Old-Fashioned Potato Bread
I had not heard of potato bread until we moved to Iowa and tried a loaf from our local Amish bakery. It was incredibly fluffy and had a great compactness to the inside of the bread, making it ideal for sandwiches. I had to try to make some myself! Thus, my new favorite weekly loaf was born.
Potato bread is, in its most basic form, bread made with a mashed potato mixed in. This recipe also uses buttermilk, which gives it great flavor.
ingredients & recipe:
1.5 cups water
1 medium baking potato, peeled and cubed
1 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp salt
6 - 6 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp active dry yeast
DIRECTIONS:
In a small saucepan, combine the water and potato. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 12 minutes or until the potato is easily pierced with a fork. Mash the potato in the water and do not drain. If needed, add more water to create 1 3/4 cup potato liquid.
Add buttermilk, sugar, butter, and salt to the saucepan. Bring to 120 degrees F.
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer with a dough hook attachment, add 2 cups of flour and the yeast. Add the potato mixture and beat until combined. Slowly begin to incorporate the remaining flour until a firm, elastic dough forms. Knead until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of bowl.
Place in a greased bowl and cover until it doubles in size, about 45-60 minutes.
Punch down dough. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Divide into two equal pieces. Roll out to the size of a sheet of printer paper, about 9x12, and roll into the shapes of loaves. Pinch ends closed. Roll the tops in a bit of flour. Grease two 8x4x2 inch loaf pans. Place bread into pans, cover, and let rise until nearly double, about 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Bake loaves for 35-40 minutes or until hollow sounding when tapped. Allow to sit in the pans for 10 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack.
This bread has a wonderful fluffy texture! It also, as you can see, has hardly any holes and has a better structure to it than other homemade white breads. I can only imagine this is due to the starches within the potato. It can withstand a good brushing of butter or peanut butter! My dad said it was the closest thing I had ever made to commercial bread, which was a compliment to me. I’ve been looking for the perfect sandwich bread recipe for a while! Enjoy!
xoxo Kayla
