Potato rolls are soft and fluffy dinner rolls with a tender, buttery crust. These homemade potato rolls are perfect for everything from Sunday dinners to Thanksgiving dinner!
Potato rolls are quite possibly the tastiest way to use up leftover mashed potatoes! These rolls are similar to the potato rolls that my mom would make at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
These soft and fluffy homemade dinner rolls have perfect tender, buttery crust on top. Since they’re made with instant yeast, there’s no proofing necessary.
Just mix, let rise, shape, let rise, and bake, and these fluffy potato rolls may become your new favorite dinner roll recipe!
Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Sugar: The rolls are slightly sweet. If you would prefer a roll that’s less sweet, decrease the sugar to 1/4 cup.
- Butter: I use salted butter in the rolls. Feel free to use unsalted if you prefer. If using unsalted butter, you will need to increase the salt by 1/4 teaspoon.
- Mashed potato: 1 medium baking potato will yield about 8 ounces of mashed potato.
- You can also reconstitute mashed potato flakes and use 1 cup of the prepared mashed potatoes.Â
- If you end up with extra mashed potatoes, you can make chocolate mashed potato cake.
- Water: I like to use the leftover water from boiling the potato because it has extra starch in it. If you don’t have potato water, use tap water that’s about 80F.
- All-purpose flour: Weighing the flour will give you the most accurate results. You can also sift or stir the flour to break it up, lightly spoon it into a measuring cup and avoid packing it in, and then level.
How to make potato rolls
Here you’ll find step-by-step photos showing how to make this recipe. The full recipe, including ingredients, is given below.
Step 1: Add eggs, salt, sugar, butter, mashed potatoes, rapid-rise yeast, warm water, and 3 cups of flour to a large bowl. Mix until combined.
Step 2: Continue adding flour until soft dough forms. You may not need to add all of the flour.
Step 3: Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Step 4: Let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled, about 1-1½ hours. Gently deflate the dough.
Step 5: Add to heavily floured surface, and knead in additional flour to form a soft, workable dough.
Step 6: Divide dough into 24 smooth balls. Place the rolls in a lightly greased 9×13-inch pan.
Step 7: Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap or a kitchen towel, and let them rise for about 1 ½-2 hours, or until they’re puffy.
Step 8: Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350F.
Step 9: Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and feel set.
Step 10: Brush with melted butter, if desired.
How to portion the dough
Here are some tips to help you easily cut the dough into equal portions.
First, section the dough into 8 equal pieces.
Second, portion each of the eight pieces of dough into 3 equal pieces.
Recipe Tips!
- Quick mashed potatoes: If you don’t have leftover mashed potatoes or instant potatoes, you can easily make mashed potatoes from a baking potato. Just peel the potato, and chop into 1-inch pieces. Place the chopped potato into a saucepan and cover with cool water. Bring to a boil and let cook until a fork can easily pierce the potato pieces. Then mash.
- Scraping the dough: I recommend using a flexible dough scraper or a rubber spatula to scrape out all of the dough from the sides of the bowl.
- Potato buns: You can form the dough into larger pieces if you’d like to make potato buns.
Storage
I either cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap or place the leftover rolls in a resealable plastic bag. The rolls can be kept at room temperature for 3-4 days.
More easy roll recipes!
If you’ve tried this potato roll recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. I love to hear from people who’ve made my recipes!
You can subscribe to receive my latest recipe newsletters or follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for even more delicious food.
Potato Rolls
Equipment
- 9×13 pan
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 cup unseasoned mashed potatoes lightly packed
- 2 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
- 3/4 cup lukewarm water leftover water from boiling the potatoes, if possible
- 4 ¼-5 ¼ cups all-purpose flour Properly measured
Instructions
- Add eggs, salt, sugar, butter, mashed potatoes, yeast, water, and 3 cups of flour to a large bowl.
- Mix until combined.
- Continue adding flour until soft dough forms. You may not need to add all of the flour.
- Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
- Let the dough rise until it's doubled, about 1-1½ hours.
- Gently deflate the dough.
- Add to heavily floured surface, and knead in additional flour to form a soft, workable dough.
- Divide dough into 24 balls.
- Place the rolls in a lightly greased 9×13-inch pan.
- Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let them rise for about 1-1 ½ hours, or until they're puffy.
- Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350F.
- Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and feel set.
- Brush with melted butter, if desired.
Notes
- Sugar: The rolls are slightly sweet. If you would prefer a roll that’s less sweet, decrease the sugar to 1/4 cup.
- Butter: I use salted butter in the rolls. Feel free to use unsalted if you prefer.Â
- Mashed potato: 1 medium baking potato will yield about 8 ounces of mashed potato. You can also reconstitute mashed potato flakes and use 1 cup of the prepared mashed potatoes.Â
- Water: I like to use the leftover water from boiling the potato because it has extra starch in it. If you don’t have potato water, use tap water that’s about 80F.
- All-purpose flour: Weighing the flour will give you the most accurate results. You can also sift or stir the flour to break it up, lightly spoon it into a measuring cup and avoid packing it in, and then level.
- Nutrition values are estimates.Â
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
Share it with me on Instagram @i_heart_eating and follow on Youtube @katedean and Pinterest @katedean for more!
Adapted from King Arthur Flour. Originally published 9/14/16.
Reader Interactions
Love this recipe?
Share your thoughts below and let’s chat! Make sure to connect with me on your favorite social platform below and show me what you made!
Comments & Reviews
Kim says
Can you use potato flakes? If so, how much?
Kate says
You can use dehydrated mashed potato flakes, but you’ll need to rehydrate them to make mashed potatoes before using them.
Kim Billhimerest says
Yummy. I love rolls
Kate says
Thanks! =)
Eaglestar says
Would dehydrated (instant) potatoes work?
Kate says
If they were reconstituted, I think they would work just fine.
Leah says
Can i save this dough for the next day? Or make cinnimon rolls with it?
Kate says
I haven’t tried either of those things with this dough. However, this dough is similar to one that my mom made while I was growing up, and she placed it (covered) in the fridge overnight, and then she would bake with it the next day. I’m guessing that it would work with this dough, too. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t use it to make cinnamon rolls. Good luck!
Caroline says
You just can’t beat fresh hot rolls with butter. So good!
Kate says
So true! Thanks!
rosa says
please, could you help me, explaining how much of mashed potatoes are required in this recipe?
it’s a cup, but how many ounces/grams? or better even, how many potatoes shall I boil?
Living in Europe, we’re usually given the weight of the ingredients…
thank you in advance
Kate says
One medium baking potato will yield about 8 ounces of mashed potato, which is the amount that you need for this recipe. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
rosa says
I can’t make out how much of mashed potatoes the recipe requires.
1 cup, which would be how many ounces?
I live in Europe, and we’re usually given weight for the ingredients…
Dawn says
That is 6 tablespoons of butter, correct?
Kate says
Yes! Not sure where that measurement disappeared to, but thank you for letting me know it was missing!
Jacqueline Hudson says
I just noticed recipe reads “1/3 c. tsp. salt”. Is it possible it needs to be edited to read 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tsp salt?
Aloha
Kate says
Thank you! I apologize about that. When my site updated, my recipes reformatted themselves, and, in some cases, ingredients were deleted. I’ve been trying to work through all 500+ recipes to get it all fixed.
Yes, it should be 1/3 cup sugar. I used a little less salt than the original recipe called for (1 1/2 teaspoons) because I didn’t think it needed the extra, but that’s just a matter of taste.
Thanks again for letting me know about the missing ingredients! =)
Suzanne Corkery says
I often refrigerate dough for several hours, or even a day with no I’ll effects. In fact flavor is enhanced. I haven’t done this with this particular dough, but I’m sure that it would work out fine!
Kate says
Thank you for the tip! =)
Kim Merrell says
I’m new at this. At what part would you refrigerate the dough? Thanks!
Kate says
Usually, you would cover and chill the dough in place of the first rise. Good luck, and happy Thanksgiving! =)
Caitlin says
Any tips on preparing these the day before? What step should I stop at before refrigerating? Can they be refrigerated for 24 hours before baking?
Kate says
I’ve never tried to prepare these rolls a day before serving, so I can’t tell you for sure whether or not they work well being made ahead of time. Wish I could help more!
Mary says
These look wonderful! Any tips on freezing these rolls? Pinned. Thanks!
Kate says
I haven’t frozen these rolls, but you can usually make them to the point when they are shaped and freeze them. It’s usually suggested to increase the amount of yeast by about 1/4 tsp. to make up for any deactivation/die off that occurs while the rolls are frozen. Try to freeze the rolls quickly so that they will stay fresher. When you’re ready to bake them, place them in whatever pan you’re going to bake them in, and let them thaw/rise, and then bake them. Hope that helps!
Mary says
Thanks so much!
Kate says
You’re very welcome! =)
RS says
I have been making these rolls for years. Got the recipe from King Arthur Flour. Instead of white potatoes I use orange sweet potatoes for a more colorful presentation with no significant difference in taste. They are always a big hit and people often request I bring them as my contribution to a party.
Kate says
Great tip! Thank you for sharing it! I’m sure the sweet potato rolls would be especially festive at Thanksgiving.