BrokeAss Gourmet

BrokeAss Gourmet

Cheddar-Thyme Potato Knishes

  • Prep Time 0:45
  • Cook Time 0:18
  • Estimated Cost $8.00
  • 73 Comments

If ever there were a group that had BrokeAss cooking down pat, it was the bubbes of Eastern European shtetls. With little money, but a plentitude of creativity (not to mention potatoes), these resourceful cooks whipped up amazing comfort food that is still enjoyed today.

I was first introduced to knishes at Zaftig’s, where my friend Ryan and I would nurse hangovers on weekend mornings during college. These puffy, flaky knishes have all the healing power of chicken noodle soup—they make you feel warm and loved.

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten, divided $1.50 for 6
  • 1 tsp salt, divided Pantry
  • 1 tsp baking powder Pantry
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil Pantry
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling and dusting Pantry
  • 2 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and diced with peel intact $1
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter $1 for a stick
  • 1 small onion, diced $0.50
  • 1/2 tsp fresh thyme (about 2 twigs) $1
  • 1/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese $3 for 12 oz.
  • freshly ground black pepper Pantry

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly dust a baking sheet with flour and set aside.
  2. Combine 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, baking powder, vegetable oil and flour in a mixing bowl. Stir together until a soft dough forms. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead 8-10 times, until dough becomes slightly elastic. Cover dough and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes.
  3. While dough rests, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add diced potatoes and cook until very soft, 12-15 minutes. While potatoes cook, heat butter in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and thyme and cook for 5-6 minutes until onions are lightly browned and very fragrant. Remove from heat and scrape into a mixing bowl. Once potatoes have cooked, drain them and add them to the bowl with the onions and thyme. Add cheese and mash with a fork or potato masher until potatoes have very few lumps. Add remaining 1/2 tsp salt and fresh ground pepper to taste and set aside.
  4. Once dough has finished resting turn it out onto a floured surface. Knead a few times and form dough into a cylinder, about 8" long. Cut dough into 8 equal pieces. Use a rolling pin to roll each piece into a 4-5" circle. Scoop 3-4 tbsp of the potato mixture into the center of each circle and pinch the ends together, so it looks like a little bundle.
  5. Beat remaining egg together with 1 tbsp water. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the tops of the knishes with the egg wash.
  6. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until knishes are golden brown.
  7. Serve hot, with sour cream if desired.

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What They're Saying

Laura G, on Dec 9, 12:05 PM, wrote:

OH DAYUM, MS. GABI! These are the PERFECT morsels for cold snap we’ve been having— not to mention that Zaftig’s is a long lost love of mine— I recommend the chicken soup w/ matzoh balls :)

barney mcwhat, on Dec 10, 09:37 PM, wrote:

looks well tasty, gonna try that some point. got some dough left over from making dumplings.
to turn this into chinese dumplings (Ha Gow, i think they’re called), make the dough as described up to the end of the first paragraph.
when the dough is rested, instead of a potato mixture filling, add a mixture of prawn/shrimp, spring onion, and soy sauce (marinade together for a while beforehand). steam instead of bake, for about a half hour.

Chad, on Dec 11, 05:22 PM, wrote:

I’d make these just so I could tell people I was making knishes. I just like saying the word. :-)

Bianca @ south bay rants n raves, on Dec 11, 05:37 PM, wrote:

Looks delish. I’ll try to make them since I never had a knish the entire time I lived in NY & can’t find them out here!

GFYM, on Dec 13, 03:40 AM, wrote:

You talk funny words

Elaine McCool, on Dec 13, 10:53 AM, wrote:

Found this page through Stumbleupon and really like the name of your blog. Recipes look pretty interesting too, so I’ve bookmarked it.

ELBSeattle, on Dec 14, 10:34 PM, wrote:

Great looking recipe. Isn’t there a way to put a ‘print this recipe’ on your blog? It didn’t take much to copy the text into a Word document, but having the ‘print this’ feature is super handy.
I’m making this tomorrow. I have everything I need in my kitchen already. Thanks!

Free Wallpapers, on Dec 14, 11:54 PM, wrote:

lovely, it looks so good. i hope it taste the same

AC, on Dec 15, 06:27 AM, wrote:

These were very tasty, but the dough never got elastic. I think you might mean two Tbsp. of vegetable oil instead of two tsp.

Peggy, on Dec 16, 03:30 PM, wrote:

these sounds great!

lyndon, on Dec 16, 05:25 PM, wrote:

What a tasty food i hope i can taste it sooner. Thanks for this great article

Brian, on Dec 17, 07:22 AM, wrote:

These look absolutely delicous. What an awesome side dish too – can’t wait to impress the guests. Thanks!

Salena, on Dec 17, 01:00 PM, wrote:

I used to buy these from a deli in Queenstown, New Zealand. The baker there put a slice of ham, sundried tomato relish and a layer of grated cheese as well as the mashed potato in hers, they were amazing!! I’ve made my own before and they freeze really well. Cool website!

Susan Jones, on Dec 17, 06:52 PM, wrote:

I have always wondered what a knish was; now i look forward to trying one.
Thanks for this interesting site.
sj

Audrey Kirchner, on Dec 18, 06:23 AM, wrote:

Looks maaavaaalous….must try this – thanks for the recipe – Audrey

Laurie, on Dec 18, 07:05 AM, wrote:

Found you through Stumbleupon; love the concept, I love good food, but I am broke, and cheap!

Wild Rice, on Dec 18, 07:43 AM, wrote:

Wow….these look scrumptious…..I’m going to make some tonight and look like a genius! Awesome!

Soheyla, on Dec 18, 12:02 PM, wrote:

YUMS! I just MUST make this tonight.

Thanks so much!

Ryan, on Dec 18, 12:48 PM, wrote:

very good….I think I will play around with the filling. maybe sweet potatoes with cinnamin and cumin?

Asterope, on Dec 18, 09:28 PM, wrote:

These look delicious and would probably taste just a good cold!! Im glad i found this – i may try some variations!

Foodie, on Dec 19, 04:41 AM, wrote:

I love zaftigs. This is my video review

Saw this on stumbleupon. Added to my RSS!

lubos, on Dec 19, 09:51 AM, wrote:

speaking of cheap eastern-european food, I cooked up chicken paprikash with slovak potato dumplings about a month ago. The whole meal cost me under 12 bucks and I ended up with enough food for 6 hearty plates. Not a bad deal…

Great site, by the way!

weekly sponsorship, on Dec 21, 08:50 AM, wrote:

I will do tonight this warm and loving experiment to see if this is true. And if it is i will come back and tell all the details. Now, cooking time…

anne, on Dec 21, 09:42 AM, wrote:

very nice, I would like it on my page.
Thank you

Bill, on Dec 21, 07:38 PM, wrote:

Now these look freakin’ tasty. I remember going to this little deli when I was a kid with my big bro Ben. I’ll try these out and let you know.

Nancy Bea, on Dec 22, 07:08 AM, wrote:

Fantastic! I will try this recipe…seems clear and easy enough. Thanks!

Bargain Loving Mom, on Dec 22, 03:20 PM, wrote:

Just stumbled upon you & think this dish looks yummy!

Paul Kotta, on Dec 23, 12:21 PM, wrote:

Wow, these sound absolutely scrumptious! I can’t wait to make them. I have forwarded this on to some friends. I would have forwarded it on to even more people (including my Mameh) but hesitated because of the vibrator ad on the side.

Carole Terwilliger Meyers, on Dec 23, 01:42 PM, wrote:

Or save yourself some time and mess and just order some up at Yonah Schimmel’s on the Lower East Side of NYC.
http://travelswithcarole.blogspot.com/2009/11/good-eats-yonah-schimmel-nyc.html

Carrie, on Dec 23, 01:57 PM, wrote:

these sound delicious. i think i might make them for dinner tonight

Melinda Winner, on Dec 24, 02:56 AM, wrote:

I LOVE the name of your web site ! great recipes and wonderful concept in today’s times of being broke. GREAT JOB ! I will be following this blog .

admin, on Dec 25, 01:25 PM, wrote:

easy to follow. thanks

JIMMY, on Dec 26, 02:38 PM, wrote:

Thanks for posting! They look amazing! Also, fairly easy to make, I will give them a try for sure!

Travis, on Dec 26, 06:25 PM, wrote:

Those look delicious… unfortunately my cooking skills are a bit “unreliable”…

That being said, i think this is still within my range!

sandra, on Dec 27, 02:46 AM, wrote:

I left my boyfriend in charge of prep for the xmas dinner. He made some dough but of course as usual he couldn’t get it to rise. Happy Xmas Lol

Coffee Lovers, on Dec 27, 04:49 AM, wrote:

I can’t wait to try this! It looks beautiful, sounds simple and delicious! What a perfect combination!

thanks for sharing with us! I literally stumbled upon this article!

vslm, on Dec 28, 11:50 AM, wrote:

excellent recipes

Marianne, on Dec 29, 07:35 AM, wrote:

WOW- what a wonderful sounding dish, my mouth is drooling…. I can hardly wait to make these. I have everything on hand to make these, I am missing the onion. Well I can add that the next time. Thanks for the fantastic recipe. Oh and before I forget I found you on StumbleUpon.

GRILLirous, on Dec 29, 02:08 PM, wrote:

These are some awesome looking recipes. Keep up the great work. Now, I’m hungry!

FoodTravelDiva, on Dec 29, 05:11 PM, wrote:

I love it, love it, love it! I’m so making these! Thanks for sharing!

shiv kumar, on Dec 30, 01:36 AM, wrote:

Great Work !!!!!

Mary, on Dec 30, 08:22 PM, wrote:

How can I save this recipe to my computer

Presley, on Dec 31, 03:56 PM, wrote:

These look so good! I’ll have to try them. I didn’t even really know what knishes were! It’s kind of amazing what can be done with potatoes…

Brian, on Jan 2, 11:17 AM, wrote:

Shouldn’t there be some water added to form the dough?

[Nope...oil and eggs were liquid enough for me. Thanks for reading BG!--G]

Melly Bug, on Jan 7, 09:04 PM, wrote:

Love it!! I added lots of extra cheese to mine… I will definitely be trying some more of your recipes!

Found you on StumbleUpon.

daniela, on Jan 13, 06:53 AM, wrote:

Did`em ! They were delicious !!!

Jet, on Jan 29, 05:12 AM, wrote:

I had the same issue as AC… The dough was crumbly (not elastic) no matter how much I kneaded, and I had a difficult time folding it together without cracking. I even used 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Any ideas on what I could adjust next time?

Otherwise, they tasted delicious! Thanks for the recipe!

Cheezy, on Feb 2, 03:38 PM, wrote:

My dough was a bit crumbly so I rinsed my hands before the second round of kneading and that elasticized the dough enough to work. My pinching technique needs help, but these knishes are SO YUM.

EdaBy, on Feb 6, 06:30 AM, wrote:

Beautifully and apparently tasty. Thank you.

PJ, on Feb 24, 09:54 PM, wrote:

These sound yummy! I’ll add this recipe to my comfort foods section of my recipe book.

welsh cakes, on Feb 25, 07:46 AM, wrote:

These look delicious. cant wait to try them

Marissa, on Feb 25, 12:37 PM, wrote:

I made these the other night and they were very tasty. I like mine extra onion-y, so i added a LARGE onion instead of a small one. ?Totally worth the buttery-onion goodness. Thanks for posting this recipe. Love this site.

Devon, on Feb 27, 11:15 AM, wrote:

Gabi I love this recipe! I have made it many times and I even blogged about it. I find that doubling the dough part of the recipe works better for me. I also added spicy ground turkey to the filling and it was quite good. Thanks a lot.

remotepc support, on Mar 15, 06:55 AM, wrote:

Keep up the good work…

Erin, on Apr 19, 11:07 AM, wrote:

Zaftigs is one of my all time favorite places to eat. I can’t set foot in Boston without having a plate of their latkes with lox. Great looking knishes!

AJ, on Apr 19, 07:49 PM, wrote:

Made these with a few changes according to my pantry: sweet potato (I think you call them yams), parmesan and washed red rind cheese (I’m a cheese fetishist), and sage and rosemary because I didn’t have any thyme. So delicious I could die. My new favourite cooking site.

Nuni, on Jun 1, 03:44 PM, wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsm-ZaQiMLs

I-pad the song!

Debbie, on Jun 8, 06:10 PM, wrote:

Loved it! Make sure you use large eggs if not you may need to add a third to the dough. There are so many things you could do with this recipe! Next time I am going to add some broccoli and a little extra cheese. Delicious!

J-Sav, on Jul 7, 04:48 PM, wrote:

so I tried the recipe, and it made 300x more filling than dough. The dough wasn’t elastic at all… regardless, the filling makes probably the best mashed potatoes I have ever had!

yasa, on Jul 11, 04:30 AM, wrote:

I like it!!!

I SO HUNGRY, on Jul 18, 12:35 AM, wrote:

This look very tasty…i have to try this one out. Thank you for sharing..

Len, on Sep 17, 11:01 AM, wrote:

Basically Perogies. With a variation on the filling.

auntiejane, on Sep 18, 09:16 AM, wrote:

They look delicious and will defiantly make these.

Breeze, on Sep 18, 09:45 AM, wrote:

thanks!!!!!!!!THE BEST IDEA EVER! Love ‘em :):)

I made these with a twist to the stuffing..I cooked diced peeled potatoes in a frying pan with spices, some diced salami and extra virgin olive oil (and obviously water) until the potatoes were very soft, and then I didn’t smash them. This gave some texture to the knishes… delicious!
try it :)
xxx

Government refinance programs, on Dec 22, 03:55 PM, wrote:

This is a fantastic recipe. I tried it over the weekend and it turned out perfectly – with any recipe like this though, I am always careful to make sure not to overcook. My oven is a bit on the older side and that can lead me to problems if I don’t keep an eye on things!

Soupiton aka The Souper, on May 14, 07:12 AM, wrote:

Photo caught my eye and recipe leaves me wanting one now! Definitely a must try.

Amber, on Mar 8, 09:01 PM, wrote:

I stumbled across this website, and I think you have an amazing idea. Thank you for creating great food at a decent, affordable price for people like me!

You’re awesome!

Drego, on Nov 9, 05:55 PM, wrote:

I followed this recipe exactly and it was OKAY. The mashed potatoes are amazing but the dough is “eh”. The dough was very bland and has a dry-biscuit texture so I made garlic butter (YUM). Next time I’ll use a different dough recipe and fry them =))

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