Rolling in dough: potatoes

These rolls were loverly! I must admit I didn't think much of it at first (they didn't look very promising or particularly beautiful) and the slightly wetter dough made it hard to shape rolls with the right surface tension, I was afraid of gummy crumb-ness. Not to worry, the crumb turned out great and there was a nice earthy flavour. That's something else...what is it exactly that a small amount of potato does in a bread? How would this particular dough without the potato turn out? Maybe that will be the next: try the same dough side by side, one with and one without potato. Anyway...this was a nice one!

Baked-Potato bread rolls

"Old dough"

180 gr bread flour
120 gr water
pinch instant yeast

Knead for a couple of minutes in your stand mixer, this will get you an soft elastic, quite wet dough. Cover and leave overnight on the counter. (I left it for 16 hours in a rather cool kitchen).

Dough
old dough +

350 bread flour
150 gr whole-wheat flour
260 gr water
1.1/2 ts salt
1 ts instant yeast
120 gr oven baked potato (skin on, pierced, micro wave for 3 minutes either side)

In the bowl of your stand mixer combine chunks of potato, old dough (tear in chunks) and the rest of the ingredients for the dough and knead for 10 minutes. I kneaded only 5 minutes and emptied the bowl on my counter to slap and fold as Richard Bertinet shows in his book: Bread. (more on this later).

Leave to a first rise until doubled in bulk. This will take 1 to 1.1/2 hour.

Tip dough out of the bowl onto your work surface and divide into equal pieces. I like to make smaller rolls (crust people! crust!) and weigh my pieces at about 60 grams. Shape into balls, I like to do that with a cupped hand, making circular movements while exerting some pressure against a bare worksurface, thus creating tension. This will result in a little belly button on the underside of your rolls. Or... stretch and push from the top down and pinch like shown in the picture.

Cover and proof, seam side down for another hour - hour and a half. Dust with rye flour and slash using a sharp knife or a pair of scissors to cut little snips as I did in the top photo.

Bake in preheated oven (200C) for 15-20 minutes for the smaller rolls.

Result is a slightly chewy roll, with a nice thin crust and full of flavour, perfect for dipping soup or tzatziki!

(Based again on Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman)