{Adventures in Yeast} #7 - My First Kneaded Bread! Potato + 3 Wheat Flours

You can see a little piece of potato in the middle of the bread!

I couldn't be more excited about this bread if I made it myself. Wait - I did! This is my first honest-to-gosh bread that I made entirely by hand, stirring the dough with a wooden spoon and kneading it on the countertop! The first time I had to judge by the feel of the bread how much additional flour to knead in (about a cup).

And it turned out!!!

I've put a passel of sticky notes on the pages of my Fanny Farmer Baking Book. One recipe I marked was for "Potato-Broth Bread." It actually uses mashed potatoes in addition to the water that they are cooked in. According to the book,

"The starch in the mashed potatoes and potato water makes these loaves light, moist, and high."

This sounds like my kind of bread so I bookmarked the recipe.

As I was browsing through the yeasty-blogosphere this week I came across the announcement for this month's Bread Baking Day #17 - the theme is "Bread and Potatoes." I pushed the Fanny Farmer recipe to the top of my yeast list so I could participate. The theme's rules state that the bread must have potatoes; potato water alone isn't enough. I was glad that even though the cookbook calls this bread "Potato-Broth Bread" it does have actual potatoes.

Although the recipe is written for a white bread, I felt pretty sure that I could add some whole grain flour, so that's what I did. I also used instant yeast rather than active dry, and halved the recipe to bake one loaf rather than two. My adaptation of the recipe is below.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- The potatoes in my cupboard were getting a little sprouty and a little soft. I'd read that they would firm up when cooked, and, sure enough, they did revive as I began to boil them, getting downright crunchy in the hot water. Of course they then softened as they were cooked through.

- I probably should have added some liquid when mashing the potatoes, because they were a bit lumpy. Some potato lumps came through to the finished bread, but they were very soft so didn't mar the taste of the loaf.

- In mixing the dough, I used about half KA all purpose flour and about a third KA White Whole Wheat. The remainder was Wheat Montana red whole wheat flour that I ground at a local market. It is a coarse grind, and gives a nice rough texture to the bread.

- I used about a cup of additional all purpose flour as I kneaded the dough.

- A large pyrex loaf pan was perfect for this bread.

- The bread rose very high - about 4 1/2 inches tall at the center.

the verdict:

The potato made for a tender and moist bread - yet at the same time it was somewhat hearty because of the whole wheat flours. It was fantastic toasted. My husband, the toast aficionado, said this is the best bread I've baked to date.

Needless to say, I'll be making this one again! Next time I think I'll increase the percentage of the red whole wheat flour.

requisite buttered toast picture!

This month's Bread Baking Day is hosted by Lien of Lien's Notes/ Notitie van Lien. The roundup should be posted around March 3, so hop over to Lien's site and check out all the cool and creative potato-y breads. I'm also sending this to Susan at YeastSpotting, a weekly compilation of wonderful yeast creations.

I'll be out of internet range when the roundup is posted, so forgive me for not coming round and commenting on the various potato breads. I'll try to catch up the following week when I get near a computer!

Also, if any of you happen to be counting, I'm posting my yeast adventures out of order. I baked 4 new yeast recipes in a week's time, and am posting this one now in order to submit it to February's BBD.

the recipe:

Potato Bread with Three Wheat Flours
adapted from The Fanny Farmer Baking Book

yield: one 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf

1 1/2 cup warm potato water
1/2 cup warm or room temperature mashed potato
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 T butter, softened (3/4 oz)
1 T sugar
scant 1 tsp instant yeast
3 3/4 - 4 1/4 c. flour (I used 1 1/2 cups all purpose, 1 cup white whole wheat, 1/2 cup coarsely ground red whole wheat for the initial dough and 1 cup of all purpose kneaded into the dough)

1. Mix potato water, mashed potatoes, salt, butter, and sugar and beat to blend well.

2. Stir yeast into 3 cups of flour. Add this mixture to the potato mixture and beat vigorously.

3. Add enough flour to make a manageable dough; turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for a minute or so.

4. Let rest for 10 minutes.

5. Resume kneading, adding just enough additional flour to keep the dough from being too sticky to handle, until smooth and elastic. (this took about a cup of additional flour for me)

6. Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until double in bulk.

7. Punch the dough down, then shape into a loaf. Place in greased loaf pan, cover loosely, and let rise to the top of the pan.

8. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes. (I baked about 45 minutes, until an instant read thermometer registered 190 degrees)

9. Remove from pan and let cool on rack.