Buttery Potato Burger Buns

So let me get this right…last weekend we had a freeze/frost warning which had all the gardeners out there scrambling and me cooking up a pot of chili. Today, just six short days later, it is forecasted to be 86° F (that is 30°C)!?! That is insanity from the weather. Kind of goes along with the surealness of this Covid-19 crisis. I am definitely not pleased about either one. However, I know that a lot of folks out there will be happy to see this what I will call “hot” weather. They will be firing up their grills. And I’ve got a great Burger Bun recipe for you just in time: Buttery Potato Burger Buns!

Apparently pandemics bring out the bread baking in everyone out there. Folks have bought up all the flour, all the yeast. Hopefully you’ve managed to score some. Besides regular all purpose flour, this recipe does also call for potato flour, which I know is an ingredient that you might not have on hand. Don’t despair, you can just sub in some instant potato flakes and you’re good. Also, don’t worry if you don’t have a hamburger bun pan, you can make due with a parchment lined baking sheet.These buns are so amazing! I could not have been anymore pleased with them. If you’ve ever had a Martin’s Potato Roll – they are like that ‘cept better! I didn’t have any fresh hamburger meat in the house when the whole lockdown thing started, but we had some burger patties in the freezer. Believe me, these buns stole the show! I can’t wait until the day, you know a year or so from now (just kidding! I hope…) when I can actually get some ingredients that will be worthy to put between these fantastic, tender, buttery buns. In the meantime, I’m thrilled that these Buttery Potato Burger Buns are the thing that truly make us look forward to our quaran-burger dinners.

servings = “6 Burger Buns” difficulty = “easy”]

recipe from: King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 3 cups (361grams) All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup (43grams) Potato flour or 1/2 cup (43grams) dried potato flakes
• 1/4 cup (35grams) nonfat dry milk
• 2 Tablespoons (25grams) sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 4 Tablespoons (57grams) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (227grams) lukewarm water (95° F)

Directions:

Combine all of the dough ingredients and mix and knead them — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — to make a soft dough.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until it’s almost doubled in bulk.

Turn the dough onto a lightly greased surface, gently deflate it, and divide it into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.

Place the balls into the greased cups of a hamburger bun pan, flattening gently. Or place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about 2″ to 3″ between them; flatten gently.

Cover and let rise until the buns have doubled in size, 60 to 90 minutes. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake the buns for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they’re light golden brown.

Remove them from the oven, and brush them with melted butter, if desired.

Transfer the buns to a rack to cool. Store buns, well-wrapped, at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer storage.

Enjoy!

Buttery Potato Burger Buns brought to you by: RuncibleEats (www.leaandjay.com)

Links for Helpful Kitchen Tools & Ingredients for Buttery Potato Burger Buns:

OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale

Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer

Thermapen Instant Read Thermometer by Thermoworks

6 Quart Dough Rising Bucket

SAF Instant Yeast

Hamburger Bun Pan

 

Oat & Potato Bread

Oats and Potatoes. Two ingredients which can evoke visions of the Emerald Isle all on their own and go together so well in this Oat & Potato Bread. I baked a loaf of this bread the other day and loved it so much I just knew I had to share it with you for St. Patrick’s Day. This bread is quite soft and moist. It is wonderful as a sandwich loaf but also toasts beautifully to serve with your Traditional Irish fry for breakfast. Now, I love Irish Brown Bread. I can’t get enough of the stuff. But I do have a good number of friends who seem to be a bit challenged by that rough, whole wheat texture. This Oat & Potato Bread is a great soft bread alternative to have on hand for those folks.

This recipe uses freshly cooked potatoes, but you can use left over mashed potatoes to make this bread if you happen to have any on hand. I’m pretty certain I never will because my husband and I both LOVE Potato Farls. I know that any leftover mashed potatoes are automatically earmarked as “farl potatoes”. We are so obsessed with Potato Farls that I will even make up a batch of mashed potatoes, not so much because I want to serve them with dinner, but just becaue I’ve noticed that we don’t have anymore of our farls in the freezer. Oh yes folks….farls freeze wonderfully. You just take them out of the freezer and pop them directly into the hot oil-preferably bacon grease-and they fry up wonderfully golden and crispy. And then there is Boxty in the Pan, another great Irish bread that is made with left over mashed potatoes. It is baked in a pan, then fried up on a griddle and drizzled with honey. Yum! But I digress….we are talking about Oat & Potato Bread now, which is so delicious that you won’t hesitate to cook some potatoes up fresh if there aren’t any leftovers around!

Unlike Irish Soda Bread and Irish Brown Bread, which use baking soda as leavener, or my Cheddar & Chive Guinness Bread which uses Guinness as a leavener, this bread does require yeast. Now don’t freak out…I can tell, you’re freaking out. I used to freak out at the mere mention of yeast. But really, there is no need. You can do this. Just make sure you plan ahead, because as with all yeast breads, there are a couple rising times involved here. It is a bit of work, but believe me, you will be thrilled with your finished loaf. Not to mention, your house will smell phenomenal!  This bread will go perfectly with all of your St. Patrick’s Day dishes, especially when it is slathered with Kerrygold Irish Butter!

Oat & Potato Bread

recipe adapted from: The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook

Yield: One 5X9″ loaf

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil, for oiling
• 2 starchy potatoes, such as russets or Yukon gold, cut into even chunks
• 3 2/3 cup white bread flour, plus extra for dusting ( I prefer King Arthur Bread Flour)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 Tablespoons salted Irish butter, diced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 3 Tablespoons rolled oats
• 2 Tablespoons dry skim milk
• 1 cup lukewarm water (98 -105° F or 36.5 -40.5° C)

Topping

• 1 Tablespoon water
• 1 Tablespoon rolled oats

Directions:

Oil a 5X9″ loaf pan. Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, add water to cover, and bring to a boil. Cook for 20-25 minutes, until tender. Drain, then mash until smooth. Let cool.

Sift the flour and salt into a warm bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips. Stir in the yeast, sugar, oats, and dry milk. Mix in the mashed potatoes, then add the water and mix to a soft dough. (Or you can follow this “High Tech. Version” -if you have a food processor and stand mixer: Place flour and salt in bowl of processor. Pulse a couple times to combine. Add butter and pulse until flour mixture resembles coarse sand. Put flour/butter mixture into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add yeast, sugar oats and dry milk. Mix on low to combine. Add the mashed potatoes and mix on low until incorporated. Add the water and mix until you have a soft dough.)

*Note* I had to add an extra half cup of flour to get the dough to reach soft dough stage. The dough should be sticky to tacky to the touch. Sticky means if you touch the dough with a dry finger, it will stick to it. Tacky is more like a post it note where it feels like it will stick at first but you are able to peel it off easily. You can also judge the state of the dough by how it looks in the mixing bowl. If it has pulled away from the sides of the bowl and only a bit remains stuck to the bowl at the bottom, it is likely ready to be kneaded.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. (High Tech. Version: Attach the dough hook and knead on low speed for about 8 minutes, or until smooth and elastic).

Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Invert the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lgihtly. Shape into a loaf and transfer to the prepared pan.

*Note* To shape dough into a loaf, flatten it into a 5X8″ rectangle. Roll into a log starting from the 5″ end. Pinch the seam closed and gently roll the loaf back and forth on the counter to smooth it out. Place the loaf in the prepared pan with the seam side down.

Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425°F.

Brush the surface of the loaf with the water and carefully sprinkle oats over the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool slightly. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Boxty in the Pan

Boxty on the Griddle,

Boxty in the Pan,

If you can’t make Boxty

Sure you’ll never get a man!

 So goes an old Irish folk rhyme. Boxty or arán bocht tí in Irish-meaning poor house bread, is a traditional potato bread which can be made into pancakes (on the griddle), dumplings or baked into a loaf (in the pan). Last year I made the boxty on the griddle, or the pancake variety. This year I decided to serve up some Boxty in the Pan. For this version, you prepare the batter and then place it in a loaf pan and bake it. Once it has cooled, you slice it and then fry it in butter on the griddle. It can be served with breakfast, slathered with more butter (of course….you know this is going to taste great!) and topped with bacon or honey/preserves if you have a hankerin for something sweet along with your savoury. Boxty is quite versatile so it can also be served with dinner or with various toppings like smoked salmon. Yum, yum, yum!

Boxty is very easy to make. You get to use up any left over mashed potatoes you might have lingering about, like you were able to in my Potato Farls recipe. Grating the raw potato by hand can be a bit tiresome, but luckily I have a food processor and put it to good use. One other thing you want to make sure you do is squeeze all of the excess liquid out of the grated raw potatoes. To do this, I wrap the grated potato in a cotton tea towel and give it a good squeeze. Then you just mix everything together to make the batter and pour it into a loaf tin and pop it into the oven. About one hour later it’s ready! You can keep the Boxty in the fridge for 4-5 days and cut slices off to fry whenever the craving hits you…which could potentially be quite often once you get a taste of this dish. Just a warning…. My husband was quite pleased with the Gaelic Boxty from last year and happily was just as enthusiastic about my Boxty in the Pan. Have a loaf ready for St. Patrick’s Day morning!

Boxty in the Pan

recipe adapted from The Daily Spud & Gallagher’s Boxty House

Ingredients:

• 250 gram raw grated potato
• 250 gram mashed potatoes
• 160 gram All-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250 ml buttermilk
• 1 Tablespoon butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° F. Butter a 4×8″ loaf baking tin.

In medium-sized bowl sift together flour, baking soda, salt and sugar. Set aside.

Peel and grate raw potato. (I used a food processor to grate mine) Place grated potato in cotton or linen dish towel and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible.

In large bowl, place mashed potatoes and raw grated potatoes. Add flour mixture and knead to form dough.

Add buttermilk and stir to combine. Batter will be thick.

Pour batter into prepared baking tin. Drizzle melted butter over the top of the boxty. Bake for 60 minutes until top is golden brown.

Allow boxty to cool.

On the day you wish to serve, slice thick cut of the boxty. Butter slice and place on griddle to fry.

Serve warm with more butter and toppings of your choice.

Enjoy!