As a child, I didn’t like mashed potatoes. Weird, right? But I LOVED what came from their leftovers. In fact, I was willing to eat the plain mashed potatoes (my grandmother made them but no gravy) just because I knew what we’d have the next day…my childhood favorite – mashed potato pancakes!
Here at holiday time, I’m aware of my Jewish friends enjoying latkes…a favorite for many of them. But when I thought about it, there’s definitely a difference between a shredded potato latke and a mashed potato pancake. I like both, but that mashed potato pancake wins in my book.
And this year, I took it to another level: mashed sweet potato pancakes! Since I love sweet potatoes so much, AND they’re good for you, why not?
Mashed potato basics
Of course, you have to start with mashed potatoes! Here’s a great basic recipe to get you going. But you don’t really have to go to the trouble of heating the milk and butter (remember me? LAZY! And definitely not up for dirtying a second pan!).
Those hot potatoes will melt butter (in pats) pretty quickly once they’re drained. Just cover the butter up, wait a minute, then mash and stir. Then stir in the milk (sometimes I don’t even bother with this).
If you’re serving them as mashed potatoes first, here’s my favorite brown gravy. I use tapioca starch now but not quite as much and be fully prepared to whisk like crazy and take it off the heat pretty quickly as it will set up solid before you know it. Make sure you make a boatload of potatoes so you have at least 1-½ cups leftover!
The magic of easy potato pancakes
Here’s my grandmother’s (and my mother-in-law’s) recipe:
- 1-½ cups mashed potatoes
- ½ cup flour (I use almond flour for this now)
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 2 Tbsp oil (I use olive)
Combine all ingredients except oil in large bowl. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat about 3 minutes. Drop 1/3 c of potato mixture into hot oil and flatten…you should hear it sizzle. Turn the heat down to medium and cook 3 to 5 minutes. Flip carefully as these are soft and will try to break. Cook second side another 3 to 5 minutes.
The goal is to cook the inside well and brown (but not burn) the outside. Once done, remove pancakes to paper-towel lined plate or wire rack to cool a bit.
Can you make ’em with sweet potatoes?
Absolutely! I did exactly the same thing to cook and mash the potatoes AND to make the pancakes with only one exception: I put 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice in them instead of salt and pepper. You could do either…or since I love this recipe so much, you could probably add basil to the mix as well for a more “dinner” than “breakfast” type pancake.
Voila! Mashed potato pancake goodness!
And there you have it! A wonderful addition to breakfast OR dinner…and one I’m sure your little ones will love, too. And easy to freeze and reheat if you make big batch!
What’s your childhood favorite? Please share in the comments below…maybe it will become my NEW favorite!
My childhood favorite was what we called fried potatoes. Mom would finely chop some onion and slice some potatoes to about 1 inch by 1/8th of an inch. Fry them up in the cast iron with some crisco. It wasn’t deep fried, and they didn’t have to drain on a paper towel. Salt and pepper of course. Not sure if she put a lid on it. The final result was the outside was slightly crispy on some of them. I sure miss those.
Sounds wonderful! I’m sure the well-seasoned cast iron had a hand in the flavor you remember. And I love the taste of onions when they mellow in a recipe like this. Might have to give it a try! Thanks for sharing!