My favorite versatile recipe for baked goods

Last week (or was it the week before?) I had some leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge and remembered this wonderful recipe I often made in years gone by. It makes 100 rolls, doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, or whatever. Even though I had plenty of mashed potatoes, I divided the recipe in half. I made half of the dough into dinner rolls and half into cinnamon rolls. I used the doughnut glaze recipe (again, half of it) on the cinnamon rolls. This is a fantastic recipe! If you don't have leftover mashed potatoes on hand, this is so good that it's worth cooking a few potatoes for. The recipe is from the More-With-Less Cookbook by Doris Jantzen Longacre.


Edna Ruth Byler's Potato Dough Baked Goods

Makes 100 doughnuts or rolls

Dissolve:

3 pkg. dry yeast in

1 cup lukewarm water

Mix in large bowl:

1 quart scalded milk

2 cups mashed potatoes (no milk added)

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

Let cool to lukewarm, then add:

Yeast mixture

6 cups flour

Let stand until mixture foams up (about 20 minutes)

Add:

2 eggs, beaten

1 Tablespoon salt

11 to 12 cups additional flour

A little more flour may be needed, but dough should be soft. Turn out on floured board and knead until satiny. Let raise in warm place until doubled in bulk.

Doughnuts:
Roll out dough, cut doughnuts, place on trays and let raise until not quite double. Fry in hot shortening (375 degrees). When drained and while still hot dip in glaze mixture. Insert a stick through holes and let a number of doughnuts drain over glaze bowl until next ones are ready to do.

Glaze:

Combine:

1 pound powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dash of mace

Enough rich milk to make thin icing

Cinnamon buns:
Prepare a mixture of sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Roll a piece of dough to about 18″x9″. Spread dough with butter and sprinkle over some of the sugar mixture. Roll up the dough as for jelly roll. Cut 1 ½” chunks and place in greased pans, pressing down lightly on each chunk. Cover and let raise in warm place until nearly double. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until browned. These may be iced with doughnut glaze as soon as they are taken from the oven.

Sticky buns:
Handle dough same as for cinnamon buns, except make a mixture of brown and white sugar, cinnamon, and a little white corn syrup and water. Spread in bottom of heavily greased pans with nuts, if desired, before putting in rolls. Immediately after baking, invert pans over trays and let syrup run down before removing pans.

Dinner Rolls:
Shape dough as desired; place on greased pans, and bake at 400º starting on a lower rack and changing to upper rack about halfway through for 15 minutes of baking time. Brush tops lightly with butter to remove any floury appearance.

Coffee Cake:
A good way to use all the leftover bits of dough -- put dough in greased pan, dab or punch holes in it, and spread leftover sugar, syrup, or butter mixtures over. Let rise and bake as for cinnamon buns.

To freeze:
Let baked goods cool. Wrap or place in large plastic bags and freeze the same day.

Note: This recipe is also quite good using part freshly ground whole wheat flour in place of some of the white flour.