The Daring Bakers: Tender Potato Bread

For my second Daring Baker's challenge (and number 13 in the series), Tanna, of My Kitchen in Half Cups, presented us with something savory (for which I thank her from the bottom of my heart): Tender Potato Bread, from Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Traditions from Around the World, by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford.

I grew up baking bread with my mom, but life, school, and career took precedence over bread baking for many, many years. Lately, I have felt a real yearning to start working with dough again, and have been filling up my freezer with all sorts of interesting flours that I've been hoping to experiment with. Someday.

Well, Tanna's challenge gave me the opportunity to take the leap. And the wonderful thing is, many things went wrong, but I was having so much fun creating this marvel that I didn't care! And the bread still turned out great!

Exhausted from Thanksgiving baking (more on that in a future post), not to mention desserts, I opted to bake two simple loaves, one a 9 x 5 inch and the other an 8 x 4 inch. I added about a cup more of flour than the directions called for, but still had a huge gooey mess on my hands that was absolutely impossible to shape. It was like a big pile of goo. I finally resorted to my KitchenAid with its dough hook (allowed for medical reasons).

Now, I'm sure you're wondering what medical reasons I could be talking about. Well, at Thanksgiving dinner, while removing a pecan pie from a tart pan, I cut the forefinger of my right hand so deeply with the edge of the pan that my finger continued to bleed for over two hours. I noticed something was amiss when I saw the blood running down the knife I was using to cut pie slices.

As if that were not enough, on Saturday I slammed the sliding glass door on the other forefinger, and opened up a nice little cut there, too. When I lost my band aids in my gooey potato bread dough and had to fish them out, I decided to pull out the KitchenAid.

At any rate, I can see from other Daring Bakers' pictures that I could have added even more flour. I literally had to pour the dough into the baking pans. No shaping of the loaves, let alone rolls, was possible. So I poured and hoped for the best.

There are a couple band aids in here. Luckily, I found them!

I was not disappointed. This bread is delicious - moist, with a lovely crumb that takes well to liberal buttering. The crust is chewy and crispy. The whole wheat flour and potato give the bread a depth of flavor usually lacking in white loaves. In fact, I'm thinking of having another piece as I write this, but have decided to wait and try a soy bacon - lettuce -and tomato sandwich for lunch. I can just imagine the mayonnaise sinking into the nooks and crannies of this tasty loaf!
Some notes: I used russet potatoes, and King Arthur brand unbleached all purpose, and whole wheat flours.

Happy Baking! And check out the wonderful creations of the other Daring Bakers!