The Comforting Way To Transform Leftover Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes may technically be a side dish, but there's no denying they can steal the show when made just right. For Stanley Tucci, that happens when you incorporate egg yolks and olive oil, for Giada DeLaurentiis mascarpone is that secret ingredient, and Bobby Flay swears by adding in creme fraiche. On top of using these creamy mix-ins, there are plenty of other ways to improve upon the taste and texture of mashed potatoes, from using starchy rather than waxy potatoes, to salting the cooking water.

But no matter how perfectly smooth and delicious mashed potatoes are when they're freshly made, they're unfortunately never as good when you warm them up the next day. As Clean Green Simple Explains, it's almost impossible to enjoy day-old mashed potatoes because of their starch content. The starch in potatoes is called amylose, and when it gets reheated, it breaks down, turns to sugar, browns, and dries up. If moisture like water or cream is added, it can then become gluey. These aren't necessarily bad things, but they don't exactly lend themselves to the best quality mashed potatoes.

Leftover mashed potatoes can be tasty, but an arguably better way to enjoy them is in the form of bread. According to Bon Appétit, when combined with cheese, butter, buttermilk, and flour, mashed potatoes can turn into a batch of fluffy biscuits. Swap the baking powder for yeast, and you can also make potato-based dinner rolls.

Not only does adding flour give your mashed potatoes new life, it also produces breads with a much lighter, airier crumb, Southern Living reveals. As it turns out, the same potato starch that makes mashed potatoes so difficult to reheat also prevents flour from developing too much gluten, traps more moisture in the dough, and because of the potassium content, promotes a faster rise. The resulting bread is softer and fluffier than the kind made with 100% flour and also has a longer shelf life. 

Of course you could just as easily continue refrigerating and reheating your mashed potatoes until they run out, but it seems turning them into bread may be a tastier option.