Mashed Potato Pancakes

Leftover mashed potatoes? I have the solution: mashed potato pancakes. My mother used to make these when I was a kid, and I did not like them at all. However, my mom and brother loved them. Sometimes I thought we had mashed potatoes for dinner so we could have potato pancakes for breakfast.
Now that my taste buds have grown up, I like them. I still prefer the traditional potato pancakes made out of grated raw potatoes.  Maintaining the pattern, my daughter loves traditional potato pancakes but does not like the ones made out of mashed potatoes. She will probably like them someday and try to feed them to her daughter.

Mashed Potato Pancakes
1 Tbsp Butter
Mashed Potatoes

1 Tbsp of butter in skillet

Form the mashed potatoes into patties.

Melt butter in non-stick skillet over medium heat.

Potato patties ready to be fried

Place mashed potato patties in skillet. Cook for approximately 5 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Golden brown potato pancakes

The potato pancakes are even better if your leftover mashed potatoes include cheese. The potatoes I used were leftover from a pirogi filling so they were mixed with cheese and caramelized onions. Yum!!

The bottom line: will we make these again? Yes, whenever we have leftover mashed potatoes we will make these.  However, I will not make mashed potatoes for dinner so I can have these for breakfast. If I have plain mashed potatoes, I will add cheese and either garlic or caramelized onions to the potatoes before making the potato patties.