Sticky Potato Bread. Ooops.

No, it's really called Tender Potato Bread. And it's the Daring Bakers Challenge for november 2007! And I'll admit it straight away. I cheated.

Yes. I did. Tanna specifically asked us to knead this one by hand but when it came to actually baking, which I did the night before Thanksgiving dinner and the night after my impromptu Christmas dinner, I just couldn't face the stickiness of it all. See, I *hate* kneading sticky doughs. I *hate* getting my hands all messy and.. well, I'm sorry. The Kitchen-Aid just does it so much better. So I did use it. I did. I know kneading by hand was part of this challenge, but I just couldn't muster the energy.

So, I used about 300 g of potatoes, and my go-to bread flour, which is called Manitoba Cream, and it's a rather strong flour. It really benefits from being *very* well kneaded, which gives a super gluten development. So, I let my machine knead it for quite a long time - about 15 minutes in total.

My dough was *very* sticky. Very, very, very, very sticky. I thought it was the way it was supposed to be, but... looking at pictures from other daring bakers, mine was a lot wetter. I have baked with wet doughs before, so I thought this was fine, but I realise now that it was probably too wet for what was expected. There was no way of shaping it, even by using extra flour. (That's what I get for cheating, by the way!) I pretty much dumped it in the greased tins, and that was that.

My bread turned out super!! It was very light and airy but with a pronounced chew and good substance. I made two loaves that I promptly stuck in the freezer to cheer up dark December mornings, and I made 24 mini rolls for Thanksgiving dinner, using my mini muffin tin.

I brushed the small rolls with some leftover egg yolk and water, and added a few grains of sea salt to each - that was it for adornment! And I have to tell you - it was absolutely devoured at dinner! Everyone loved it - even the teenager who made a face at hearing it was "potato bread". (I think she ate four.)



Don't forget to check out the Daring Bakers blogroll! You can see the challenge recipe here. Swedes - here's the version I actually used.

Recipe in Swedish:
Potatisbröd