BBD17: Bread and Potatoes

Once again it's time for the monthly Bread Baking Day, originated by Zorra of 1x Umrühren bitte. This month our hostess is Lien of Notitie van Lien, who chose a bread and potato combination. There are tons of possibilities with this combination, so I went searching through my cookbooks collection.

In January, I started working at a second job at the local public library, so whenever a cookbook passes through my hands, I take a good look at it to see if I want to check it out. I found my first recipe that way: Potato Chive Bread from America's Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. Since I have a bread machine, I thought I would study some new recipes. I don't typically bake my bread in the bread machine, however, since I prefer shaping the dough by hand and creating different shapes, but it's sometimes easier to use the machine to combine the ingredients and have a good first rise without a lot of thought or presence.




I decided to shape this dough into regular rectangular loaves since I thought it would make a tasty sandwich. Well, it would if it lasted that long. It's wonderful toasted and buttered, and goes well with soup and salad.




My second recipe also came from a library book that I discovered one morning, as I was pulling request books from the children's collection, I found myself in the cookbook section, and there was a simple, straight forward book on bread making. There were a few potato bread recipes, so I combined two of them and, once again, used the bread machine to do the early work. This was a potato-rye-molasses-caraway bread. I shaped the dough into boules for the final rise and bake. I like the molasses flavor and the hint of caraway. The potato provides the moistness, and it, too, is good toasted or with soup and salad.



Either of these breads can also be made the old-fashioned way, by hand. It's nice that bread is so versatile.




Potato Chive Bread
(adapted from America's Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes)

1 1/3 cups liquid (I used the potato water and added milk to make the specified amount)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1/3 cup plain mashed potato
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup chopped chives
2 teaspoons dry active yeast

Measure ingredients into bread machine container, following the manufacturer's instructions. Using a manual setting, process until finished, usually the final rise. Remove from container, shape as desired, let rise and bake at 375 degrees F until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 190 to 200 degrees F, about 45 minutes or so.




Potato Rye Caraway Bread
(adapted from Great Bread! by Bernice Hunt (out of print))

1/2 cup mashed potatoes
1 1/4 cups liquid (water/potato water)
1 tablespoon salt
4 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups rye flour
2-3 cups bread flour

Place all ingredients into the bread machine container according to the manufacturer's instructions. Using a manual setting, process until finished, usually the final rise. Remove from container, shape as desired, let rise and bake at 375 degrees F until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 190 to 200 degrees F, about 45 minutes or so.