTS of cinnamon rolls in my time, but thought these potato ones sounded good. The dough was VERY wet (yes, I weighed the potato and followed the direction for how much total water to use). I probably added a whole extra half cup of flour or more, and it was still sloppy. I even tried kneading it a little to see if developing the gluten would make it more handleable. Finally, I just decided to trust the process, set it aside to proof, and then formed the rolls as best I could with the floppy dough. Following the advice of other commenters, I made 4 rolls in an 8"x8" pan, but these expanded and baked up into one huge loaf. The outside got very brown, but after I took it out, the middle deflated and the inside was essentially uncooked mashed potato dough. Inedible. I can't imagine making this as only two rolls in a 9x5 pan. As I said before, I'm an experienced baker of yeast rolls, so there's definitely something off here. All I can think is that the boiling process of the potatoes must put a lot of water into the potatoes, which doesn't get measured. Maybe the potatoes need to be a certain amount of weight AFTER being boiled and mashed, to account for water absorption? I can see from other comments that I'm not the only one who struggled with this recipe.