Daring Bakers' Tender Potato Bread

“ It’s impossible to think of any good meal, no matter how plain or elegant, without soup or bread in it”. M.F.K Fisher.


Another month, another Daring Bakers challenge and this one was on the savory side, which was quite what I hoped for after having too many sweets lately.

I love making bread. In fact, at my house we only have homemade bread: the whole wheat and honey bread for breakfast and the focaccia for lunch and dinner. But it has been a long time since I kneaded my bread without the help of my Harley Davidson (that’s how I call my Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer. I even sing for my bike when it kneads my bread).
My mother thought me how to knead my first bread when I was about fourteen and I used to hate it. The dough was sticky, my tiny arms were getting tired and when I would ask my mom how to know if it’s done, she would answer: “you should feel it. When it’s smooth and elastic”.

Now, with some experience behind me, I enjoy kneading bread and find it very relaxing and somehow poetic to go from separate dry and wet ingredients to a magnificent piece of bread. Simple yet so comforting.
Making your own bread is very rewarding. Not only you are happy to enjoy fresh from the oven loaf of bread but also your house will smell like a warm bakery on a snowy Sunday morning.

Potato bread is basically: potatoes, cooked then mashed, mixed with whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt, a tiny bit of butter and water. I only needed a little less than 8 cups of all-purpose flour for the dough and shaped into two huge loves (1 lb each).
The dough was very sticky at first but then became very easy to work with after the 6 cups of flour. The texture of the bread is just lovely: very airy, light and a little chewy.

It was my first attempt on making potato bread and from my entourage excitement I can assure you it won’t be the last. I enjoyed having my sticky fingers and floury hair again.

Thank you Tanna. And be sure to head over to her blog for more details on the recipe, and to visit my fellow Daring Bakers chefs-d’oeuvre.