Yesterday, I prepared my favourite Polish dish, but not having potato flour, I substituted regular wheat flour in the dumplings. That was a mistake. My mom always told me that regular flour was unsuitable and ... yesterday, I found that out.

There were three problems with using wheat flour: (1) the dough never firmed up - it always remained sticky and was not possible to roll it out into a cylinder (so I formed dumplings by hand), (2) they tasted awful (like uncooked flour instead of potato), and (3) the texture was all wrong.

Today I tried other substitutes for potato flour: instant mashed potato powder and rice flour.

I figured the mashed potato mix would work best (after all, it is dehydrated potatoes). It worked reasonably well, the dough firmed up and could be rolled out. The taste and texture of the final product was fine too - pretty close to what it should be – but it wasn’t perfect. I suspect that’s because it’s just dried potatoes – both flour and starch.

I didn't expect much from the rice flour, but it surprised me. The dough firmed up fine (wasn't sticky), could be rolled out. The texture of the cooked product was fine, but the taste wasn't - tasted like bland rice (rather like the bun of a red bean bun).

In terms of colour and texture, the rice flour won hands down. In terms of taste, the instant potato mix won.

I am going to have to look harder for potato flour in Madrid.

Rice flour.

Mashed potato mix.

Rolled out potato / mashed potato mix.

Dumplings made with rice flour.

Dumplings made with mashed potato mix.