Potato Rolls recipe

There's nothing quite as satisfying as warm bread in the dead of winter. Today, we're sharing one of our favorite bread recipes from Gardening the Amana Way. Enjoy!

Potato Rolls
3 to 4 cups flour
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
3 tablespoons sugar
2 packages quick-rise yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups water (tap or reserved from cooking potatoes)
3 tablespoons butter

Combine two cups flour, mashed potatoes, sugar, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Heat water and butter to 130 degrees. Stir into yeast mix. Add enough flour to make soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rest ten minutes. Divide dough into sixteen pieces and shape into balls. Place into two greased 9-inch cake pans. Cover and let rise until doubled. Bake at 400 degrees for about twenty minutes. Can also be shaped into a bread loaf.

Gardening the Amana Way, by Lawrence L. Rettig

October 13, 1909—excerpt from BACHELOR BESS

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909–1919, contains the letters Bess wrote home to her family after she staked a homesteading claim in Fort Pierre, South Dakota.

October 13, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota

To: Mrs. M. M. Corey

     "Monday morning I awoke to find it growing colder every minute. By night it was awful cold and I was sick or almost . . . got my feet hot just before noon and wasn't prepared for the consequences-- got chilled coming home. . . .

     "Mrs Nielsen brought my boxes out Monday evening and I got into some warmer duds and got my blankets on my bed so after unpacking some I got a good warm nap and felt as good as new.

     "I had heard them tell how things froze in this [homesteader's] shack but didn't think much of it till I went to wash my face yesterday morning and found I was up against the 'cold hard facts' of the case. Froze up! well I should say! even the tank froze up and the Speer kids have been sliding on the dam."

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909–1919, edited by Philip L. Gerber