So these rolls were going to be something I would do for Thanksgiving, but then when my sister and I planned out our menu, we realized we have 4 different carbs, and we had to nix these rolls. That being said, the idea was such a good one that I still wanted to make these! The idea of combining pierogi and bread together just sounded so good, and I did not want to pass it up just because it did not fit in with the menu it was originally intended for! Potatoes and I have a lovely relationship. Mostly in that I love eating them in curries, in spicy kimchi stews, mashed, or in gnocchi. I also love how mashed potatoes could be used in doughnut doughs to make for a lighter, crispier end result! So I wanted to take that idea, and apply it to bread rolls. Where the pierogi aspect comes in would be with the filling. I never really understood the idea of a pierogi. A carb wrapped around another carb sounded really heavy. But then I tried one in college when I attended my first meeting for TasteBUds(a sadly now-defunct student-run food publication at Boston University, my lovely alma mater), and then I got the hype. Crispy dough surrounding a cheesy, rich potato filling. Then you get the caramelized onion and bacon bits, and they are a treat. Special thank you to Rochelle “Ro” Li and Samantha Levy for introducing me to my first ever pierogi all of those years ago! So another inspiration for these rolls came from my time at Milkbar. One of my personal favorite items we sold at Milkbar were the onion-cream cheese bagel bombs. Soft bread surrounding an explosion of cream cheese, onions, and bacon. I would secretly stash any unsellable bombs, and eat those during my lunch breaks when I worked at Milkbar, because they were THAT good. These rolls basically take the best of those bagel bombs, a super soft potato roll, and a pierogi, and combine them into one epically delicious tray of bread rolls.

For the rolls themselves, it has to start with the filling. I wanted to make a super cheesy potato filling using two kinds of cheese – parmesan for saltiness and mozzarella for flavor. If you ever wonder what causes pizza to have that stretchy cheese pull, it’s mozzarella. More specifically, the dried shredded stuff. The thing about using dried shredded mozzarella versus the fresh balls is that the dried shredded obviously contains less moisture. Less moisture means that the cheese can pull out any liquid from the potatoes in the filling, keeping the filling from boiling and/or exploding from inside of the rolls during the baking process. You don’t want the filling to explode for obvious reasons, but the moment the filling gets boiled, you end up with grainy, chalky mozzarella instead of stretchy-gooey, and that just ruins the interior of the dough. So the lesson here is use the shredded stuff, not the pretty balls that you should save for a salad. The filling it made with those cheese, cooked potatoes, and sour cream, and then it is frozen into little balls before being stuffed into the bread dough. This is done just to make the assembly process as neat as possible, as if you tried to stuff the unfrozen filling into the dough, you’ll end up with potato filling everywhere but inside of your bread rolls. Trust me, I learned that the hard way years and years ago. The scoop and freeze method was something we preached and practiced at Milkbar, and it is one I live and die on. What I love about this filling is that it manages to be gooey and stretchy from the cheese, while silky and melt-in-the-mouth from being made with so much potato and dairy. It is a lactose intolerant person’s worst nightmare, but I personally love it!

For the dough itself, there is a bit of a balancing act here, since we are used cooked and riced potatoes in conjunction with flour and yeast. What I like to do is do a larger batch of the riced potatoes, portion out about 8oz of it for the dough to cool down, and use the rest for my filling, just so that by the time the filling is prepped and going into the freezer, my potato mix for the dough is cooled down enough to be kneaded with the rest of my dough ingredients! Just make sure that the potato mixture is cooled down enough to the point where you can physically touch it without it feeling too hot. It can be lukewarm, but not burning hot. The thing about yeast is that it is highly temperature sensitive. Yeast thrives, which in turn creates fluffier bread, when kept between 75 to 110 degrees F. Adding burning hot potato mixture into your yeast dough will result in a dough that will not rise, and you will have rubbery, dense rolls instead of pillowy soft ones. Which is to say, in layman’s terms, hot riced potatoes are bad, room temperature to lukewarm riced potatoes are ideal, and cold riced potatoes can work too. I feel like I could talk for actual AGES about yeast, so I will switch to the dough itself. Yes the dough uses yeast and room temperature riced potatoes, but the trick here is kneading a dough that uses potatoes. You want the dough to develop a lot of gluten, which adds structure to the dough. Since these are bread rolls, but potatoes lack that gluten, using bread flour, which has high gluten, helps to offset that. Another way to develop gluten into your dough is kneading the heck out of it. You want the dough to be stretchy and elastic, just so that it holds that delicious potato filling snugly and tightly. For the topping, I went with onions, scallions, and bacon, just to give it more of a similar feeling to a pierogi, and kind of like a baked potato as well. All in all, these are really savory bread rolls that are meant to be enjoyed as a side with some kind of roasted protein, since these are bread and mashed potatoes, all in one!

For the cheesy potato filling:
2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

In heavily salted water, boil the russet potatoes until they are fork tender. Drain the potatoes from the water and rice them. Reserve 8oz of the riced potatoes for your bread dough. With the remaining potatoes, mix with the sour cream, parmesan cheese, salt, and mozzarella. Scoop the potato filling into 2 tbsp-sized balls and freeze solid, at least 4 hours.

For the dough:
1 packet active-dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 tbsp granulated sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
8oz riced potatoes, at room temperature
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp canola oil

In a bowl, mix together the yeast, water, and sugar and allow that to sit in a warm place for 10 minutes. Mix into that the other ingredients and knead them together until a smooth, elastic dough forms. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover the top with cling wrap. Let the dough sit at room temperature for 1 hour, before refrigerating for another 2 hours. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces.

For assembly:
1 shallot, peeled and sliced thinly
1 green onion, minced
6 strips bacon, julienned and fat rendered
1 egg

Line a quarter baking pan with cooking spray. Place each ball of frozen filling into each piece of dough and gently wrap the dough around the filling, pinching and closing any seams to make sure that the dough is completely enrobing the filling. Place each dough ball into the quarter sheet. Brush the top of the dough with beaten egg, and sprinkle on top of that the green onion, shallot, and bacon. Bake at 375 degrees F for 40 minutes.