Potato Knish Recipe

Knish Collage

Family in South Dakota want to see my potato knish recipe.

It’s hard to find a good knish in Sioux Falls.

Then again, it’s also hard to find a good knish in New York City.

Anyway, here’s how to make knishes at home.

Potato Filling

The potato filling is just mashed potatoes with sautéed onions. I use a potato ricer to mash the potatoes. I also like a lot of caramelized onions.

Don’t forget to add the salt and pepper to taste.

Let the mashed potatoes totally cool before filling the dough. Otherwise, the dough will soften and you’ll have a mess.

I usually make the mashed potatoes the day before I bake. That way they’re nice and cool.

Don’t worry if the mashed potatoes harden while cooling, they’ll soften up again when the knishes bake.

Just make sure to use enough oil when you sauté the onions.

Dough

The dough has to be made the day before the bake.

It needs that time in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

This will make enough dough for about 2 - 2 1/2 pounds of potatoes.

Ingredient	Amount	Baker’s %
Water	150 grams	47%
Salt	7 grams	2 %
Sugar	7 grams	2 %
Flour	320 grams	100 %
Oil	65 grams	20 %
Egg	1 Egg	15 %

There is NO baking soda, baking powder, or yeast.

Steps To Make Dough

Put the water, salt, and sugar in a bowl.

Stir to dissolve.

Add the flour. And let the flour sit in the water for about thirty minutes.

With a fork, mix the flour with the water mixture until it comes together like corn meal. Don’t mix it into a ball. It’ll make it harder to add the oil and egg.

Then add the oil and egg to the flour/water mixture after the “corn meal stage.”

Use a fork to combine until it all comes together.

Do not knead. But it should be one blob.

It’s a wet, oily dough.

Wrap the blob in plastic wrap.

Refrigerate for several hours.

Then take out the dough and fold it a few times.

It will look a lot smoother. It’s going to be oily.

Refrigerate again. If you have the time, you can fold it again after a few more hours.

Refrigerate over night.

The next day, check the dough. You can fold it again a few times to smoothen it out more, although it should be smooth by now.

Put Knishes Together

Divide the dough into four parts. Roll 1/4 of the dough. Keep refrigerated the remaining dough you’re not using.

Knish Dough

Below the rolled dough is about 1/4 inch thick and the potatoes about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. You don’t want to fill with too much potatoes. It’s too difficult to reheat a thick knish.

Knish With Potatoes

Stretch the dough over the top as far as it’ll go.

Knish Half Folded

You want the folded parts to be thin. Two thin multiple layers work better than thick.

Knishes Folded

Cut up the roll so that the length and width of each knish is about 3 to 4 inches. Do not bake as one long knish. The center will not adequately bake.

Knishes Cut