Potatoes work wonders in bread. They make soft sandwich bread even softer, fluffy bread rolls even fluffier. It’s no surprise then that adding potatoes to bread is something many different cultures have done, in many different ways. There are countless variations of potato flatbreads in the UK alone: Scottish tattie scones, Irish potato farls, floddies, fadge and Gloucestershire potato cakes to name just a few. In Germany on the other hand, potatoes are mixed into yeasted loaves and rolls, which helps keep them soft and moist, while in Norway they’re made into sweet crepes and topped with butter and cinnamon.

Although some recipes use potato flour or even extracts (like ube extract), most potato breads start with cooked mashed potato. It’s easy to work into dough and a great way to use up leftovers. Albert Bartlett’s red roosters are perfect for making into fluffy mash, and are an excellent choice whether making mash specifically for potato bread or for enjoying with a meal. If you’re making a potato bead where the taste of the potato comes through very clearly, such as potato farls, Albert Bartlett’s Butter Golds are another great choice. They have a delicious buttery flavour that really shines through and gives potato breads an extra-delicious dimension.

No matter what sort of potato bread you crave, there’s probably one out there that fits the bill. Read on to learn about all the different potato breads around the world.

Potato lefse are a rich Norwegian flatbread made from butter, cream, flour and potatoes. Thin and delicate, they can be enjoyed with sweet toppings like jam and cinnamon or savoury toppings like lutefisk. Traditionally, potato lefse are rolled out with a ridged rolling pin, which gives the flatbreads a distinctive texture. They have become a popular food among Norwegian Americans – even more popular than they are in Norway, where potato lefse are just one variety of lefse enjoyed across the country.

Kartoffelbrot is a hearty, crusty yeasted bread from Germany. Often made with a mixture of white and wholewheat flour, this bread is the perfect accompaniment to warming soups or as the basis for ham sandwiches. It’s usually made with roughly equal amounts of potato and flour.

Potatoes are a well-known topping for focaccia and pizza, becoming delightfully crisp around the edges and soft and olive oil-soaked in the middle. However, what’s less common in Italy is actually baking potatoes into bread. In Liguria (home of focaccia and pesto Genovese) there are countless variations on focaccia, including a potato focaccia where the tuber is baked into the bread. Potatoes are also traditionally boiled and eaten mixed in with pesto and pasta in the region, so it seems like hidden potatoes are something of a Ligurian tradition.

Berches is a German-Jewish potato-based braided bread. Although similar to challah (and often described as ‘potato challah’) berches is enriched with oil rather than eggs. While harder to find in bakeries than Eastern European challah, berches is well-worth seeking out or making at home, and is a great bread for any special occasion. They are traditionally woven into intricate shapes, and scattered with poppy seeds.

Whatever you call them (potato cakes, floddies, fadge or tattie scones), these are delicious with breakfast on the side of some fried eggs or sausages. Like all things potato, they are also divine simply topped with copious amounts of butter. Homemade potato farls have quite a different texture from shop bought ones. They tend to be much softer and less doughy, as shop bought versions use potato flakes rather than fresh mashed potato.

This is a Māori sourdough bread (rēwena meaning ferment and pāraoa meaning bread or dough in Māori) made by fermenting potatoes with flour to make the starter. Like fry bread in North America, it’s a food that was invented out of necessity in the face of colonisation, and has since become an important part of Māori culture. Rēwena pāraoa can be made using a starter (or rēwena bug as it’s called by Māori people) made from raw or cooked potato.

Sometimes called Amish dinner rolls, these soft, fluffy rolls are very popular in North America, particularly as the base for burgers. It’s not clear what the exact origins of potato rolls are, but many believe that they have their roots in the Pennsylvania Dutch community and the leading manufacturer of potato rolls in America is still based there.