Name: Potato Garlic Knots
Prep time: 2 h 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: One small Russet potato, about 4 oz (113 g); 1/3 cup water from boiling the potato (see step 1); 1 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1/2 tsp salt; 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 grams); 2 eggs, at room temperature; 2 tablespoons melted butter; 3 cloves of garlic; pinch of coarse salt; 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning; 1/4 cup chopped parsley or fresh dill plus more for sprinkling; 1/4 cup soft butter; black pepper to taste; 1 egg white and 1 tsp water

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These potato garlic knots are soft and buttery with homemade garlic butter. Your kitchen will smell so inviting, you might just have to set extra places at the table tonight when curious neighbors wonder what is in the oven!

I created this recipe for one of my students. She is not a fan of overly sweet anything, so her constant question is, “How can I make this savory?”

So I started with a dough similar to my dough for my Moravian Sugar Cake, and then added some good herbs and garlic. Once you portion out your rolls, you will pat them into a little rectangle and roll them up. After cutting them to expose the filling, you twist them into a spiral that’s as beautiful as it is delicious.

Make these for friends for a soup night, a Superbowl party or a Sunday pasta supper. Whenever you make them, they will disappear at an alarming rate.

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Potato Garlic Knots

Potatoes are the secret to this pillowy fluffy bread

Just like in Moravian Sugar Cake, the potato is a key to this recipe. People likely started adding potato into bread so as not to waste leftovers. Potatoes do not lend a strong potato flavor to bread, and they are a secret genius ingredient.

In fact, potatoes have a lot of things going for them in bread. To start, their starches that leach out into the cooking water make yeast really happy and active.

Also, potatoes contain starch that when cooked hold on to extra moisture in a way that flour alone cannot. You see other variations of this kind of cooked starch in breadmaking in breads like Japanese Milk Bread, hot water dough for scallion pancakes, or even scalding flour as in a traditional pumpernickel bread.

This means that you get a bread that is:

Softer
Lasts longer (if you don’t eat it first!)
Tender

Potato Garlic Knots ingredients

Potato: small baking potato such as a Russet
Potato water: save it! The minerals and starch will make your yeast so very happy.
Yeast: active dry or instant
Sugar: granulated
Salt: sea salt or kosher
Flour: All-purpose
Butter: melted, for tenderness
Eggs: large, at room temperature
Homemade garlic butter: soft butter with fresh green herbs, dried herbs, fresh smashed garlic, salt and pepper

Potato Garlic Knots step by step

Prepare the potato

First, quarter and boil your potato until you can pierce it easily with a fork. This should take 10-15 minutes. Set aside the potato water to cool. 100 degrees is ideal. I like to double check with an instant read thermometer. Without one, your water needs to be just warm to the touch.

Peel the potato pieces and mash them. I use my potato ricer here, but since this is not a lot of potato, feel free to use a fork.

Activate the yeast

Dissolve the yeast with the sugar in the reserved potato water in a small bowl. Whisk or use your hands to break up the yeast, then set aside until foamy. This will take about 5 minutes.

pouring yeast water into a bowl with mashed potato and eggs

Combine potato with the melted butter and eggs, in a large bowl or a stand mixer bowl, then pour in the yeast mixture.

Make the dough

Combine the wet ingredients with Stir with a spoon to create a rough dough.

From here, either knead by hand (see how to knead sticky doughs by hand) or in a stand mixer with a bread hook for 5 minutes on low.

rough dough before kneading with dough hook in bowl

The dough will be soft, shiny, and extremely elastic when you’re finished. On a stand mixer, the dough will literally be slapping the sides of the bowl in a rope as it goes around. When you’ve gotten to this stage, you know your dough is good.

Cover the dough and allow it to rise in a warm place for about 60 minutes, or until double in bulk. Meanwhile make the garlic butter.

Homemade Garlic butter

Smash the garlic any way you like. I prefer and mortar and pestle, but you can also mince it with a knife, grate it with a microplane, use a garlic press or smash it with a meat pounder.

Mix the garlic with chopped parsley, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. If you have it, fresh chopped dill is also delicious.

Mix the smashed garlic and herb mixture with soft butter until it’s a spreadable paste.

Shaping the potato garlic knots

Preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Sprinkle a good bit of flour on a work surface, then divide the dough into 8 pieces. Note that you can make smaller garlic knots if you’d like–12 works well here too!

spreading garlic butter on flattened dough

Pat each dough piece into a rough rectangle. Next, smear on a little bit of the garlic butter on top of the dough.

Roll up the dough into a log, then cut it lengthwise to expose the layers of dough and garlic butter.

Twist the cut halves over each other, doing your best to keep the cut edges facing up.

To finish shaping a garlic knot, twist the dough into a spiral onto itself. Tuck the end under the bottom of the knot.

Baking time!

Beat the egg white with a teaspoon of water to make an egg white wash, then brush the buns with the egg white.

brushing potato garlic knots with egg white

Sprinkle the garlic knots with a little more chopped parsley or dill. Cover and rise for 20 minutes.

Bake the knots for 20 minutes until they are golden brown and the center springs back to the touch.

Serving ideas

Stack hot buns in a towel inside a bowl if you’re serving right away.
For a bagel alternative, cool completely and slice in half and spread with cream cheese.
The next day, these make wonderful toasted sandwiches. Cut in half and pop in your favorite savory fillings.

Potato Garlic Knots

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Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Yield: 8

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Description

Ultra soft potato bread rolled up with fragrant garlic butter twisted up into a piece of Heaven.

Ingredients

Scale

One small Russet potato, about 4 oz (113 g)
1/3 cup water from boiling the potato (see step 1)
1 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour (260 grams)
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons melted butter

Garlic butter

3 cloves of garlic
pinch of coarse salt
1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1/4 cup chopped parsley or fresh dill plus more for sprinkling
1/4 cup soft butter
black pepper to taste

Egg White wash

1 egg white and 1 tsp water

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Instructions

Cut your potato into 4 pieces, then cover with water. Boil the potato until tender–about 15 minutes. Set aside 1/3 cup of the potato cooking water to cool to about 100 degrees F.
Whisk 1/3 cup of the warm potato water with the yeast and sugar to sit for about 5 minutes. When the yeast is foamy, you're ready for the next step.
Peel the potato and mash it. If you have one, a potato ricer is your best tool for the job.
Combine the yeast water with the mashed potato, melted butter, salt, and flour. Stir to turn it into a rough dough, then knead with the bread hook on a stand mixer on low for 5 minutes. By then, the dough will be shiny and extremely elastic.
Cover the dough to rise for about 60 minutes until double in bulk.
Garlic butter: While the dough is resting, make the garlic butter. First smash the garlic to peel it, then mince it your favorite way (chop with a knife, grate with a microplane, my choice is to smash into a paste in a mortar and pestle with salt). Mix in salt, then parsley, fresh cracked black pepper, Italian seasoning, then mix everything into soft butter into a spreadable paste. From here, roll the butter into a little log so that you can divide it into 8 pieces easily when you form the rolls.
After 60 minutes, lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Divide the dough into 8 pieces, then roll each piece into a ball. Cover the balls and allow the balls to rest for 15 minutes.
After the balls have rested, pat each into a circle on your floured surface. Spread 1/8 of your garlic butter mixture over the dough, then roll it into a log.
Cut through the log lengthwise to expose the garlic butter and layers of dough, then twist the dough like a 2-strand braid.
Finish off your garlic knot by rolling the twist into a spiral, tucking the end under the roll.
Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
Place the finished knots on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover to rise for 20 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C).
After 20 minutes, beat the egg white with about 1 tsp of water to create an egg wash. Brush the garlic knots with the egg wash and top with extra chopped parsely if you'd like.
Bake the knots for 20 minutes until they are golden brown and the center springs back to the touch.

Notes

It's tempting to want to peel the potato and cut it in small pieces so that it cooks faster, but the potato will absorb too much water, making for a dough with too much hydration. Leaving the peel on but cutting the potato into quarters will allow some of the starch to leach out into the water (potato starch makes yeast happy!), without water-logging the potato.
Potatoes are all different sizes. If your potato is slightly over the 4 oz, it will still work. If you're not sure, weigh out the 4 oz on a kitchen scale and make a little mashed potato snack from any leftovers.

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Additional Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Category: Breads