As a recipe developer, it’s not often that I make other peoples recipes, and when I do, it’s often ones that have been in my family for years. I usually find myself cooking my mom’s dishes around the High Holidays – there’s just something about the Days of Awe that makes me want to connect to my roots, and how more so than with food.
Mom’s potato knishes are a staple at every holiday meal, and it has always been my favorite, because, well… potatoes. It’s probably the only time you’ll see me using margarine – EVER – because coconut oil just doesn’t fly here and to keep the knishes pareve, I’ve got no other choice. Plus, puff pastry is basically 80% margarine anyway, so what’s a little more, amiright?
What I love about this recipe is that the filling makes enough to fill 3 whole rolls and they freeze great! And since they’re frozen unbaked, they taste like you just made them when you bake them up before serving. = a perfect recipe for long holidays like Succos coming up! If you have a custom to eat stuffed foods for the Harvest Holiday, I’ve got you covered there too!
Mom’s Potato Knishes
8 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
3 medium onions, sliced into half moons
3 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 stick trans-fat-free margarine
salt and pepper, to taste
3 sheets puff pastry, thawed
1 egg + 1 tbsp water, for egg wash
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds
Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Add the potatoes to a pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain well.
While the potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the sliced onions and saute until deeply browned and caramelized.
Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until no lumps remain. Add margarine, onions, salt and pepper. Once the mixture is cool, add in the eggs and stir until creamy.
Unfold the puff pastry onto a sheet of parchment paper and roll it out to form a large rectangle. Spread the potato mixture over it and starting from the longer side, roll up the pastry like a jelly roll with the seam on the bottom. Lift the parchment paper and place the roll on a baking sheet. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cut slits into the pastry and bake until puffed and golden brown.
Repeat with remaining puff pastry and potatoes.
NOTE: This recipe can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate before baking. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds before baking. Alternatively, you can freeze the roll before baking, brush with egg wash and sesame seeds and bake frozen.
VARIATION: You can also try this with sauteed cabbage to make cabbage knishes or sauteed mushroom and onions.
Related Recipes:
cabbage bourekas
deli roll
spanakopita bourekas
salmon en croute with creamed leeks
RE: Mom’s Potato Knishes
If I made these and froze then, how long do you bake and at what temperature do you bake the frozen Knishes?
Thank you
Hi, you can bake them at 375 until they’re puffed and golden.
This looks delicious. I would love to make it for Yom tov! Can I bother you with a couple of questions? Do you cut the slits all the way through until the bottom layer or just the top layer? Does the puff pastry inside get fully baked? I hate raw puff pastry that you often find inside deli roll.
Hi Adina, I don’t cut all the way through, I just make a slit, not deep at all. The puff pastry inside kind of melts into the potatoes if that makes sense. You don’t really see those layers anymore but you also don’t taste raw dough. It’s basically one big mush in a very delicious kind of way!
Does this make 3 knishes? I noticed it says 3 puff pastry sheets
Yes, it makes 3 rolls.
How long is puffed and golden take?
About 25 minutes.
the original moms knishes came out of Borough Park section in Brooklyn, they are called Piroshki & are made with a yeast dough not Phylo or strudel type dough. the original knish (MOMs was sold by Ruby the knish man from a small metal pushcart that had a charcoal or wood oven to keep the knishes hot . during the winter ruby sold hot sweet potatoes out of the same cart at school yards in East New York & Brownsville.
Hi, Chanie, this looks good, but 2 factors require clarification:
(1) When Sarah asked “3 knishes?” you answered “yes – 3 rolls”
What i think you really meant, is that 3 rolls make about THIRTY knishes
Correct if this is wrong.
(2) Pastry Sheets come by the ounces
So when you state Three Sheets
…do you mean Three 15-oz. sheets?
……or do you mean Three 20-oz. sheets?
………..or what?
Hi Judy, this recipe makes a large amount of knishes – 3 puff pastry rolls which, when sliced, is about 24 knishes (I would say a roll yields 8 knishes).
The puff pastry sheets that I use come 2 to a box at 17.3oz for both, so that’s 3 8.65oz. sheets.
I hope this clarifies!
Chanie, did you see my previously posted Q (i.e. i asked how many ounces is each pastry sheet)?
Also, regarding your Zucchini Mechshi. I suggest you look up the Newness Veggie Corer on Amazon. As well, research the Newness Apple Corer (or Oxo Apple Corer).
They can all aid toward coring Mechshi.
Thank you, yes I have it!
Ruby the Knishman ©
Gary Shulman, MS. Ed.
June 17, 2021
Oh how I do wish
For a Ruby’s knish
Be it Kasha or tater
No one did it any greater
Hot knishes he’d serve
With finesse, class and verve
Blackened fingernails added flavor
We indulged and we did savor
The wonderful, sumptuous and elegant taste
Not a single crumb ever went to waste
That was indeed a wonderful time
When Ruby’s knishes were better than wine
Now we think back on those glorious days
How we relished those treats,
Enjoyed by us all in so many ways
Days of knishes so fine and so grand
And how cherished Ruby’s knishes were
In dear sweet Canarsie-land
love it!