Herbed Potato Rolls

I teased you just a bit earlier in the week ........

........ when I wrote the post, A Recipe for Endless Herbs without Endless Watering, I shared a few pictures of these fabulous dinner rolls with a promise of the recipe later in the week. It's the end of the week and I'm keeping my promise - I think if you try them, you'll agree they were worth waiting for!

I had some leftover mashed potatoes from a meal last weekend and decided to make potato rolls. You'd think that adding mashed potatoes to bread would make it heavy but, amazingly, just the opposite is true. These rolls are light, yet moist and loaded with delicious, flavorful fresh herbs. They are heavenly served warm with a pat of honey butter, but I know you'll want to find out for yourself................ so here's the recipe!

Herbed Potato Rolls

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups milk
1 tablesoons sugar
2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
1 ½ cup mashed potatoes, room temperature
1 ½ sticks butter, softened
½ cup honey
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh herbs, finely chopped (you can use all of one kind or a combination; I used equal parts of chives, basil and rosemary to equal 1/4 cup)
2 large eggs
5-6 cups all purpose flour
1 large egg, combined with 1 tablespoon water for wash
sea salt

Directions:
1. Warm milk to 110-115˚F. Add yeast and sugar and stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes or until mixture begins to get foamy.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix together mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, honey and salt. Mix on medium speed for about a minute. Add fresh herbs and yeast mixture then mix on low speed until blended.

3. Gradually add flour (one cup at a time) until a soft dough forms. Switch to the dough hook attachment on the stand mixer and knead for about 10 minutes at low speed adding a little more flour a little at a time until the dough leaves sides of bowl while being kneaded.

4. Place dough in a large bowl that has been greased with olive oil. Cover bowl with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.. Punch down dough and divide into approximately 48 equal size pieces. Shape into round rolls and place rolls about 1 1/2 inches apart on parchment paper lined or greased baking sheets or roll each piece into a 10" rope then form into a coil (like a sleeping snake). Place coils into a well-greased muffin tins. Brush rolls with egg wash and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Let rolls rise until doubled in size. Bake in a preheated oven set at 375 degrees for approximately 15-20 minutes or until golden.

PRINTABLE RECIPE