Yes of course! You can buy frozen so you can certainly freeze home made ones.

Kath, do you not have any students this year?

Bpath, I did but they got sent to other homes after I had issues with them soaking the bathroom floor. It was only me, my daughter, her boyfriend, one of her friends and one of my friends for Christmas dinner. I made a lot of variety of side dishes so everyone would have something they liked. I just overdid it.

Yes! My mother did it all the time. I love them with sour cream and with applesauce!

"Yes of course! You can buy frozen so you can certainly freeze home made ones."

Be careful with this. Food sold in frozen form has been flash frozen, which means - frozen very quickly in a chamber or room with a very, vert low temperature setting. Flash frozen means frozen in a matter of minutes. Home freezers don't get cold enough to flash freeze food.

The difference? Food that is flash frozen freezes so quickly that ice crystals cannot form inside the food. Ice crystals damage the texture and characteristics of the food when defrosted.

Anything can be frozen at home and if kept cold enough, can be defrosted and safely eaten. However, home frozen food will have a less desirable texture and flavor compared to a similar item that has been commercially flash frozen and sold frozen.

PS - I thought the real McCoy German potato pancakes - Kartoffelpfannkuchen - are made with grated potatoes and not mashed potatoes?

I agree. You cant freeze chunks of potato but you can freeze potatoes mashed. That would include any product made with them

I am worried about texture.

My Mom made latkes with grated potatoes. According to Epicurious, latkes can be cooked, frozen on a baking sheet and then transferred o freezer bags for up to two weeks.

FWIW, if I had leftover mashed potatoes, I think I'd make shepherd's pie - or individual mini pies to freeze ahead ☺

I've never made potato pancakes with cooked potatoes; in our family those went into potato kugel.

The trick to successfully freezing mashed potatoes is fat. When we make our potatoes for Thanksgiving I often do it ahead then thaw and bake. I have cream cheese /butter in the 'casserole' so when they freeze the texture does not change. When the kids were little they got hot breakfast every morning. Most often it was a plate sized pancake from the ice cream bucket in the freezer. I only made sour dough pancakes about once a week but in between I always had some extra for the kid who wouldn't eat eggs. Microwaves make this all possible. They do a great job heating frozen things like this up.

You could also just freeze mashed potatoes in small containers to have for later. We do it all the time. I make one very large batch of mashed potatoes and then I freeze portions for just enough for the two of us to eat at our meal. They are fine, you do have to stir them a bit as you heat them. I heat them in the microwave.

If you're game, there are a couple of different recipes for candy that are made with mashed potatoes....

For a change in eating my leftover mashed potatoes, I combine it with an egg and onion. Scoop some out, roll in bread crumbs or crushed crackers and bake until heated through. I also freeze them this way and they're quick to re-heat.

Jasdip, I think you just described potato croquettes.

And potato pancakes can be made with cooked or raw potatoes. I recall the boxed Kosher latke mix we tried many years ago definitely had the texture of mashed potatoes, not raw.

Make some gnocci with some! I don't boil mine: I deep fry them. SO much tastier. I'm sure you could freeze them on a cookie sheet then put them in a freezer bag and use as needed.

I'm not trying to be authentic with my pancakes. I use the mashed potatoes because they're available and taste great with a little chopped onion, flour and fried in a little oil.

Thanks for all the replies. I fried a couple up, one for my breakfast. The others (3) I'm freezing and will see how they do. I'm going to make croquettes out of the rest.

What's the difference between a potato pancake and a croquette? I might need to try out something new. :)

In the South we use leftover mashed potatoes, and we just call them "Potato Cakes". They are different than what some of you are referring to as latkes, and are very delicious. I think most of us know what latkes are, but latkes are not potato pancakes/potato cakes. I've never frozen any potato cakes, because there's never any left, but I wouldn't hesitate to try it. It may be better to freeze them on a baking sheet or tray before putting them in a container.

"What's the difference between a potato pancake and a croquette?"

I'd say texture and flavor. German potato pancakes are in the direction of hash brown potatoes but with a richer flavor. Eggs, onions, and other seasonings are added before formed as a thinnish pancake and fried in a pan.

Croquettes come in infinite varieties but are typically small ball or turd shaped (like a frozen fish stick) and golden brown on the outside and mushy on the inside. I suspect they're usually deep fried and, for potatoes, would be made with mashed potatoes.

Cooper, my potato pancakes are just potatoes, finely chopped onions, salt, pepper and flour. Made into patties and fried in a little oil.

My croquettes (my mom used to make them too) are potatoes, not usually mashed completely like mashed potatoes, more coarse and not whipped with a mixer, crumbled ground beef, chopped onions, salt, pepper, and grated carrots. Mixed together, formed into patties, dipped in flour, egg and bread crumbs and fried in a deep frying pan of oil. They seemed to hold together better if whipped, though. Found that out this afternoon. My mom, who was Japanese, always served them with rice and chopped raw cabbage and worcestershire sauce. I normally do too but didn't have any cooked rice on hand and no cabbage, except for some cabbage leaves in the garden that I didn't feel like picking. I use ketchup instead of worcestershire sauce. The one I ate was still really good.

Thanks! I make salmon croquettes but never heard of these and they sound delicious!

Doesn't 'croquette' refer to the preparation, which is to form patties or domes from a mixture, often made with cooked meat ,mixed with something to bind it like eggs or bechamel, breaded and sauted/fried until crispy? You can make veggie croquettes too.

We grew up eating lots of salmon croquettes.

Carol, no idea, that is just what my mom called them. I'm sure everyone has a different recipe. I've made salmon and mackeral patties before. Never called them croquettes but they are basically the same only mine are just all mixed together and not with a coating on the outside like my croquettes.

A Dutch croquette is made with a roux: I mix equal parts butter and flour together (about 1/2 cup of each) and then add a broth (usually from roast, but I have used soup broth) then add parsley, nutmeg, salt and pepper and ground meat (my favourite is chicken but most used roast beef). it makes a super thick consistency. You cool it off in the fridge. Once cool you roll them into cylinders, or balls (called bitterballen) dip them in flour, then egg then fine grind bread crumbs. Deep fry and devour! To me a mashed potato ball covered in crumbs and deep fried is mashed potatoes covered in crumbs and deep fried. LOL If you click on the arrow ON the picture itself here, it'll show you the steps I used to make mine. I dip mine in mustard (north american Heinz mustard as I don't care for brown Dutch mustard) and pop them in my mouth and they fill my belly! ;)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBtWJlNJ-3lNJGT6x-YU594ehrtxhU1js7-m7E0/

From my dictionary:

croquette |krōˈket|

noun

a small roll of chopped vegetables, meat, or fish, fried in breadcrumbs: a potato croquette.

ORIGIN

French, from croquer ‘to crunch.’