Potato Pan Rolls

I've made these three times in the past couple of weeks! Beautiful color and light-as-a-feather texture make these rolls perfect with any meal. The flavor is so pleasing, you'll want to share with friends and family.

Kneading the dough brought back memories of how I had made crescent rolls for special occasions when the girls were younger. Jenifer's favorite part was, of course, waiting for he dough to rise. When it had swelled appropriately, she'd wash and dry her little hands in anticipation of the big moment. I wish I had a photograph of the delight on her face as she put her fist into the dough to punch it down!

Potato Pan Rolls
2 cups medium potatoes, peeled and quartered (about 3 medium)
1 1/2 cups water
2 packages active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1/4 vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
6 to 7 cups flour

1. In a large saucepan, bring potatoes to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until fork tender. Drain, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid; cool to 110 to 115 degrees.
Mash potatoes; set aside to cool.
2, In large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in reserved potato liquid, let stand for 5 minutes. Add reserved mashed potatoes, butter, honey, oil, eggs, and 1 1/2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. The secret to light, fluffy rolls is to not add a fleck more flour than necessary to make it workable.
3. Turn onto floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.




4. Punch dough down and turn onto floured surface; divide into 30 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Plane 10 balls each in three greased 9-inch round baking pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: Rather than making 30 dinner rolls, sometimes I make fewer by making larger sandwich rolls. Either way, they don't last long in this house.
Also, I have a large cookie sheet with sides of less than 1/2", so I just bake all rolls on that instead.