Potato Rolls

This is another of the posts in my Memory Lane series.  I am having fun digging into my earliest food memories and sharing the recipes here.  As I think about it, though, I do believe that my earliest food memory is from when I was 2 years old.  Yes, I really can remember back to when I was 2.  Anyway, that earliest memory revolves around eating a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.  My baby brother woke up and I stopped eating breakfast to follow my mom into his room.  When I came back to the table, my scrambled eggs were gone.  I remember crying about it and my mom told me that I must have eaten them and she wouldn’t make me any more.  To this day, I don’t know what happened to those eggs.  So strange.

However, scrambled eggs has absolutely nothing to do with my memories surrounding potato rolls.  These were very special rolls that my grandmother only made for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.  I don’t know why they were only reserved for those times, but it may be because the dough is prepared the night before and left to rise in the refrigerator.  That’s a great plus during busy Sundays or Holidays when cooking time is at a premium.

These rolls are amazingly tender and moist.  My cousins and I used to sneak as many of these as we could before the adults would ban us from existence.  What can I say?  It was the South in the 60’s and we “young-un’s” weren’t supposed to be seen or heard (except by Granny because she loved us so much and appreciated that we loved her rolls enough to risk life and limb to sneak them.)

I have not made these rolls for many years, mostly because I live my life flying by the seat of my pants and always make quick recipes for rolls.  However, after making these rolls and taking that first wonderful bite, I promised myself that these will be on my to-do list more often.  My husband and son were the only ones around for dinner the night that I made these and both of them asked the same thing, “What did you do to these rolls?”  “They are potato rolls.”   “Is there honey in them?”  “Nope.  Sugar.”   “Did you add any kind of spices?”  “Nope.  Just mashed potatoes.”   It is incredible what mashed potatoes and the potato cooking water can do for the flavor of what would otherwise be fairly ordinary rolls.  Plus, allowing the dough to sit overnight really sends these rolls over-the-top on the flave-o-meter.

In the spirit of true confessions, I ate three rolls, John ate two of them, and Matt gobbled up something like six or twelve (with butter).  He had a plate piled high with them and was heading for the couch when John and I went up to bed.  Time to get somebody on a statin for cholesterol control.

I have kept the recipe just as Granny wrote it, including the shortening. I am sure that butter would work well also.  I use it in all of the other types of rolls that I make and it works great.  However, I wanted to be true to this recipe, so I kept the shortening.

Print Recipe

Potato Rolls

With mashed potatoes incorporated into the dough, these rolls are light and tender. The can spend up to 24 hours in the refrigerator, so this is a particuarly good dough for preparing ahead of time.

Prep Time40 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Resting Time in Refrigerator up to1 day d

Total Time1 day d 1 hour hr

Author: Terri @ that's some good cookin'

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. or 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed potatoes, cook and mash about 2 medium-sized potatoes, do not add milk or butter
• 1 cup potato water, use the water in which the potatoes were cooked
• 5-6 cups white flour

Instructions

• Dissolve yeast in the 1/2 cup warm water. Add a pinch of sugar to help activate the yeast.
• While the yeast is proofing, in the bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer, mix together the hot potato water and the shortening until the shortening has melted.
• Add the sugar, salt, and mashed potatoes and mix until everything is well blended. Allow the mixture to cool before adding the yeast and eggs, otherwise you will have dead yeast and cooked eggs. Not a pretty site.
• Add the proofed yeast and the eggs to the above cooled mixture and mix until well blended.
• Add 3 cups of flour and mix on medium speed until smooth.
• With the mixer running, add 2-3 more cups flour, 1/2 cup at a time just until the dough leaves the side of the bowl. The dough should be soft, but not sticky. Mix on high speed until smooth and elastic.
• Gather into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl. Turn the dough over once in the bowl so that the oiled side of dough is facing up. Place plastic wrap tightly over the bowl and put in the refrigerator for 2-24 hours. (I had my dough in the fridge for almost 24 hours.)
• Remove dough from refrigerator and punch down. Knead the dough by hand for a minute or two to work out the large gas bubbles. Return the dough to the bowl, cover, and allow to warm for about 30 minutes.
• Shape rolls and place in well oiled pan. Put in a warm place and allow to rise until about double in bulk. Bake in a 375-degree oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Notes

• Mashed Potatoes: The mashed potatoes are simply cooked potatoes that have been mashed without milk or butter. It takes about 2 medium potatoes to get 1 cup of mashed potatoes. Make sure that you reserve 1 cup of the potato cooking water. This will be added to the rolls. It really does make a difference in the taste of the rolls. If, however, the potato water gets tossed, just use regular water.
• Mixing: I used a heavy duty mixer (Bosch) to make the dough. Of course, you can make the dough by hand.
• Resting Time: This dough is best when it is allowed to sit overnight in the refrigerator. I let mine sit for almost 24 hours before I got around to making the rolls and it was great. If the dough rises too much in the fridge, punch it down, cover it back up tightly, and leave it in the fridge until you are ready to make rolls.

Recipe by Terri @ that's some good cookin'

Start adding additional flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.  As flour is added, the dough will begin to gather around the dough hook, but will still cling to the sides of the bowl.