Potato Bun Recipe

Our homemade potato bun recipe is so much better than anything you can buy at the store, for so many reasons. Here’s how to make it great.

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Why we love this recipe

Buttery, tender, flavorful potato buns are the perfect roll for burgers and burger-style sandwiches. This recipe is easy and relatively quick to make, and it really doesn’t get better. This potato bun recipe:

• Is enriched with creamy mashed potato, butter, egg, and milk powder
• Has a soft and pillowy yet structurally sound crumb
• Sports a gorgeous, glossy, golden brown top
• Makes perfect-sized rolls for burgers — or you can make slider buns

What you’ll need

Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe.

• Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour. This helps us form the strong stretchy network of gluten that traps carbon dioxide, allowing bread to rise. In an enriched dough such as this one, the extra strength of bread flour goes a long way toward creating a workable dough and strong yet tender bun.
• You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast interchangeably in this recipe.
• You’ll boil and mash a Yukon gold potato add and it to the dough to help create these rolls’ light, tender, flavorful crumb.
• Milk powder contributes flavor, tenderness, sweetness, browning capacity, and shelf life to these buns. You can use whatever fat content you can find, from skim to whole.
• I use fine sea salt in bread-making because it dissolves well and doesn’t contain any additives that could interfere with fermentation. You could use a good kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) if you prefer. In that case, measure by weight so you won’t have to worry about volumetric equivalency.
• A little bit of honey contributes a touch of sweetness but also aids browning and increases shelf life.

How to make it

Here’s an overview of what you’ll do to make this fabulous potato bun recipe. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.

1. First you’ll peel, dice, and boil the potato, then mash and let it cool.
2. Mix the dry ingredients for the dough, then add the wet ingredients and knead until elastic.
3. Let it proof until doubled in size, then shape the buns and let them rise again.
4. Brush buns with egg wash, then bake for 24 minutes in the center of a 350°F oven. That’s it!

Expert tips and FAQs

How to use them

You can use these potato buns for all your favorite burgers and burger-style sandwiches, like the bacon, egg, cheese, and tomato breakfast sandwich pictured above. Here are a few more of our favorites:

• Shake Shack burgers
• Lentil burgers
• Grilled chicken sandwiches with halloumi
• Crispy tofu sandwiches
• Soft shell crab sandwiches
• BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches

5 from 4 votes

Potato Bun Recipe

By Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Our homemade potato bun recipe is so much better than anything you can buy at the store, for so many reasons. Here's how to make it great.

Prep: 30 minutes mins

Cook: 20 minutes mins

Additional Time: 2 hours hrs

Total: 2 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

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Ingredients 

For the dough

• ▢ 1 medium Yukon gold potato, about 6 ounces/(170 grams)
• ▢ 3 cups (360 grams) bread flour
• ▢ ¼ cup (18 grams) powdered milk
• ▢ 2 tablespoons (25 grams) sugar
• ▢ 1 packet, 2 1/4 teaspoons(10 grams) active dry yeast
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (5 grams) fine sea salt
• ▢ ⅔ cup (158 ml) warm water (about 105°F)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon (21 grams) mild-tasting honey
• ▢ 4 tablespoons (56 grams) butter, diced and softened to cool room temperature
• ▢ 1 large egg, beaten
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (15 ml) safflower oil, for the bowl

For the egg wash

• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 1 tablespoon (15 ml) whole milk

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Instructions 

• Peel the potato and cut into 1-inch cubes. Place into a small pot and cover with cold water by a couple of inches.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes.
• Drain very well and mash until perfectly smooth. Let cool to no more than 110°F before proceeding.
• Into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (or a large mixing bowl, if you plan to knead by hand), place the bread flour, powdered milk, sugar, salt, and yeast. Whisk to combine well.
• Add the water, honey, butter, mashed potato, and beaten egg.
• Mix on low speed (number 2 on a KitchenAid mixer) until combined, and then let the machine run to knead the dough until it is fairly smooth and elastic, two to four minutes more. Dough will still be soft and sticky but should hold together.
• Pour the safflower oil into a clean bowl and swirl to coat the bottom. Scrape dough out of mixer into bowl and turn to coat with oil.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, an hour or two depending on the the temperature of your kitchen.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and use a bench knife to divide into 10 equal pieces. I like to weigh them for evenness — they'll be about (102 grams) each, depending on the size of your potato.
• To shape each piece, fold the corners in to create a rough round shape. Flip the round over so that the seam is on the bottom. Then use a circular motion to guide the bun along your work surface between your thumb and the heel of your hand. This increases surface tension and eliminates the seam. You can see this process in action in the video that accompanies this post.
• Arrange buns three inches apart on a silpat- or parchment-lined half sheet pan. Gently flatten each one with the palm of your hand.
• Cover again and let rise until substantially puffed, about an hour.
• Preheat oven to 350°F with a rack in the center.
• To make the egg wash, use a fork to whisk together the egg and milk in a small bowl.
• Brush the buns with egg wash. If you like, you can sprinkle them with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or everything but the bagel seasoning.
• Bake for about 24 minutes, until golden brown on top and cooked through.
• Remove from oven and let cool on pan on a cooling rack for a few minutes, then transfer buns directly to rack and let cool completely before proceeding.
• To serve, use a serrated knife to slice each bun in half horizontally.
• If you like, heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high, lightly spread the insides of each bun with softened butter, and toast on the skillet for a few minutes, until crisped and golden brown.

Notes

1. You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast interchangeably in this recipe.
2. Milk powder contributes flavor, tenderness, sweetness, browning capacity, and shelf life to these buns. You can use whatever fat content you can find, from skim to whole.
3. I use fine sea salt in bread-making because it dissolves well and doesn't contain any additives that could interfere with fermentation. You could use a good kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) if you prefer. In that case, measure by weight so you won't have to worry about volumetric equivalency.
4. Once completely cooled, buns keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for 48 hours. Or wrap well and freeze for up to a year.
5. If you like you can make slider buns by dividing the dough into 24 pieces and shaping them as small burger buns. If making sliders, bake at 400°F for about 15 minutes.

Nutrition

Serving: 1bun, Calories: 291kcal, Carbohydrates: 44g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 8g, Cholesterol: 42mg, Sodium: 113mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 7g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Sandwiches

Cuisine: American

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