The Covered Dish - Potato Refrigerator Rolls

It’s been a weekend full of cooking, canning and more! Saturday started early with kitchen prep and by the time the day wrapped we had canned blueberry syrup, made a casserole, prepared pulled pork, baked beans, dessert, brownies and I’ve lost track of what else! All in preparation for a Father’s Day picnic and an evening cookout. Whoops don’t forget about 5 hours on the road today while we picked up our awesome nephew and brought him down for a week. Busy, yep, keeps us out of trouble.

Monday night I’m teaching the art of ‘yeast’. I have a couple of gals coming over for bread/rolls instruction. I thought we would start with these refrigerator rolls because they’re so flexible. Let’s start the conversation with what happens while bread is rising. The first rise is the most important rise because it’s where we see the most flavor development. The second rise is important but not as much as the first. In fact, you will find some yeast breads that may have only one rise.

If the dough is refrigerated at least overnight it’s going to give even more time for flavor development. I also like doing the refrigeration with homemade pizza dough.

Mashed potatoes have been used for generations in baked good of all types. They add both flavor and nice texture to the baked good. I think they also help keep the bread moist.

Perhaps, the biggest reason why I enjoy this recipe is because it’s geared towards a working family with busy schedules. You can stir the dough up the night before making it easy to create great tasting bread after work! With all the grilling of summer this recipe would make phenomenal hamburger buns! Remember you will need to make the buns much larger than a hot roll. Also; you want a ‘bun’ to spread out instead of going up tall like a hot roll. I would make the bun at least twice as big as an individual hot roll. Toasted sesame seeds could be added to the top if desired.

Lastly; dough can be frozen. If a dinner party is coming up it would be easy to make the dough a week or two beforehand. Make it over the weekend, once you

make the rolls take them immediately to the deep freeze. The morning of the dinner set them out to rise early in the morning, in 7=8 hours they will be ready to bake. How impressed your guests and family will be. Because our freezers are not quick freeze, I would only hold yeast products for about 3 months in a regular deep freeze.

In order for my class to go both quick and smooth I need to go make a batch of dough before I go to bed. I’ll start the ladies on punching down dough and then how to pinch out dinner rolls. We’ll do a rise and then bake. Then we will back-paddle and make the dough. I’m looking forward to the teaching & fellowship.

Count your blessings and enjoy a great week. Simply Yours, The Covered Dish.

Potato Refrigerator Rolls

Yields 3-4 dozen dinner rolls

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

½ cup warm water, (105-115 degrees)

1 cup milk, warm if using dough immediately

1 cup unseasoned mashed potatoes, no skins

1 large egg

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup honey

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

6 tablespoons cold chopped butter

6-6 1/4 cups all purpose flour, could use bread flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix yeast into warm water, stirring to dissolve totally. Allow to set while combining milk, potatoes, eggs and honey. Use a whisk to blend smoothly. Add yeast mixture. In a mixer bowl combine the salt and 3 cups of the flour, blend. Add ice cold butter, cut into small pieces into the flour. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Gradually add the remaining 3 cups of flour. Remember to hold back a bit of flour until you monitor the dough, then add any remaining. The dough should work up the dough hook showing you it is well kneaded and ready to refrigerate.

Allow dough to set at least overnight, which will enhance the flavor outcome. Pinch dough off as needed to make rolls. Be sure to punch the dough down and work the dough in your hands, redistributing the gluten for a good rise. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes depending upon the number of rolls you are baking. The tops should develop a nice brown color tone. Brush with butter or olive oil once they’ve been removed from the oven. This dough will hold in the refrigerator for 5-6 days. Yields 3-4 dozen hot rolls.

*Tip: In the old days your kneading instructions would have said something like: ‘Knead for 5-10 minutes.’ If you are using your dough hook it might take 2 minutes tops to knead the dough. This is where I think a great deal of mistakes happen with beginning dough makers. They read the recipe instructions and actually dry out the dough by kneading it too much. Similar to stirring up a cake mix. It only takes about 50 strokes to pull a cake together. If you put a cake mix in mixer chances are pretty likely you will dry out the cake by beating it too long.