i got some take out thai food the other day that came with complimentary dumplings. oh man, was i ever tortured by the concept of free dumplings, that i couldn’t eat. this has made me obsessed with the idea of making gluten free dough wrappers and skins and dumplings large and small.  some potatoes in the larder about to sprout, meant that i would start my quest with knishes.   for the dough, i converted a potato-wheat flour dough recipe using Cup4Cup, in place of the AP wheat flour.  there are lots of ways to make the dough for knishes, both with and without potatoes.  in the future, i hope to play with some other methods. next time, i plan to use chicken schmaltz and vinegar, in the dough, to make a more authentic and softer dough.

for this first attempt at gluten free knishes, i kept it simple and made a simple filling of potatoes and onions.

Potato Knishes

Potato filling:

Ingredients

6 russet potatoes ~1000g baked until tender.
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 small onion finely sliced and sautéed in 2 tablespoons butter until caramelized (I used about ½ cup Vidalia onion)
56g (¼ cup) melted unsalted butter

Method

Peel and mash the baked potatoes (remove 185g (1 cup) of the plain mashed potatoes and reserve for the dough), add the caramelized sliced onions along with the salt, pepper and garlic powder to the larger remaining portion of the mashed potatoes. Set aside.

Dough:

Ingredients

384g (3 cups) Cup4Cup gluten free flour blend
1 teaspoon baking powder
185g (~I cup mashed baked potato)
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup lukewarm water

Method

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder, then set aside. In a small bowl combine the potato, salt, beaten egg and vegetable oil. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten egg mixture and combine with fingers until you have a rough crumbly dough, make a well and add the warm water to the center and bring the dough together with a fork until well combined, then knead for about 8 minutes on a floured board or Silpat. When smooth, form the dough into a ball. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let the dough rest for 30 minutes at room temperature to relax and hydrate.

Assembly:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Divide the dough into 3 or 4 sections and replace the damp towel over the dough that you’re not working with. Generously flour your counter or Silpat and roll out your dough, into a rectangle, as thin as possible, without tearing the dough. To make my life easier, i used the pasta roller attachment on my Kitchenaid mixer patiently working the dough up to setting 4 (if you go any higher the dough will tear). When the dough is nice and thin, apply a long mound of filling to the center of the dough rectangle. And fold into a small packet as pictured above. I went pretty thin with my dough (thin enough that I could almost see my hand through it but thicker is fine (your baked crust will be softer inside.) Brush the filled knishes with an egg wash and bake for 25 minutes at 425 degrees. [if you really want to go nuts, you can spread a super thin layer of mustard on the thicker dough triangle before filling and sealing.]

You can also roll your potato filling into your dough rectangle, jellyroll style, cut the roll into sausage lengths, sealing the bottoms and leaving the tops open, egg wash and bake.