I'm really pleased with how these loaves came out! They look beautiful and they rose wonderfully. The herbed potato bread I did a couple weeks ago was extremely tasty and also by far the best keeping bread I've made yet. I have high hopes for this one!

Potato Bread

From the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 1 (225g) potato
• 1/4 c. warm water
• 2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 c. fresh buttermilk or yogurt
• 1 c. hot potato cooking water
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 900g hard (bread/strong/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 14g (~2 1/2 tsp.) coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Cut the eyes out of the potato, rinse it, slice it, and boil until tender.
2. Drain the potato reserving the cooking water.
3. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside for ~10 minutes.
4. Mash the potato and combine it with the buttermilk, 1 c. of reserved cooking water, honey, and oil.
5. Combine the flour and salt and mix thoroughly.
6. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture and the potato mixture.
7. Mix the flour into the liquids working from the centre outward.
8. Once most of the flour's been incorporated, turn it out onto the counter and begin kneading.
9. Knead for 20-30 minutes working in more water as needed. (Feel free to use more cooking water for this.)
10. Shape into a ball and place in a covered bowl to rise.
11. Once dough no longer returns a 1cm deep wet fingerprint, then it's ready to knock back. (This should take 1-2 hours depending on the temperature of the room.)
12. Knock back the dough and set it to rise in the covered bowl again.
13. After another hour or so, the dough should be ready to knock back again.
14. Knock back the dough again and divide it into two even portions.
15. Shape each dough portion into a ball and pull the gluten tight across the top of each ball. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes.
16. Shape each ball into a loaf. Hearth loaves or pan loaves work well for this bread.
17. Cover and set to rise for 30-45 minutes.
18. Uncover, dust with pastry flour, and slash the tops of the loaves.
19. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 45-60 minutes.
20. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and set on a wire rack to cool.