Sunday, February 22, 2009

Potato bread for Bread Baking Day no. 17

This month's Bread Baking Day is coming to us through Lien over at Lien's Notes (Notitie van Lien). She is our charming hostess this month and chose potatoes to be the star of the show.

My first potato-bread acquaintance must have been in one of the first books I bought, Beth Hensperger using potato flakes in a bre
ad machine recipe and I remember thinking: huh, she means the dried stuff you add water to? Bought some, tried some, wasn't entirely convinced (besides that it's a great way of saving too wet
 doughs by the way) and started using real potatoes, peeled, boiled, mashed.... and was sold!

Adding potatoes to bread -or even make a starter using potato water/mashed potato- is a great way of adding a certain "je ne sais quoi" to your bread. Somehow it makes for a fluffyness in the crumb, adding moisture to the crumb without turning it to clay, and yes, firmness too. 

My absolute favourite is still the Royal Crown Tortano, but the rolls compete for first place, the one I had to get used to but liked was the pizza, so many variations possible, roasted potato bread anyone? Or a Daring bread? For old times sake (pfff) I baked a bread with potato flakes again, or rather ... two different ones, both using a matured poolish.

Poolish ingredients:
1/4 tsp instant yeast
100 gr whole wheat
100 gr bread flour
150 gr lukewarm water

Combine and mix into a stodgy paste, cover and leave at room temperature for at least two hours. I kept it for longer than that on the counter but treated it as a starter, fed it in 8 hour intervals.

Recipe potato bread no.1:
180 gr. poolish
360 gr. water
400 gr. bread flour
100 gr. dark organic whole wheat
1.3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp instant yeast
5 tbs potato flakes

Very straight forward directions. Combine and mix on low speed using your dough hook. Switch to medium speed and knead for about 7-10 minutes. Dough cleans the bowl and will be slightly tacky. Halfway through first -bulk- rise, pull up the dough to stretch and fold over itself. Second shape-rise will take something like 45 minutes. Baked this in a loaf pan, 225C. 


Recipe potato bread no.2:
100 poolish (poolish refreshed 4 hours prior to baking with 100 gr water/100 gr flour)
350 gr. water
400 gr. bread flour
120 gr. dark whole wheat
80 gr. corn flour
100 gr. "matvete durum" (sprouted wheat berries from a can I brought from Sweden)
1 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp salt
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbs cracked flax seed
3 tbs potato flakes
Same mixing and rising method as the first dough. This one also cleans the bowl, but is definitely wetter than the other dough and is very sticky! I used the slapping method to get more definition and air, it needs only 2 minutes of pull and slap to turn into a nice -still sticky- but firm and elastic dough ball. Same directions for rising, I tried to shape a couronne.
We really liked the second recipe, especially with aged cheese, cold cuts slathered with a nice mustard, pesto and it even paired nicely with jam. Little warning though; needs some toasting the next day, gets stale very quickly!

16 comments:

  1. Beautiful bread! I've always loved potato bread (both making and eating) and this recipe looks like a great one to try!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This potato bread looks really lovely!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah, this bread makes me wishing to take a bite! Just a pity that we can only look; I reckon it smells wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is a wonder what the simple potato can do to bread.
    Yeah I'd like that slice with the peanut butter please.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Two loaves! They look great!
    I love the rustic look of the couronne and the sandwich-readiness of the loaf.
    Interesting idea to use the flakes, I haven't seen that before.

    ReplyDelete
  6. hi, your blog is amazing, I like it...
    I will come back to visit you
    A kiss

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dat brood ziet er werkelijk zo lekker uit! Lekkere gaten en zo zacht... wow. Wat grappig dat ze die gespruite korrels daar zo verkopen in Zweden.
    Bedankt dat je nog een aardappelbrood op de plank kreeg in deze drukke tijd... wat zeg ik twee broden!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  9. ja dat verwijderen was ik dus, ik heb je foto 'gejat' (ik deed gewoon weer eens wat fout!) voor de round-up, heb jij er verder geen omkijken naar....

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love your "je ne sais quoi" loaves, both!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great breads. And of course every food porn picture can be improved by adding a Douglas Adams book cover in the background. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wonderful bread! I just love potatoes they add so much to the taste. Yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I like the softness that potatoes add to bread. Always a nice fluffy texture. Thanks for sharing the recipes!

    ReplyDelete
  14. They both look absolutely delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  15. @Andreas: not sure if they would serve this in the restaurant at the end of the universe but I think they should haha!

    thanks all of you for your nice words!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I like both your breads, but would like to try the second. I enjoy baking with corn flour, sounds great! Both look yummy!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting! I really appreciate and enjoy reading all your comments! If you have any questions feel free to email me.