Mashed Potato Pancakes Recipe
Leftover Mashed Potatoes? Jazz Them Up with This Potato Recipe!.

Potato pancakes made with mashed potatoes are a great way to use leftover mashed potatoes, but they can be a little tricky to get right to start with. Once you get the batter and temperature down, then you can crank out mashed potato pancakes easily. The journey to perfection can be a little rocky, so here is my help guide for making potato pancakes with mashed potatoes.

Mashed Potato Pancake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of mashed potatoes (more or less depending on how many mashed potatoes you have to work with)
• 2 eggs (or one egg per cup of mashed potatoes)
• Milk or flour (depending on whether your mashed potatoes are thick or thin)
• Seasonings (salt and pepper and then other favorite flavors)
• Extras (cheese, bacon, green peppers, onions etc)

Directions for Making Mashed Potato Pancakes:

1. Measure out your potatoes. It does not have to be exact. With leftovers, the potatoes are chilled. If you make mashed potatoes from scratch, chill them a bit.

2. Add an egg for a binder at about one egg per cup of mashed potatoes.

3. If the mashed potatoes are thin, then add some flour. If they are thick, add a little milk. In both cases, just add a little bit (like a teaspoon) until you get the right consistency. The batter should be thick enough that you can make the pancakes with your hands, but they should be kind of limp to work with.

4. Add seasonings that you like. My boys tend to like pretty basic potato pancakes, so I use a little sprinkle of pepper, seasoning salt (Lawry’s), and some garlic powder – but not much, since my homemade mashed potatoes are seasoned already.

5. You can jazz the potato pancakes up by stirring in cheese or bacon bits or vegetables cut up fine. Here at my house, I shred about a ½ cup of cheddar cheese for 2 cups of mashed potatoes on the base recipe.

6. Heat a thin layer of oil like 1/8 inch and add a pat of butter if you like for more flavor. The heat should be medium. This varies stove to stove, but it should take around 5 to 8 minutes to cook one side of the mashed potato pancakes. 

6. Use your hands to make a pancake that you can just barely hold together. Aim for about 2 inches around, since those are easier to turn than if you have big mashed potato pancakes.

7. Gently place the potato pancake in the skillet in the oil and butter and then fill the pan with potato pancakes, but do not crowd them.

8. Let the potato pancakes sizzle along for 5 to 8 minutes. If you try to turn them too soon, they will fall apart and make a big mess. Trust me on that. If the bottoms are too browned at this time, then you have the heat up too high. I suggest a test potato pancake to start with to get the temperature correct.

9. Flip the potato pancakes just as you would breakfast pancakes. Then, let them cook again for 5 to 8 minutes.

10. If you are doing batches which I do here as my skillet is not real big, then add more oil and butter as needed to finish off the potato pancake batter.

Mastering Mashed Potato Pancakes

Don’t feel bad if you have problems getting these potato pancakes down pat to start with.

Mashed potatoes vary a lot depending on how they are made, so you may have thin or thick mashed potatoes. So, it takes some time to know the correct thickness or feel of the batter. That’s why you add a bit of flour or milk as needed.

The heat makes a difference as well. I just got a new stove, so I had to do a test run again tonight to find the right setting for my mashed potato pancakes. On the old stove, the 6 setting was great, but I have to roll down to 3 on the new stove which is hotter than my old one.

The good news is that once you get the batter consistency down and the heat for your stove, then you are set. You can have a new and tasty dish when you have mashed potatoes left over from a meal. In our case, that is usually over the holidays, but now and then, we have more than we can eat at a family dinner. Then, it’s a treat to have mashed potato pancakes.

Serving Mashed Potato Pancakes

The most classic way to serve mashed potato pancakes (also called poor man latkes) is to top them with applesauce, but they are good plain or with gravy if you have some of that left over too.

We have these as a side dish usually, but I can confess to making a meal of mashed potato pancakes.