Get the Recipe:Soft and Squishy Potato Hamburger Buns
Perfect squishy and soft potato hamburger bun recipe! The secret is a little potato and potato cooking water in the dough. These buns also make great soft sandwich buns!
1/2cup(85g)mashed potatoes, from 1 large baking potato or two small mashing potatoes, such as Russet or Yukon Gold
1/2cup(125ml)hot potato cooking water
2Tablespoonvegetable or canola oil, or other neutral-tasting cooking oil
1Tablespoonrunny honey, lightly flavoured or *see Note 1 below
2 1/4teaspooninstant or dry active yeast
1teaspoonfine table salt
1 1/2cups(200g)all purpose flour, unbleached recommended, plus more as needed
Optional Egg Wash:
1largeegg
1teaspoonwater
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Instructions
Prepare the mashed potatoes:
Cut the potatoes in evenly sized pieces and place in a medium-large saucepan. Cover potatoes with at least an inch of cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower heat slightly and continue cooking until potatoes are tender. DO NOT DRAIN YET! Place a strainer over a medium bowl and pour potatoes and water over, reserving the potato water in the bowl and the potatoes in the strainer. Remove strained potatoes to a bowl and mash really well with a fork (or run through a potato ricer, if you have one). Measure out the required amount of potato cooking water and set aside.
Prepare the bread:
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, dd the measured mashed potatoes. *Tip! If you potatoes are a little lumpy still, run the mixer on low with the paddle attachment to smooth them a little more before proceeding. Add the potato cooking water, oil and honey to the bowl and mix in. Allow mixture to cool to at least 105F. Check with a thermometer to be sure. If the mixture is too hot, it may kill the yeast.
When potato mixture has cooled as required, add the yeast and mix in. *Tip! If using Active Dry Yeast, allow the yeast to stand in the liquid 5 minutes before proceeding. Measure out the flour and stir in the salt. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the bowl and mix in with the paddle attachment. Switch to the kneading hook and mix in the remaining flour mixture until you have a moist dough ball, not sticky to touch, but almost. You may need to add a bit more flour than specified, but be careful you don't add too much. You want to stop when the dough clears the bowl and wraps the kneading hook, but is still very moist.
Remove dough to a floured work surface and knead a minute or so, adding a bit more flour if necessary, only if the dough is sticking to your hands or the work surface. Don't add too much! Keep the dough as moist as possible.
Place dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled, about 45-60 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350F (regular bake/not fan-assisted).
Remove dough to a floured work surface and gently deflate. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces (*see Note 2 below). Form each piece into a ball (*see Note 3 below) and place onto a baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches between the dough balls.
Cover the baking sheet with a clean tea towel and set aside to rise until doubled and puffy, about 30 minutes.
Before baking, you can brush with egg wash (mix together egg and water and brush on top of buns). Be sure to cover the buns completely and thoroughly with the egg wash, all the way to the bottom. to ensure an even baked colour. The egg wash will produce a slightly shiny, golden colour. Alternatively, you can dust with flour instead. The buns will not be shiny and will be lighter in colour after baking. I like to use the egg wash then sometimes I will dust lightly with flour after baking.
Bake the buns for 20-23 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Bake until just lightly golden on top and not yet browning on the sides. Cool rolls in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. If not enjoying immediately, store in an airtight container or freeze for longer storage.
Notes
1. You can replace the 1 Tbsp honey with 1 1/2 Tbsp white sugar if you don't have honey.2. I like to weigh the entire dough ball, then divide that weight by 6, to figure out what the weight for each bun should be. That way all the rolls will be the same size and cook at the same rate, as well. My dough balls were about 73g each.3. To form the dough into balls, take the piece of the dough and using both hands, stretch dough out from the 3 and 9 o'clock position to smooth, then flip over and pinch together well, creating tension on the smooth side of the dough. Flip back over with the smooth side up.