Come Friday, you will have leftover mashed potatoes sitting in your fridge. Don’t try to deny it. I am sure that those mashed potatoes will be absolutely delicious at your Thanksgiving dinner. I hope that your guests will smother them in gravy and mix them with turkey and stuffing to get all that deliciousness in one insanely good bite.
But come Friday morning, those warm mashed potatoes dripping with gravy will be a distant memory. You will have to face the glut of Thanksgiving leftovers and figure out what you’re going to do with all that food. Because I bet that you will still have guests at your house on Friday morning. Those guests that are coming for Thanksgiving and spending the night in your guest room. Or on your pullout sofa. Or at a nearby hotel but will be showing up at your house bright and early. And they will be expecting you to feed them. Again.
Never fear because I am here for you. I am about to give you a recipe for a delicious homemade bread that uses leftover mashed potatoes. A delicious homemade bread that, when slathered with melted butter, will make an excellent breakfast for those overnight guests. In fact, this recipe makes two loaves because, you know, guests. And did I mention that you can have it on the table in an hour?
This recipe for mashed potato bread, which the Irish call boxty bread, is adapted from Paul Hollywood’s British Baking. You may know Paul Hollywood as the mean judge on The Great British Baking Show. I am obsessed with this very British baking competition show which has amateur bakers competing over the course of ten weeks for a title and a cake plate. A cake plate! In America, you would have to promise at least $10,000 to get this kind of commitment.
Paul Hollywood is a master artisan baker and his book on British baking will remind you of the tea party scenes in every English book you read as a child. It includes recipe for Bakewell tarts, scones, oatcakes, Cornish pasties and more. Many of the more complicated recipes include step-by-step photos to help explain the instructions. I am delighted that I treated myself to a copy of this book, but I should warn you that it is plainly intended for U.K readers: all the measurements are in grams and liters and the oven temps are in Celsius. Nothing that a quick Internet search cannot remedy!
We all know that spuds are a staple of Irish cuisine and so it is that the section on Irish baking includes not only a recipe for boxty pancakes, but also one for boxty bread. Like the iconic Irish soda bread, this boxty bread relies on baking soda (or powder in this case) rather than yeast for its rise, so it is a quick project for a weeknight dinner, or a holiday brunch. Assuming that you have leftover mashed potatoes of course. Which, of course, you will.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 lb potatoes, peeled
- 2 cups mashed potatoes
- 4 TB butter, melted
- 2/3 cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat baking liner.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Grate the potatoes on the coarse side of a box grater. Gather handfuls of grated potatoes and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Place drained potatoes in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the mashed potatoes to the grated potato and stir together.
- Add the dry ingredients and stir.
- Pour in the melted butter and milk. Stir until the dough comes together.
- Gather the dough in your hands and knead until smooth.
- Divide the dough into two equal halves and shape each half into a round.
- Place the rounds on the prepared baking sheet and cut a cross in the top of each. Dust tops with flour.
- Bake 40-45 minutes until golden brown and puffed.
