Incredibly soft, fluffy, and buttery potato bread with a crispy buttery crust. The potato makes the bread moist and stale slower than other breads. It's a tad bit sweet but it's perfect for both sweet and savory combinations!
The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:
Ingredients:
3/4 cup mashed potatoes (fresh or leftover) (177 g)
1/3 cup + 1 1/2 Tbsp. milk (100 g)
1 large egg, room temperature (50-55 g)
2 tsp. instant yeast (6 g) or 2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 1/2 to 2 2/3 cup bread flour (~354-380g)
1/4 cup white sugar (50 g)
3/4 tsp. table salt (4 g)
5 Tbsp. softened salted butter (70 g)
Extra butter for greasing and brushing on the loaf
Directions:
You can use leftover mashed potatoes (even with milk, salt and butter in them), cooked instant potatoes, or make them fresh for the recipe. If cooking your own potatoes, peel and chop a potato into 1 inch pieces, place in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and boil for 15-20 minutes, or until you can easily pierce them with a fork. Strain and mash finely, using a potato masher, fork, potato ricer, or smooshing them through a sieve (what I did).
Here I explain making the dough by hand, but you can also try it in a stand mixer or bread machine. Add 3/4 cup packed warm mashed potatoes to a medium bowl. Add in the milk and mix well.
Mix in the egg. Before adding the yeast the temperature should be 110°F.
Mix in the instant yeast until well combined. If using active dry yeast let sit an additional 5 minutes until it activates and foams.
Then add ~3/4 cup of the flour, the salt, and half the sugar. mix until well combined.
Add in another ~1/2 cup flour and the rest of the sugar. Mix to combine.
Mix in another ~1/2 cup flour by hand.
Once you have a somewhat stiff dough, cut the butter into ~1 Tbsp. sized pieces and add it to the dough. Smoosh and mix it in and knead it until it's absorbed and the dough is less sticky. This takes about 5 minutes.
Take the dough out onto a clean surface. Add most of the remaining flour and knead it in. The dough should feel soft and slightly sticky but not dry. Only add enough flour to get to this texture (I used a little over 2 1/2 cups).
Once mixed continue kneading for 10-15 minutes, or until it is smoother and passes the windowpane test (it may not be perfect but that's alright).
Shape the dough into a ball and place in a buttered/greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place (75-95°F) until doubled in size (about 1 hour).
Once doubled, punch it down and take it out onto a clean surface. Knead for about a minute to remove the air bubbles. Then roll into a ~9x12 inch rectangle. Then roll up (like cinnamon rolls), pinch the seam shut, pull the ends up and pinch closed, and place seam side down in a buttered/greased 9x5x3" bread pan (you can also shape them into buns or use this dough for cinnamon rolls!).
Cover and let rise until doubled and rising above the pan (about 1 hour). It should pass the finger poke test, where a damp finger pressed in leaves a slight indent.
About halfway through the second rise preheat the oven to 350°F.
When the loaf is ready to bake, lightly brush with butter, and slice if desired.
Bake for 26-30 minutes on the middle rack of the oven, rotating 180° once halfway. If it is browning too much on top cover it with a loose layer of tin foil. The dough is ready when the internal temperature in the center of the loaf is 200°F.
Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes before removing to cool on it's side on a wire rack completely (about 2-3 hours) before slicing into.
Makes one large loaf! Will likely make about 10 hamburger buns or about 16 dinner rolls (may need less baking time).
Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 4 days, or in the freezer up to one month.
The ingredients I used.
Peel the potato, cut into cubes, and boil until soft.
Strain the potatoes and mash them. As you can see here I mashed mine by squishing them through the sieve.
After mashing! If you're using leftover potatoes then make sure they're finely mashed as well.
Add the potatoes and milk to a bowl.
And mix together.
Add the egg.
And mix the egg in.
Add the yeast.
And mix in well (if using active dry yeast let this mixture rest and the yeast should activate).
Add about 3/4 cup flour, the salt, and half the sugar.
And mix together.
Add about 1/2 cup more flour and the rest of the sugar.
And mix in.
After mixing in more flour
Add another ~ 1/2 cup of flour.
And mix in. The dough should be getting stiffer and more difficult to mix/knead.
Add the butter.
And use your hands to mix and knead the butter in for about 5 minutes.
Take out onto a clean surface and add more (but not all the flour unless it's a very sticky dough). Then you'll mix this in and knead for 10-15 minutes.
After kneading.
Before the first rise.
I let mine rise in a turned off (closed) oven with the light on.
After the first rise.
Take it out and knead it to get the excess air out.
Then roll or shape into a rectangle.
Roll it up.
Pinch the seam and ends closed.
And place seam side down in a buttered bread pan. We'll cover it and let it rise again.
After rising for one hour. It puffed up a lot!
I lightly buttered and sliced my bread right before baking.
After baking!
Let it cool on it's side for 2-3 hours.
Golden brown all over!
After cooling slice it and enjoy!
I drizzled mine with honey but it's also great with salted butter, jam, or practically anything :D