You need these soft and fluffy homemade potato buns at your next cookout to take your burgers to the next level! A cup of mashed potatoes in the dough makes for the most melt-in-your-mouth, pillowy-soft hamburger buns you’ve ever had! Recipe includes a how-to video!
A Better Burger Bun
If you’ve had potato buns before, you get what all the hype is about. Not only is this style of burger bun traditionally sweeter, softer, moister, and just all around better than your average hamburger outfit, it’s really no more complicated to make. If you can make mashed potatoes, you too can pull off these incredible potato buns.
Mashed potatoes are magic to bread dough. Potatoes hold more water and so help the dough retain moisture, which in turn yields the lightest, fluffiest, and best-textured rolls of your life.
Let’s get to it, and I’ll walk you through all the steps (including which potatoes are best) in my photos, recipe, and how-to video below!
What You Need
You’ll probably recognize all of the ingredients above, and I’d bet you already have them in your pantry. Let’s go over a few key players in today’s recipe and the role that they play!
- Flour. All-purpose flour or bread flour will work perfectly fine here. While with some recipes I feel the difference is distinct (with bread flour yielding a chewier bread), I found very little difference in the end result for this recipe and just use whichever I happen to hand (which is usually all-purpose flour). Bread flour does typically lend more structure to the buns and yields taller results.
- Yeast. I use and prefer active dry yeast, but see my FAQ section below if you’d like to use instant/rapid rise yeast.
- Potatoes. Potatoes are our secret weapon here! Incorporating mashed potatoes into the dough allows the bread to retain moisture, resulting in potato buns with a moist texture.
- Sugar. Potato buns are notoriously sweeter than your classic burger buns, and these are no exception. I use a blend of granulated sugar and brown sugar because I love the subtle extra flavor the brown sugar adds. If you don’t like your rolls as sweet, you can eliminate the brown sugar entirely (but give it a try this way at least once, first!).
- Butter, milk, & egg (and an extra egg yolk). All of these ingredients specifically work to keep the rolls tender and soft.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients that I use and why I use them. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Potato Buns
- First, proof your yeast! Heat milk and water to 110F and then stir in yeast and a pinch of sugar (the sugar helps the yeast proof faster). Let sit until the yeast forms a foamy cap. This should take 5-10 minutes, and if it doesn’t happen your yeast is likely bad or your liquid was too hot or too cold and you’ll need to start over.
- Add remaining ingredients, but only half of your flour, and stir until combined. Gradually add additional flour until the dough begins to cling together.
- Knead the dough in a stand mixer or on a clean, lightly floured surface, adding more flour as needed. The dough should be slightly sticky, but add the flour you need to make it is manageable.
- Continue to knead until you have a smooth, elastic, and still slightly sticky dough. For light, soft, and fluffy rolls the dough should be slightly stickier than your average dough (so stickier than my homemade bread dough, if you’ve made that before!).
SAM’S TIP: Use a stand mixer if you have one! While this recipe can be made either in a stand mixer or by hand, I really recommend using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment if you have one. A stand mixer allows for a stickier dough (which means lighter rolls), since kneading by hand unfortunately usually means adding more flour than is ideal to make the dough manageable.
- Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover, and let it rise until doubled in size. Uncover and use your hand to gently deflate the dough.
- Divide dough into ten even pieces and form each into a round ball.
- Cover and let rise in a warm place until rolls have risen and increased in size about 50%.
- Brush with egg wash (if desired) and bake until golden brown.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Combine yeast, half of your flour, sugars and salt and stir well. Add warm milk and water and stir to combine, then stir in melted butter, potatoes, and eggs and proceed with the recipe from step 4 (in the printable recipe below).
A starchy potato is best, and for this reason I like the versatile Russet potato. However, really any potato will work in a pinch (Yukon Gold are a fair choice!). The mashed potatoes you use should be unflavored, so don’t use leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving that have salt/pepper/butter/etc. added.
Potato buns, like all bread, are best served warm and fresh, but these will keep in an airtight container for up to three days. They may also be frozen! Allow to cool completely then wrap tightly or seal in an airtight container and freeze for up to several months.
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Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps to make perfect, soft & fluffy potato burger buns in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook!
Potato Buns
Ingredients
- ½ cup (120 ml) water
- ¼ cup (60 ml) whole milk
- 2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 3 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar firmly packed
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup (225 g) unflavored mashed russet potatoes (for best results use room temperature or slightly warm mashed potatoes. Cold potatoes do not incorporate into the dough as easily)
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose or bread flour plus additional as needed, divided
Egg wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon water
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Combine water and milk in a microwave-safe dish and heat in the microwave until you reach a temperature between 105-115F (40-46C). Always stir before checking the temperature!½ cup (120 ml) water, ¼ cup (60 ml) whole milk
- Pour into a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) and add yeast and 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar. Stir briefly and allow to sit until yeast is foamy (5-10 minutes). If your yeast does not foam, you will need to start over.2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast, 3 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- Once yeast is foamy, add remaining 3 Tablepsoons sugar, brown sugar, melted butter, potatoes, egg and egg yolk, salt, and approximately half of the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon (or a dough hook if using a stand mixer) until combined.2 Tablespoons light brown sugar, 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 cup (225 g) unflavored mashed russet potatoes, 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, 1 ½ teaspoons salt, 4 cups (500 g) all-purpose or bread flour
- Gradually add additional flour as needed until the dough forms a cohesive, somewhat sticky ball that clings together. You may not need all of the flour called for above or you may find that you need more.
- Transfer dough to a clean, lightly floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5-10 minutes. Add additional flour to the dough only as needed as the dough should be slightly sticky for soft, fluffy rolls. (If using a stand mixer, simply use the dough hook and low-speed for this step, it will likely only take about 5 minutes).
- Place the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and turn so the entire surface of the dough is coated with a thin layer of oil. Cover and let rise in a warm, dry place until doubled in size (about 1-2 hours).
- Once dough has rise, gently deflate and transfer to a clean, lightly floured surface.
- Divide into ten even-sized pieces and form each into a smooth ball.
- Place dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing at least 2-3” (5-8cm) apart (you will likely need two baking sheets).
- Cover each sheet with a clean towel and allow to rise in a warm, dry place until increased in size about 50% (about 30 minutes). Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375F (190C).
- Once rolls have risen, remove the towel and lightly brush with egg wash.1 large egg, 1 teaspoon water
- Transfer to 375F (190C) preheated oven for about 12 minutes or until baked through and light golden brown (if using two baking sheets, bake one at a time).
- Allow rolls to cool on baking sheet and then use a sharp, serrated knife to cut in half. Enjoy!
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Buns may also be frozen for several months.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Sam
Outstanding! I much prefer these to standard brioche or tangzhong milk bread. Locking in as my go-to for burgers from now on. Not being from the states I dialed the sugar back to 2tsp of brown sugar which worked well. I’d potentially dial these back to 90-100g per bun as they were on the large side.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Sam! 🙂
Todd Redekopp
These are fantastic! I must admit I made an omission…I held back the brown sugar. They turned out exactly as I’d hoped. I had to increase the bake time, and temp, but that’s just my oven.
Thank you for the great recipe!
Sam
I’m glad you enjoyed them, Todd! 🙂
Amanda
Pretty good! I found them a little sugary and mine fell apart a little I think it’s because it needed a little longer cook time.
Abby
Hi! I’m trying to find a recipe of a super shiny, very tanned almost brown potato bun. Do you know which ingredients I should adjust/add for this purpose? Thank you so much in advance for your help!
Sam
Hi Abby! It sounds like you might actually be looking for a pretzel bun, or one cooked in that fashion. I haven’t seen a potato bun that looks as you’ve described, but I have seen pretzel buns like that.
Denise
The buns are rising as I write, but before I even taste the results I want to thank you for putting the relevant ingredients, with quantities, below each paragraph of instructions. This is BRILLIANT — I don’t even want to think about how much of my life I’ve spent either flipping back and forth between ingredient list and instructions on my double-sided-printed recipes, or feeling guilty because I only printed on one side so I could spread out the pages and see everything at once. You deserve a. Sanity Keeper prize for this – thank you!!!
Sam
You’re so welcome, Denise! I hope you love the buns! 🙂
lara lehman
These are delicious, made them with 2/3 cup of potato flakes and add 1TBS dough conditioner. Next time I will make them smaller. Delicious coming out freezer several weeks later 😋
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lara! 🙂
MikeyInOregon
Great recipe. They turned out perfectly, the potatoes really keep them moist and soft. I ended up needing to use about 1/2 cup of additional flour, it was a humid day. I used Yukon potatoes, it’s what what I had on hand and I used one tablespoon of yeast instead. I used a mesh silicone hamburger pan which helped to form the buns uniformly. I freeze my buns and defrost them in the microwave for a couple of minutes and they become perfectly soft again. I shared some buns with my friends and they are now asking for more. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed the buns, Mikey! Thanks for leaving a review 😊
Shelly Ficerai
Wow! These came out amazing. I mixed it in a food processor. Such a big hit. Next time I will do 20 smaller rolls for my daycare kids. They were moist, soft, and had a great consistency. Thanks.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for the review, Shelly! We’re so happy the buns were a success ❤️
Alivia Williams
Him have made these countless times now to always great praise! Thank you!
Have you experienced with delaying the cooking time? Like mixing and then placing in fridge overnight? Or doing bulk and then shaping and putting in the fridge overnight I want to make them for a potluck but work won’t give me enough time. Hl
Sam Merritt
Hi Alivia! I have not tried letting them rest that long. I would be worried that they would over-proof. 🙁
Lars
I made these with spelt flour, worked perfectly. So soft and moist, and tasted just as good both the next day and the day after. Thank you so much, I have been looking for a good potato bun recipe and this is the best one I have tried by far!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lars! 🙂
Miriam
These were amazing! 😍 So soft and delicious! They were just like roll. My new favorite bun! 😋
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you liked the buns, Miriam! Thanks for commenting 🥰
Spencer
These were amazing! Tender, dense, and definitely more satisfying with my sliders than the store bought slider buns we tried.
Something that might be useful to others: we had leftover yukon gold mashed potatoes with lots of herbs. The recipe calls for plain mashed potatoes for good reason – you don’t want other flavors interfering with the final product. That said, after I mixed in the mashed potatoes but before adding flour, I ran the dough through a strainer so that I could get as many herbs out as I could. I had to push on the strainer quite a bit to get out all the potatoes.
After I added the flour, the dough had an herby fragrance to it. Once it proofed, a lot of the fragrance went away. After baked, I taste tested them and I could barely detect any herb flavor at all. If not for the fact that I knew it was there, I would not have known that the mashed potatoes were made with herbs.
Just a little reassurance for anyone who is using “flavored” mashed potatoes with this recipe! YMMV of course!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how that went for you, Spencer! We’re so happy you enjoyed the buns 😊
Katie
Perfectly soft, moist, and sweet. Amazing to use as dinner rolls or hamburgers. Or plain for that matter 🙂
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Katie! I am definitely guilty of eating a few plain as well! 🙂
Sobia Khalid
Can this dough be used for donuts? I’ve heard the starch in potatoes can give super soft and light donuts though i haven’t tried it myself yet.
Sam
Hi Sobia! I honestly don’t know. I haven’t tried it, but I think it could work. Let me know how it goes if you do try it. 🙂
Marydk
Have you tried them with all purpose gluten free flour? If you haven’t, do you think that might work?
Sam
Hi Marydk! Unfortunately I’m not really familiar with using gluten free flour so I’m not sure how it will work. If you do try it I would love to know how it turns out. 🙂
Lin Gerber
These taste wonderful! Thanks for the great video tutorial as well. I followed your directions with no additions and they came out jus like yours. They will become my favorite burger roll! Thanks, Sam!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lin! 🙂
Cara
I’m new to bread making, can this recipe be used for a loaf of potato bread?
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Cara! We’ve actually made this into bread! Follow the recipe as written but reduce your water to 1/4 cup. After the first rise, follow the instructions on our homemade bread for shaping into a loaf, and put into a lightly greased 9×5 pan. Cover and let sit to rise again for about another 30-60 minutes. Then bake in 375F oven for 35-40 minutes. We hope you love it!🙂
Kim
I made these potato buns, and they are SUPER! Very pretty, tasty, easy to make. They look exactly like your photos and I would send a photo but I don’t do Instagram…. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Kim! 🙂
Yasmin Abdulla
I love the fact that ingredients are written under instructions and the cook mode where the screen doesn’t go dark is there best 😍😍😍
Cynthia
Your potato buns look delicious and I have made many of your recipes. I wonder if one could use prepared Instant Potatoes. Just wondering. Thanks again for all the wonderful recipes.
Sam
Hi Cynthia! I’m so glad you have enjoyed everything so much! The instant potatoes should work just fine here. 🙂
Lara Lehman
how much potato flakes in this recipe