Crispy, golden latkes are one of the main joys of Hanukkah, but they don't come without their pain points. The first, of course, is the blush – oil is the point of Hanukkah, and so cooking latkes in a deep pool of oil is non-negotiable. For some people, that's a bad thing: frying can be messy and can make your house smell like fast food. Personally, I don't mind the smell of fried foods; In fact, I find the smell enticing, like an amuse-bouche—it sets my salivary glands alight. However, I'm less enthusiastic about a step that comes before frying: grating — and then squeezing — the potatoes.
Grilling is required, of course, and so is squeezing: Because there's a lot of water in the potatoes, your curls will splash into the oil and become soggy and soggy if you not squeeze it all out.
I've long accepted that this is how it should be if you like latkes. And that's good – the result is worth it. But when it comes to my colleague Sarah Jampel new recipe for Latke Focaccia – an airy, bubbly focaccia (thank you, bread flour) that is coated on both sides with crispy mashed potatoes – you can pass both grates AND squeezing (and, for that matter, frying!). It's all thanks to a special ingredient you don't often use in bread: frozen hash browns.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Sarah asked for frozen hash browns out of respect for everyone who bakes this bread. “I wanted to avoid asking people to chop a ton of potatoes!” she said. “Latke Focaccia requires 6 cups of potatoes, which will take a long time to grate. The frosted hash browns are so appropriate.”
Just like that, Sara eliminated one of the pain points of making latke (focaccia). But there was still the matter of all the moisture in those potatoes. A common way to extract that juice is to scoop up mashed potatoes in a clean towel, roll them up into a bunch, and squeeze them enthusiastically until they're dry. Sarah avoided that method—”it compromises the integrity of the individual pieces,” she says. (She cares!) So she went to the drawing board. First she tried cooking hashbrowns in a skillet. But that was time-consuming (you have to cook the potatoes in batches and then let them cool), and the hashbrowns were so overcooked that they practically disappeared into the bread.
Put it in the microwave. By sizzling the rising hash for a minute, the potatoes not only melt, but they also release a lot of their moisture as steam. A gentle rub with a clean towel finishes the job when they come out of the microwave. The dry and grated potatoes are ready to go: Two-thirds of them go to the bottom and sides of the pan; the rest is sprinkled on top of the focaccia dough. At the end of baking what comes out of the oven looks like a giant latke and tastes good too. And thanks to those hashbrowns, it took half the work (and a lot less oil).
More latkes and focaccia:
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
