The Best Dinner Rolls! Mashed Potato Rolls

We had a Christmas celebration today at work and I made a batch of rolls to go with the delectable corn chowder that is a Christmas lunch tradition around here. I'm often given to making cracked wheat or even whole wheat dinner rolls because I figure they are healthier for my crew (even though said crew far prefers white bread), but someone here at work asked--begged, really--that I make good old fashioned white dinner rolls. How could I refuse? I couldn't, and I'm so glad because it reminded me of just how good these delicious rolls are.

Mashed Potato Rolls are more or less your typical yeast roll except for the fact that they include--surprise!--mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes make the finished product moist but not dense, and supposedly, mashed potatoes in a recipe means your batch of goodies will last longer before getting stale...although I've never personally experienced that because food doesn't last long enough in my little world to ever get stale. But there you have it.

Here's a close-up of the finished product. Had I known I was going to want to blog this recipe, I would have taken more and better photos. But one will have to suffice:

And here is the recipe, which comes from my book titled The Amish Baking Cookbook:

Mashed Potato Rolls

2 1/4 tsp. (1 package) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 3/4 cups warm milk
1/4 cup butter, softened (room temperature)
1/4 cup oil
6 T. sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup mashed potatoes (see note at end of recipe)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
6 cups all-purpose flour
melted butter (optional)

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, butter, oil, sugar, egg, and mashed potatoes and mix well. Stir in salt, baking powder, baking soda, and half the flour. Mix either by hand or using a stand mixer, adding flour until a soft dough is formed.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead 6 to 8 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Place the dough in a large greased bowl and turn so the entire surface of the dough is greased. Cover with a clean towel and let dough rise until double, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down dough. Break off bits of dough into approximately 32 round balls. (I usually make mine a bit large...more like a total of 28.) Place balls 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise until double, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven 15 to 18 minutes or until done and lightly golden on top. Remove from the oven and if desired immediately brush or dip tops of rolls in melted butter. Set on racks to cool.

Note If you don't have any leftover mashed potatoes and you're in a hurry, you can use dehydrated mashed potatoes. Just mix according to the package directions and use in place of fresh mashed potatoes.