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Leftover mashed potatoes (or store bought) formed into patties and seasoned with salt and black garlic and flattened into pancakes. These easy mashed potato cakes are then fried in a skillet or on a griddle until browned and crispy on each side while still soft and savory on the inside.
A handful of times during my childhood, we had enough mashed potatoes left over to make potato cakes (or potato pancakes) the next Sunday for our big family breakfast we had once a week. They are so simple yet absolutely amazing. I’ve seen a number of recipes with lots of ingredients but my recipe only has 3 or 4 ingredients which is why I should probably call this the easiest mashed potato cakes, rather than easy mashed potato cakes, but I liked the way the latter sounded more.
When these are all done, we have a crispy outside and a warm, sumptuous interior.
Also, feel free to make these inside as we document with our patented picture by picture, step by step, foolproof cooking instructions on our sister site CookinFools.com with this indoor potato cake recipe.
No Need to Wait for a Special Occassion to Make This Potato Pancake Recipe
I will admit that maybe it was the fact that we just didn’t get them that often that make them so special to me. Although, now there’s no excuse to only have them once or twice a year. With four kids at home, we have the same issue with rarely having leftover mashed potatoes even if we make what seems like way too much.
But now my local grocery store carries premade mashed potatoes either in the prepared foods case or in mass produced containers like this:
Sure, it’s better with the leftover small batch mashed potatoes but these premade mashed taters work really well.
Easy Mashed Potato Cakes Ingredients
- 2 pounds of mashed potatoes
- Black garlic seasoning
- Salt to taste (optional)
- Bacon fat (substitute vegetable oil or wagyu beef tallow)
Recommended gear:
- Counter top pancake griddle
- Nitrile gloves
If using premade mashed potatoes, there is usually a good deal of liquid on top. Peel back the plastic and pour the liquid off.
Before we start making the potato pancakes recipe, bring a griddle or pan up to medium heat and use a little oil (or even better bacon fat or beef tallow).
Pro Tip ~ Do not add a lot of fat to the pan/griddle.
Too much hot liquid fat will make it take longer for the cakes to form a crust. The hardest part of cooking potato cakes is being patient long enough for the crust to form so they flip easily.
The vast majority of the time I cook these I do so inside on one of those rectangular counter top griddles. For this, I’m going to show pics from the time I cooked these on a cast iron griddle on top of my Santa Maria grill.
And I keep saying it, the older I get the more I realize that cast iron is just plain magical. So turn on the stove or counter top griddle to medium and go grab some nitrile gloves and let’s get to making some ‘tater cakes.
The gloves will save you a ton of time because this stuff gets sticky and it will be a lot less messy with the gloves.
Two pounds makes about eight mashed potato pancakes, so about 4 ounces per cake. Simply scoop some mashed potatoes out and form into a big patty like a thin hamburger.
Then, set them on the pre-heated, greased griddle:
That cast iron griddle is something I use all the time when I grill. If you want one, this is the exact model I have.
I’ve never used it for pizza but it does that too!
Now the salt is optional here, but these are a lot like French fries in that saltiness is definitely encouraged:
For a lot of folks, just adding the black garlic is enough as the Prime IV has a good amount of salt in it and is utterly fantastic.
Although, I like my mashed potato cakes extra salty so I do both salt and the Black Garlic:
Be Patient
Once the potato pancakes hit the griddle/frying pan, do not mess with them for a while. Don’t try to move them, rotate them or even flatten them. If I tried to flatten the ones above at this point, a bunch of the potato would simply stick to my hand or the pancake turner.
We can flatten them (and increase that crispy crust action) but not till later.
As I mentioned that the biggest issue here is crust forming so they can be flipped over easily.
Once we see the browning on the edges like in the above pic, we are close, but this is where we need to wait even longer.
Give it a couple more minutes as the outer edges brown pretty quickly. We still need it to brown in the middle which takes longer.
We can see in this pic with the turner underneath the potato cake that the brown edge is more pronounced:
Also, another key to know if the bottom has browned, without peeking because peeking and potentially tearing the potato pancakes, is to get the turner underneath it and see how easy it is to rotate say 90 degrees for more even cooking.
That’s not a very big deal on cast iron.
Although, it can be on a counter top griddle or a frying pan on the stove (where the outer edge can be cooler than the middle).
Be Careful When Flipping:
When flipping, do it quickly and keep the rotation tight. That last sentence will make sense after you do this once.
The best part of the potato cake is the crispy crust.
Sort of like how the best part of the french fry is not the flaky potato inside the fry. It’s that golden brown outside.
Same here. So if you want to flatten these out a little with the turner do so now.
One thing you will want to do here is hit it with more seasoning.
Remember, the salt is sooooo good on these:
Also, if the griddle/frying pan is looking a little dry, drizzle a little more oil or a dab little bacon fat or beef tallow in between the cakes.
Tilt the griddle so the fat goes all the way around the cakes.
Just like before, we have to wait till we see the crispy brown edges and then wait another couple of minutes.
THEN flip them:
These sides of the easy mashed potato cakes are looking even better than the other side!
Remember about flipping with a tight turn and quickly?
Well if you don’t, and it takes some practice, this could happen:
Yep, that one on the right slid off the turner and landed on the side and fold down on itself.
That’s OK. Flatten it a little and leave it there for a couple minutes.
The crust will form again and it will be just fine:
Part of this balanced breakfast
When I was a kid, every bowl of sugary, poisonous deliciousness was paired with all these other breakfast items to make it into something remotely healthy. Time to make these easy mashed potato cakes into “part of this well balanced breakfast:”
And don’t ever buy these eggs with the super dark orange yolks. Not that they are bad.
They are soooo good.
The problem is they will ruin those bland white eggs. Ignorance is bliss:
And yes, it hurts my soul too that I broke those yolks!
More of that Prime IV black garlic.
Easy Mashed Potato Cakes Recap
Salty, crispy, and at the same time warm and soft. It’s such an amazing mouthfeel. I like to stack sunny side up eggs on top of the mashed potato cakes. Then cut the potato pancakes and eggs all up so the yolk spills all into the mashed potatoes. As for the steak, well, it’s a well balanced meal – protein, carbs, protein! Like a protein barbell with a carb handle in the middle.
If you have any questions or comments about these Easy Mashed Potato Cakes, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.
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Recipe Card:
Easy Mashed Potato Cakes
Equipment
- 1 Counter top griddle
- Nitrile gloves
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Mashed potatoes Leftover or premade mashed potatoes both work
- Black garlic seasoning Substitute salt, pepper, garlic
- Salt to taste
- Bacon fat Substitute vegetable oil or wagyu beef tallow
Instructions
- Set the stove or griddle to medium heat
- Drain off any liquid from the mashed potatoes
- Pat out four ounces of mashed potatoes and place the thin patties on the hot griddle and repeat until the griddle is full or you are out of potatoes
- Season with salt and black garlic
- Wait for the edges to turn brown and then wait another 2-3 minutes before rotating each potato cake with a turner about 90 degrees
- If they rotate easily, then they can be flipped
- Flip the cakes as they are ready
- Season with salt and black garlic after each one has been flipped
- Once they brown on both sides, remove from the griddle and serve, preferably next to a medium rare prime grade strip steak and some sunny side up eggs
Video
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2 comments
MaryAnn
Great recipe and directions to cook
Can they be cooked in advance and reheated?
Scott Thomas
Sadly, no. The crust would just turn to mush.