Ultra-soft potato burger buns

I follow a few cooking channels on YouTube, and for the past few years it seems all the burger videos used potato buns. I finally gave it a try, and I don’t regret it. They were not much more difficult to make than regular buns, they were really light and fluffy, they absorbed the grease and sauce from the pulled pork I had prepared super well. All it takes is mashed potatoes worked right into the dough (and also a lot of butter 🙂 ). Ingredients 600g T45 flour 200g warm milk 60 to 100g warm water (adjust as needed) 140g cooked potato flesh, peeled 60g soft butter 1 medium egg 40g sugar 13g salt 10 to 12g active dry yeast A little milk, to brush before baking A little melted butter, to brush after baking ½ teaspoon turmeric, for color Cooking the potato Cut the peeled potato into cubes. Cook them in water for about 10 minutes, until very soft when pierced with a knife. Set the potatoes aside, let them cool and dry as much as possible Mash them in a bowl. Kneading I don’t have a stand mixer, so I did the whole thing by hand. It works, but I won’t pretend it’s effortless. A stand mixer with a dough hook would have saved my arms a good twenty minutes 🙂 In a large bowl, add the flour and make a well in the center. Add the egg, salt, sugar, mashed potato, and turmeric to the well. Add the dry yeast on one side, away from the salt and sugar. Pour in the 200 g of milk gradually, mixing as you go. Once the milk is absorbed, add 60 g of warm water in a thin stream and keep mixing for 2 to 3 minutes. Work in the soft butter gradually. If the flour isn’t coming together, add more water a few drops at a time, and stop as soon as a ball forms. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead for a good 15 to 20 minutes, bringing it back together as you go. You’re after a smooth dough that’s barely sticky. (This is the part where a stand mixer really earns its keep.) Finish by kneading a little more energetically for 2 minutes (slapping the dough against the counter) to build up some elasticity. One thing that threw me: my dough was super sticky the whole way through; I was worried it wasn’t going to work. It turned out perfect in the end, but I suspect a stand mixer would have made the stickiness less of a worry, since you’re not fighting it with your hands. So if yours feels the same, don’t panic 🙂 First rise Gather the dough into a ball, no flour needed. Cover the bowl tightly with cling film or a cloth. Let it rise in a warm room (21°C minimum) until it triples in volume (1 to 2 hours depending on temperature). Shaping Once tripled, knock the dough back with your fist and gather it into a ball. Give it 2 or 3 folds. Divide into pieces and shape each into a ball. I went with 120 to 130 g per piece, which gave me about 9 buns, but they ended up a little too big for my taste. Next time I’ll aim for around 100 g. Place them spaced apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I also spread a bit of semolina on my parchment paper, it helped the buns not to stick. Second rise Let them rest 30 to 45 minutes. The buns should puff up nicely. That’s at this point that I realized my buns were too big 🙂 Baking Preheat the oven to 180°C. Brush the buns with milk. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (18 minutes with a fan oven), until just golden. Out of the oven, lift them off the sheet and brush butter over the tops while they’re hot. Enjoy! 🙂