Potato flour is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 5 recipes to get you started.

What is potato flour?

Potato flour is made from whole cooked potatoes, dried and ground whole, skin and flesh together, into a pale, heavy powder. Unlike potato starch, which is the pure starch washed out of the potato, potato flour keeps the whole vegetable, so it actually tastes like potato.

That potato flavor and its thirst for water are what define it. It is dense, soaks up a lot of moisture, and adds a soft, slightly chewy texture to whatever it goes into.

It belongs with the specialty flours rather than the wheat ones on the flour hub.

How to Use It

Potato flour earns its place in breads. A few tablespoons added to a wheat dough hold moisture and keep loaves and rolls soft for days longer, which is why it turns up in bakery sandwich bread and soft rolls.

It also works as a binder. Stirred into potato dumplings or fritter batters, it grabs liquid and holds everything together, as in A Better Potato Kugel and the steamed dumplings in Chicken Drumstick in Chanterelle Sauce with steamed Potato Dumplings.

Use a light hand. Because it drinks so much liquid, even a small amount stiffens a dough fast, so it is almost always a minor partner to other flours rather than the main one.

Pairing and Mistakes

It pairs naturally with wheat flour in yeast baking, and with eggs and grated potato in savory cakes and dumplings. A little also softens dense almond bakes like Kransekake.

The biggest mistake is swapping it for potato starch. They are not interchangeable. Potato starch is a flavorless thickener; potato flour is heavy and tastes of potato, so using one for the other wrecks both texture and flavor.

The second mistake is overdoing it, which leaves baked goods gummy and damp in the middle.

Substitutes

There is no exact swap, but for the moisture and softness it brings to bread, a small amount of mashed potato or instant potato flakes comes closest.

For binding in dumplings or fritters, all-purpose flour works, though you lose the potato character and may need a touch more.

Do not substitute potato starch or cornstarch. Those are pure starches with no potato flavor and far more thickening power, so they behave nothing alike.

Buying and Storing

Potato flour is sold in the baking or gluten-free aisle as a fine, cream-colored powder noticeably heavier than starch. Check the label, since some brands blur the line with potato starch.

Because it comes from the whole potato, it is not quite as shelf-stable as pure starch. Keep it sealed in a cool, dry cupboard and it holds well for a year or so. The fridge or freezer stretches that further.

Quick facts

In Chinese

土豆粉

British (UK) term

Potato flour

en français

la farine de pomme de terre

en español

harina de papa

Recipes using potato flour

There are 5 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 5 recipes