Hi Everyone, Making bread with potatoes is nothing new. People have been making potato breads for decades and maybe even longer. Potato breads were created out of necessity and to make do, particularly with the scarcity of flour in some places. More recently, due to the spike in wheat prices, many people returned to this old time favourite – replacing a portion of the flour called for in bread recipes, with potatoes.
Traditionally, some type of English potato is used to make potato bread – boiled and mashed or the dried potato flakes. I have used potatoes before to make pizza dough and focaccia with excellent results. Even though I am not a huge bread lover, I enjoy making bread; therefore, every now and then I find myself kneading dough to make bread.
The other day I went to the market and saw some freshly pulled orange-flesh sweet potatoes. They were still covered in the soft, pasty mud from which they had been uprooted. Selling at 1 dollar a pound (BDS $1 = USD 0.50 cents), I bought several pounds. While I have made bread with sweet potatoes before, I had never done so with the orange-flesh sweet potatoes and was excited to see what colour the bread would be when baked. I know, the things that excite me eh? More importantly, I wanted to develop a recipe by adding more sweet potatoes, and I also wanted to alter the proofing time for the dough, so in a way, it was like conducting research and testing a recipe.
The results. Let me tell you, it is only because there is a necessary cooling period that my tasters and I did not nyam out the bread and that I was able to take photographs. First it was the colour, deeply yellow and golden. It’s like the bread was glowing in the pans. When cooled, the bread was soft and tender yet meaty. At first we ate it just like that without anything. Sandwiches followed and so did toast with sweet creamy butter. A few days later, I was back in the kitchen kneading more sweetness.
A friend of mine who is monitoring her nutrition intake told me that her intake of Vitamin A was off the charts with the bread because of the high levels of beta-carotene present in the orange-fleshed sweet potato. With sweet potatoes being rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, and beta-carotene, as well as having moderate amounts of other nutrients such as Vitamins B5 and B6 along with manganese and potassium, replacing it with a portion of flour when making bread is a really good thing. Most potato bread recipes call for about ½ cup of mashed potatoes but with the recipe I developed, I used a whole lot more sweet potatoes making my version a more nutritional loaf.
I’ll stop here and get straight to the recipe because I really would like you to give it a try, and let me know what you think. I am not sure if there is the orange-flesh sweet potato available where you are but regular white-flesh sweet potatoes will work too, the beta-carotene levels would be less due to the absence of colour. If you can get the yellow or purple-flesh sweet potatoes, use those too.
Sweet Potato Bread
Please read the recipe notes on preparing the sweet potatoes before making the dough.
Yield: 2 (8 x 5) loaves or 1 (12 x 5)
INGREDIENTS
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
1 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast
1 ½ tablespoons sugar (brown or white)
½ teaspoon fine table salt
1 oz. (2 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter
1 ½ cups mashed sweet potatoes
¾ – 1 cup room temperature water
Oil for dough and baking pan(s)
DIRECTIONS
Mix together in a large bowl – the flour, yeast, sugar and salt.
Cut or rub in the butter to the flour mixture.
Cut or mix in the mashed sweet potatoes to the flour.
Add the water – starting with the ¾ cup first – to make a dough, if more water is need then add the remaining ¼ cup. When the dough comes together, turn it on to a well floured work surface and knead for 15 minutes. You may need to intermittently add a light dusting of flour on the surface as you knead.
Rub a large bowl with oil as well as oil all over the dough. Transfer the dough to the oiled bowl, cover and put in a warm place to proof for 40 minutes.
While the dough is proofing, brush the pan(s) with oil and set aside.
Turn the rested dough onto a work surface and cut in half if making 2 loaves, shape into loaves and place in greased pans. Cover loosely and put in someplace warm to rise for 40 minutes.
After the first 20 minutes of rising, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
At the end of the 40 minutes, transfer the pan(s) to the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the bread in browned and hollow when tapped. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 – 7 minutes before removing from pan and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
Use just as you would regular bread.
NOTES
Drain the sweet potatoes well after boiling. Mash the potatoes and then spread it out along the bottom and sides of a bowl or in a large plate to cool completely. It must be cool and as dry as possible. Do not add it to make the flour if the sweet potatoes are warm.
To measure the mashed sweet potatoes, be sure to pack the cup and half cup firmly.
