Potato Bread

[jeff]

I came up with this recipe over the last few weeks. I wanted to use fresh potatoes but also wanted to keep it easy and less work for you guys so I went with dried potatoes (boxed mashed potatos)

2 tbs or 1 packet of yeast
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk
2 TBS butter
18oz bread flour
1 cup dried mashed potato flakes
2 TBS sugar
2 tsp salt
corn meal
1 tsp oil

Items needed for making this recipe

Stand mixer with dough hook
scale
cooking stone/pizza stone/terra cotta pot base.
pan with water
cooking thermometer
some sort of cookie sheet or pizza peel.

Start off by blooming the yeast. the way I did this was to put 1 cup water and 1/2 cup milk into a microwave safe bowl, place that in the microwave and heat till the temperature reaches between 100 and 110o
place the yeast into a small bowl, add half of the sugar (1 TBS) and 2 TBS of the now warmed water/milk mixture, let this sit till the yeast does it's thing and gets to be about double its original size. While you're waiting for the yeast to bloom, weigh out 18oz of bread flour, and place all of the dry ingredients including the other 1 TBS sugar in the mixing bowl. give them a quick hand mix and leave them for now. go back to the water/milk mixture and add 2 TBS of melted butter to it, pour this into the mixing bowl, then add the freshly bloomed yeast, mix everything by hand using the dough hook till it starts to come together, then let the mixer take over. let it mix on medium speed for a few minutes, then check it, see if too wet or too dry, there shouldn't be any loose flour in the bowl, but there also shouldn't be anything wet in there, the dough should stick to the dough hook, (see pictures) if everything looks good, let it mix for another 10 or more minutes, I've found that 15 minutes total mixing time seems to work good.

Once 15 minutes total has passed, remove a small piece of dough, roll it into a ball then pull it outward while spinning it around so you make like a mini pizza, you're trying to make a bakers window, this is when the dough is stretchy enough to let you pull it apart into a thin paper like layer that lets light though, it's kind of hard to see in the picture but you can see light though it.

If the dough falls apart when you pull it apart, let it mix for another 5 minutes and check again.

Once that's done, go ahead and put some oil in a container of choice and rub it around, I like using the bowl pictured because it's easy to clean. before you try to handle the dough, get your hands damp, this will help keep the dough from sticking to your hands. pick up the dough, place it into the oiled container, notice how my dry hand sticks to the dough? that should give you an idea of how sticky it is when you don't use any water on your hands, it is some sticky stuff!

Place the container into your oven, and place a pan with some hot water on the bottom rack, this will help keep a skin from forming on top of the dough. Let the dough sit till it doubles, this could take an hour+

Once it doubles in size, dampen your hands then remove the dough from the container and flatten it out, then fold it in half, flatten again, and fold it in half... do this 4-5 times, you're trying to distribute the little tiny air bubbles throughout the dough, if you don't do this you'll end up with large air pockets in your bread. Once it's packed down you can let it rise again and punch it back down again but I find that it isn't needed. one time seems to be enough.

Next you want to form your bread, again make sure you damp your hands, you can form it into anything you want, just remember cooking times will change depending on how thick it is.

Once you get it formed go ahead and sprinkle a good bit of corn meal on it, I like spreading the corn meal on the counter top and roll the dough in it. then sprinkle a good bit of corn meal on a pizza peel (pictured) or a cookie sheet. place the dough on the pizza peel/cookie sheet and give it a quick jerk of the wrist, make sure the dough freely moves around, if not, add more corn meal.

Once the dough is in place cover it with a towel. let it sit for another 20-30 minutes. heat the oven to 350o WITH the pizza stone/terra cotta pot in the oven!. once the oven is up to temp, put some 1/2 inch slices in the top of the dough and then slip it into the oven straight onto the preheated stone/pot. let it cook for 30 minutes then pull it out. flip it over and slip your cooking thermometer into the bottom of the bread, your target temperature is 190-195o if its not there yet, put it back in the oven. If it is there, place a towel over it and let it rest for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it. because of the carry over heat, the bread should end up around 200o.

I think it's really easy to make, however it does take lots of waiting time, this is a great thing to do on the weekends when watching sports or races. or in my case today. playing god of war 2. =)

[jeff]

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[jeff]

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[jeff]

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