Depending on how much left over mashed potatoes you have, add an egg and a little bit of flour and seasonings. Form them into patties and fry in butter. They will have a nice dark crust on the outside and still be soft in the middle. ummm! NancyLouise

Seems like I remember, years ago, adding a beaten egg and a litle flour and dropping them by spoonfuls in hot oil. Called them potato puffs and maybe rolled them in powdered sugar. That was a long time ago when my children were amall and now my grandchildren are grown. Bet that would heat up your kitchen and take the chill off.LOL

sushipup, Grandma used to make potato patties out of leftover mashed potatoes. She added salt and pepper and an egg, made them into patties and fried them.

I never liked them so I don't make them, but my brother adored them. Elery likes them and has made them a couple of times, and his kids love them. He adds cheese to his, and sometimes some grated onion.

Annie

Perfect timing for me. I want to make some tonight. I've tried several times, but they always fall apart on me.

I've always mixed the leftovers with some milk, a beaten egg, and some seasoned crumbs, then flattened them into not pancakes, but disks, dipped them in more egg, dredged in bread crumbs, and fried until nice and golden brown.

I make them quiet often by adding an egg, possibly some flour, salt, pepper and chopped onion. Then I shape into discs and fry in hot oil. I've never tried the cheese Annie talked about, but I bet it would be delicious.

Potato pancakes are such a great way to use leftover mashed potatoes! For 1 1/2 cups of mashed potatoes, I add one beaten egg, about 3 tblsps. flour (depends on how "loose" your potatoes are) a tsp. of baking powder, and whatever else I want. I like to add corn or sweet red pepper, or both, or minced onion and parsley. The batter should be fairly stiff. Form into rounds and fry lightly in butter or margarine, turning once. The surface is laced with brown, and the inside is soft. My husband could eat them daily!

We always made them into potato cakes as most have described. You do need to see how much flour you need since as Marlingardener says it depends how loose your potatoes are. And make them thick so they have less chance of falling apart.

But..... Not Me.. I make gnocchi out of my leftover mashed potatoes. As a matter of fact I just came here to check the board before I go out to the kitchen to make some with the mashed we have left over from the pork roast Sunday. I add an egg like you do for the potato cakes, sometimes a bit of romano or parm then enough flour to form a soft dough. Don't overwork it but do add enough flour so they hold together. Roll your ropes, cut them in 1" pieces then do the special fork flip to make the lines. Gently boil then serve with butter and cheese or sauce them or butter and sour cream with cheese. OKKK... time for me to go. I'm going to try to take some pics while I make them. I want to try to get the fork flip shown. It's not roll the gnocchi on a fork. You actually take a fork, put it on top of the gnocchi, press and pull and the gnocchi curls and flips. I can do a million real fast. Smiles. LOL, my stomach just growled... waves.. off to gnocchi land.

This is very close to how I make them.....

Potato Croquettes

Recipe courtesy Mario Batali, 2001
Prep Time: 45 min Inactive Prep Time: 0 min Cook Time: 20 min Level:
Intermediate Serves:
4 to 6 servings Ingredients
Vegetable oil, for frying
3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes, cooked through and cooled
6 eggs
1/2 cup cooked ham, cut into small cubes
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1/2 cup milk
1 cup cake flour
1 cup breadcrumbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
In a 6-inch-deep saucepan, heat 4 to 6 inches of oil to 375 degrees F.

Put the cooked and cooled potatoes through a food mill into a large bowl. Stir in 4 of the eggs, ham, and cheese and incorporate. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour flour onto a large plate and the breadcrumbs onto another large plate. Whisk the remaining 2 eggs with the milk and pour this mixture into another large plate.

Starting with a ball of potato mixture the size of an egg, form your croquettes using your hands (it helps to cover your hands with some of the flour to avoid a lot of sticking). They should look like fat cylinders. Dredge the croquette in flour, then the egg mixture, and finally, the breadcrumbs. Continue until all potato mixture is finished.

Carefully place 5 croquettes in the hot oil and fry until a deep golden brown, about 4 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels. Continue until all croquettes are fried. Serve immediately.

Yep....I also make "potatoes with scabs" as my uncle always called them...
But Leftover mashed potatoes also make me think about bread.
Mrs; Faust's Rye bread:
Cook 4 medium potatoes (peeled), drain saving the water and put through a
sieve (or mash)
proof 2 pkts of yeast in 1/2 cup warm water with a t.
of sugar. Mix 4 c. of buttermilk, 3/4 c. dark molasses, 1/4 cup of
shortening (she used Crisco, I use butter) and 1 t. baking soda and
1T.salt. Add 3/4 c. brown sugar and 3/4 c, of the potato water. Add enough rye flour to make a dough ( still able to be stirred, but getting pretty stiff).
Add the yeast mixture and mix well Add enough white bread flour to (as Mrs. Faust said)work it up, That is until it is stiff enough to knead.
knead about 6 to 8 minutes, let rise till double, punch it down and shape into loaves. this works best in bread pans due to the long cooking time--if
you don't have 6 bread pans, just "free form" the rest and maybe take it
out of the oven a little sooner. Butter top of loaves and raise until it
almost cracks on top (this is a very heavy bread!) Bake 350 for 1 1/4
hours. Mrs Faust used to divide the dough in half and add about a t. of
anise seed to one half of the dough--I like it--almost like a tea bread..
Good Luck--I'm getting hungry just reading the recipe--it's really a
fabulous bread!

Salmon/Potato cakes! I add some salmon, flour and/or breadcrumbs, egg, seasonings and pan saute in butter and olive oil. Delicious!

Grace

I made them yesterday and they turned out just perfect! I think I wasn't letting them fry long enough on the first side before.

Re-heat them I do it all the time. Put them into a foil lined baking dish, put some water under the foil, cover and reheat in the oven. They'll be like new.

Who needs to do anything special with mashed potatoes (even if there are some very tasty looking recipes in this thread)? They're great just reheated! I always always make extras so I can have leftovers.

hmmmm I often toss them in a frying pan with some fat...pat them down, let them get a bit crispy and then carefully flip them over...for breakfast under my over easy eggs, since I rarely eat bread. Soaks up the yolks wonderfully!

I remember reheated mashed potatoes often. Boy were they HOT! Real mouth burners. I'd also consider using them to make some big double stuffed twice baked taters too (adding to some baked or microwaved taters).

I love lefse but have never tried making them. My mother-in-law used to make them years ago, and every once in a while when we were visiting, I'd get a taste. Now I just order them online at Christmas time and send her some too.

My family loves mashed potatoes and I hate making them. I found this chef's recipe years ago and always use it because it makes a big batch, can be made a day or two ahead of a holiday and reheated or you can freeze it into meal size or even individual portions. They never get "stiff" and reheat in the oven or microwave beautifully. Leftovers are the same as the first serving. These are also go fast at covered dish suppers. Warning: not for the cholesterol shy.

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

5 lbs large baking potatoes 1 stick butter
1 T salt 1 c. sour cream
8 oz cream cheese c. milk
salt & pepper to taste

Take cream cheese and butter out of the fridge, unwrap and cube them on their wrappers. Let sit out at room temperature while you continue with recipe. Peel potatoes, cube and drop into the pot of cold salted water
Simmer potatoes until tender then drain Add cream cheese & butter to hot potatoes and mash until melted. Beat in sour cream, pepper and salt to taste. Beat in enough milk to make potato mixture pourable (like a very thick cake batter) but not runny.
Transfer to a casserole and cool completely, uncovered. Cover and refrigerate up to three days.
Bake, covered, until heated through at 375 for 30-40 minutes.
Can be frozen in smaller portions and reheated in the microwave

Even people who say they don't like sour cream or cream cheese love these mashed potatoes.

My Mom and i always used the leftover mashed potatoes from the Sunday roast beef on Monday with hot roast beef sandwiches. We just formed the cakes with the leftover potatoes and then patted flour on them. Place in pan with melted butter and carefully fry on medium until a nice crust as formed on the first side and then turn carefully and brown the second side. I LOVE them this way and they couldn't be simpler. Of course now that we have non stick pans they are much easier to do!
Joann

Another bread recipe that uses potatoes.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Potato Rosemary Rolls
=====================
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/potatorosemaryrolls?destination=node%2F423

Potato Rosemary Rolls
Makes 18 small rolls or 12 hamburger sized buns
1 potato, cooked and mashed
1 lb (3 1/2 cups) bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
3/4 - 1 cup water
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon dried rosemary or 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground sage leaves

Cook the potato until soft, either by boiling or baking in the oven or microwave. For this batch I chopped up and boiled the potato. I then reserved a cup of the potato water to add to the loaf, figuring it had additional nutrients and starches that would help my loaf.

Mash the potato. Removing the skin prior to mashing is optional: if you are using tough skinned potatoes like russets I would suggest removing them, but with soft skinned potatoes such as yukon gold or red potatoes I typically leave them on. The chopped up skin add nice color and texture to your rolls.

Combine the flour, mashed potato, yeast, salt, pepper and herbs in a large bowl. Add 3/4 cups water and knead or mix for 5 to 10 minutes, adding more water or flour until a consistency you are comfortable working with is reached. I added close to a full cup of water and ended up with an extremely sticky dough that was difficult to work with. I was only able to shape the rolls by repeatedly dipping my fingers in flour. The end result was wonderful though.

(I encourage amateur bakers to push the limit of what they think they can handle, moisture-wise. More often than not you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results, though you can go too far and end up baking a pancake, which I've done more than once.)

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a moist towel and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size, typically 60 to 90 minutes.

Remove the dough from the bowl, gently degas it, and shape it. For rolls or buns you can weigh them if you like or just eyeball them. I cut racquetball sized chunks of dough (larger than golf balls, smaller than tennis balls) then rolled them into balls in my well-floured hands. I placed them on a baking sheet covered with parchment, placed the entire sheet in a plastic trash bag, and set it aside to rise for approximately an hour again.

While the dough rose, I preheated the oven to 375 degrees.

If you have a spritzer, spray the top of the rolls with water right before placing them in the oven. Place them in the center rack and bake them for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake them for another 10 to 20 minutes, depending on size. My large hamburger bun sized rolls took close to half an hour to bake. You'll know they are done when the bottom of the rolls is solid and slightly crispy. If you have a probe thermometer, check the temperature inside one of the rolls. When the internal temperature is approaching 200 degrees F, they are ready to pull out of the oven.

Oh, and sushipup? I've been known to freeze leftover mashed potatoes in muffin cups and Ashley just takes out a "muffin" and reheats it when she wants it.

Annie