Potato Bread
Ingredients:
7 ounces cooked potato (you can use leftover mashed potatoes, or cook up a small potato and mash it)
Water, enough to equal 1 3/4 cup when combined with the potato
(I put the potato into a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup and add water to bring the level up to 1 3/4 cup)
2 tablespoons softened butter
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar (or honey)
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour (I usually use a mix of fresh ground wheat berry flour and pre-milled flour)
2 teaspoons dry yeast or 1 1/2 teaspoons saf-instant yeast
Directions:
If using a bread machine, select “wheat”, “sweet”, or “white” setting, do not use a timer.
Add everything and mix for 6-8 minutes, adding additional flour if needed. Add the last of flour slowly – you want a soft, elastic dough. Too much flour will give you a harder dough and a drier bread. If kneading by hand, mix wet ingredients with yeast until thoroughly blended, then add dry ingredients, adjusting flour as needed to give a soft, elastic dough.
Let bread rest and rise for around 20 minutes, then punch down and allow to rise again. (This develops the flavor and gluten of the bread.) Once doubled in size, form dough into loaves and place in greased bread pans. A single recipe makes one large loaf or two smaller loaves. I usually divide the dough into two 9×5 pans. This way I get two loaves and pop one in the freezer to keep it fresh. (Although, the last time I made this bread, the first loaf was inhaled as soon as it came out of the oven, so I didn’t need the freezer.)
Preheat oven to 350F. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks. Try to wait for the bread to cool before cutting, if possible. When you cut open a steaming loaf of bread, much of the moisture escapes as steam, leaving the remainder of the loaf dry. Of course, if it all disappears within a matter of minutes, this is a non-issue.
This recipe produces a moist, dense loaf that is great for sandwiches and toast, and holds for the better part of a week. For longer storage, it freezes very well, in case you want to make a double or triple batch. I had a slice of it lightly toasted with butter for breakfast this morning. (I like to observe the 1:1 bread:butter ratio.)