Potato Buns

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and then stir in the sugar, salt, shortening, eggs and potatoes – I found using a heavy whisk works best.  Add 2 cups of flour (1 at a time, whisking in between) and once that’s mixed in, graduate to a big wooden spoon.

Mix in enough flour to make the dough easy to handle – I quite easily added 4 more cups and was able to stir it in – and then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter to knead (or just knead it directly in your bowl if it’s large enough).  At the end of adding flour, I used very close to the 6 cups.

Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes) and then place in a greased bowl.  Lightly grease the top of the dough as well so that when you cover it and it rises, it doesn’t stick to everything.  Make sure the bowl is covered tightly and refrigerate for at least 8 hours (overnight preferably).  **I’ve also allowed the dough to rise for an hour and a half in a warm place then put it into the fridge for a couple of hours to slow/cool it down because sometimes I need to get these made in a single day vs overnight.  Cold dough is much easier to roll into tiny balls.)**

Punch down the dough and then let it rest for about 10 minutes before making it into whatever shapes or buns that you want.  Traditionally Mom always took the time to make tiny buns in a springform pan (marble sized, NOT golf ball size), but it’s dough, and you could probably make any shape you wanted and have it work out.  One batch fills 2 springform pans and then one small casserole of tiny buns.

Let it rise for 45 minutes to as long as 1 1/2 hours before baking (this will largely depend on the warmness of where you place your pans), and then bake at 375 for 15-25 minutes, depending on the shape and size.  I find that a springform pan full of tiny buns takes about 20 minutes.  These are sooo worth the effort!