Savoury Sourdough Potato Cakes

These savoury sourdough potato cakes are great as a snack, but will also work beautifully as a party nibble! They are still really tasty the next day – try them as a new addition to your lunchbox!

Makes approx. 30

Ingredients

Sourdough

• 350 ml milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 80 ml peanut (or vegetable) oil
• 500 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 20 g fresh yeast (can be frozen) or 1 teaspoon instant yeast (but fresh is always better!)

You will also need:

• 200 g potatoes, boiled with skin on
• 120 g butter – cold from the fridge
• 1 egg, beaten
• Salt
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds

Method

Making the sourdough

Warm 100 ml milk in a mug to approx. 37-40°C. Add 1 teaspoon sugar and 15 g flour and stir in the yeast. Leave in a warm place for 10-20 minutes to rise.

Combine the rest of the flour, milk, egg yolks, oil, and salt in a bowl, then add the risen mixture from step one. Knead well, until you obtain a smooth dough. Leave this in a warm place to rise for about 30 minutes. You make the dough manually or use a stand mixer or a bread maker.

Making the layers

While the dough is rising, peel the boiled potatoes and grate them coarsely.

On a flour-dusted surface, roll the dough flat with a rolling pin to 1 cm thickness. Spread the coarsely grated potatoes evenly over the rolled out dough and sprinkle with salt and coarsely grated butter – make sure the butter is evenly spread over the potatoes.

Fold the dough in half, so that the grated potatoes and butter are enclosed inside and press the edges of the dough lightly together, so that the potato and butter filling doesn’t come out.

Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave to rise for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, roll the dough out slightly and fold in half again. Cover with kitchen towel and leave to rise for another 20 minutes. Repeat this step two more times, with 20 minutes of rising in between each time.

Making the cakes

Roll the dough flat again, and with a glass of approx. 5-6 cm in diameter, cut out circular shapes, all approx. 1 cm thick. Place them on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, cover them with a kitchen towel and leave to rise for 15 minutes.

Gloss the tops of the cakes with the beaten egg and sprinkle with salt and caraway seeds (alternatively, you can use grated Parmesan cheese or poppy seeds).

Baking

Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C (180° fan/400°F/gas mark 6) for approx. 30-35 minutes until golden brown. If you’ve done the folding right, your cakes will rise and layers will become apparent at the sides (picture). Leave to cool down before serving.

Enjoy!