Pota­to Knishes

Once the knish was the king of the Low­er East Side. A fill­ing dish of ancient ori­gin among poor ukrain­ian Jews, the knish arrived on the Low­er East Side with the influx of immi­grants in the late 1800s. A knish offers afford­able and soul-warm­ing sus­te­nance in the form of mashed pota­toes and onions garbed in a gold­en dough. Great wars were fought over the knish — or at least, mod­est skir­mish­es across Riv­ing­ton Street — by oppos­ing knish-mon­gers. Like the bagel — and the Jew­ry of the Low­er East Side — even­tu­al­ly the knish went main­stream. Also like the bagel, many ver­sions abound­ed. The street cart knish is large and lead­en. The sta­di­um knish is larg­er still. Our ver­sion returns the knish to its more nat­ur­al pro­por­tions. These aren’t gut-bust­ing bricks of carbs, but rather ethe­re­al — Ok, semi-ethe­re­al — hand­held dumplings filled with an airy onion-pota­to mixture.

Makes 1 Dozen Knishes

For the Filling 

3 medi­um rus­set pota­toes (about 1½ pounds), peeled and cut into chunks

3 table­spoons veg­etable oil

1 large Span­ish onion, fine­ly chopped

2 tea­spoons onion powder

1 tea­spoon kosher salt, plus more as needed

For the Dough

2¼ cups all-pur­pose flour, plus more for rolling and shaping

½ cup veg­etable oil

¼ cup water, plus more as needed

1 large egg

½ tea­spoon bak­ing powder

1 tea­spoon kosher salt

½ tea­spoon white vinegar

Make the Filing

Bring a medi­um pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the pota­toes and cook, stir­ring occa­sion­al­ly, until ten­der, about 20 min­utes. Drain through a colan­der, then return the pota­toes to the pot and use a pota­to mash­er or stur­dy fork to mash until com­plete­ly smooth.

Mean­while, heat the oil in a medi­um saute pan set over medi­um-low heat. Add the onion and cook, stir­ring often, until soft and gold­en, 15 to 20 min­utes. Let cool.

Add the cooled onions to the mashed pota­toes along with the onion pow­der and salt, and stir to com­bine. Taste and add more salt, if needed.

Make the Dough

Use a ¼‑cup mea­sur­ing cup to form 12 por­tions of the mashed pota­to mix­ture and place on a large, parch­ment-lined bak­ing sheet. Cov­er with plas­tic wrap and refrig­er­ate for at least 2 hours, or up to overnight.

Com­bine the flour, oil, water, egg, bak­ing pow­der, salt, and vine­gar in the bowl of a stand mix­er fit­ted with the dough hook. Mix on low speed, scrap­ing down the sides of the bowl as nec­es­sary, to form a dough, 7 to 10 min­utes. The dough will feel rel­a­tive­ly oily at this stage. Cov­er the mix­er bowl and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

On a well-floured sur­face, using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into an ⅛‑inch-thick rec­tan­gle about 12 by 16 inches.

Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into twelve 4‑inch squares. (There will be excess dough. Dis­card it or save it for anoth­er use.)

To Assem­ble and Bake

Pre­heat the oven to 400°F and line a large bak­ing sheet with parch­ment paper.

For each knish, place one por­tion of the fill­ing in the cen­ter of a square. Fold two oppo­site cor­ners of the dough up and over the fill­ing, pinch­ing the cor­ners togeth­er to seal (use a lit­tle water to act as a glue, if need­ed). Repeat with the oppo­site two cor­ners to form a lit­tle par­cel, and place the knish on the lined bak­ing sheet.

Bake the knish­es, rotat­ing the bak­ing sheet back-to-front halfway through, until gold­en brown, 25 to 30 min­utes. Trans­fer the knish­es to a wire rack to cool. Serve slight­ly warm or at room temperature.

Store left­overs, well wrapped, in the freez­er for up to 6 months. Reheat briefly in an oven or toast­er oven.

Excerpt­ed RUSS & DAUGH­TERS: 100 Years of Appe­tiz­ing by Niki Russ Fed­er­man and Josh Russ Tup­per. Copy­right © 2025 by Niki Russ Fed­er­man and Josh Russ Tup­per. Reprint­ed with per­mis­sion from Flat­iron Books. All rights reserved. Pho­tog­ra­phy by Gen­tl & Hyers. Illus­tra­tions by Jason Polan, LLC.