What’s a picnic without a basket of rolls to pass around? Potato semmels are small rolls that are great for serving a large group of people. The dough is rolled, cut into squares, and folded to give the rolls a unique triangle shape that looks sophisticated.
Yield: 3 dozen rolls, about
Prep Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 small white all-purpose potato
- 1/4 cup warm water or potato water
- 1/4 cup soft butter or margarine
- 1 cup milk, room temperature
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1/4 oz.)
- 1 small egg, room temperature
- 4-1/2 cups bread flour, about
Preparation:
- Peel and cube potato. Place cubed potato in small saucepan and cover with water. Cook over medium heat until potato is soft. Drain potato, reserving 1/4 cup of the potato water. Mash potato with fork. This step can be skipped if you already have a 1/4 cup of leftover mashed potatoes. In large bowl, add mashed potato, potato water, butter, and milk. Mix with electric mixer until smooth. Set bowl aside until potato mixture is lukewarm. If the mixture is still hot when the yeast is added, the heat will kill off the yeast and the dough will not rise.
- Using a wooden spoon, mix in sugar, salt, yeast, and egg. Mix in enough bread flour to make a thick dough that can be kneaded by hand. Turn dough out onto board and knead for 8 minutes. Put dough in greased bowl and turn dough over in the bowl so that the top is also lightly greased. Cover with clean kitchen towel and let rise for 1 hour in a warm, draft-free place.
- Punch down. Turn dough out onto lightly floured board and knead out bubbles for 5 minutes. Let dough sit on board for another 10 minutes to relax the dough. Roll dough out to a 1/4-inch thickness. Cut dough into 2-inch squares using a pizza cutter or square cookie cutter. Fold each square in half, forming a triangle. Place triangles 1-inch apart on greased baking sheets. Cover rolls with kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
- Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until golden. Serve rolls in baskets, warm or cold.
