Poor Man's Potato Bread
This is a large loaf of potato bread made without mashed potatoes. Instead, we use the water potatoes were cooked in, cooled, as the liquid in our bread. We can skip yudane method with this recipe since the water will have plenty of gelatinized starch in it.
Portions
Scale by
Ingredients
- 500 g wheat berries, hard
- 450 g water, cold (potato cooking water that's cooled)
- 10 g sea salt
- 10 g yeast
- 10 g lemon, juice (or other citrus juice)
Directions
-
Mill the grain into fine flour.
-
Mixing the Bread:
-
Add the cold potato water to the mixing bowl, followed by the remaining ingredients.
-
Knead with your dough hook until the dough looks smooth and shiny and fully cleans the bowl. This will vary greatly depending on the mixer you have. Mixers with bottom motors will need a rest between mixing so dough is not overheated OR the flour and the water must be very cold.
-
Preheat the oven to 450 F. If using a dutch oven, preheat that, too.
-
Transfer the dough into an oiled bowl with plenty of room to rise and a lid.
-
Do your first set of clock stretch and folds in a 2.5 quart mixing bowl to help develop structure in your dough.
-
When the dough rises almost to the top of the bowl, gently stitch the dough together again, and cover it with parchment or a silicone bread sling before turning it out onto the counter or a baking sheet.
-
Optional: dust the top of the loaf with a light coating of flour (I use brown rice), and score the loaf with a very sharp knife or razor at a 45 degree angle, about 1/4" deep.
Open Bake Prep:
-
Roll up a few ice cubes inside a tea towel. Soak the tea towel with hot water. Grab a few more ice cubes to throw into the bottom of the oven, and have a spray bottle of water handy. Place the bread into the center of the oven on a baking stone or baking sheet. Place the hot, soaked towel next to it, toss ice cubes into the bottom of the oven and spray the loaf quickly and heavily with water before closing the oven door.
Baking:
-
Bake for 25 minutes for an open bake.
-
Check the internal temperature of your bread with an instant read digital thermometer. If it's not 190 F or above (ideally 200 F), lower the temperature of the oven to 400 F, and bake until it does reach that temperature. Cover the loaf with foil if you don't want the loaf much darker. For me, that's 15-20 minutes.
-
When bread has reached the ideal temperature, remove the bread from the oven, and from the pan it baked in (if using a dutch oven).
-
Place the bread gently on a cooling rack with air flow all around the loaf for 3 hours.
I Made This!
Share your bake and be the first to show it off.
Recipes From This Base
100% Spelt Hybrid Sourdough Burger Buns
I take the Italian bread base and lower the hydration (liquid), add an egg, and use a mixture of sourdough starter and yeast for improved flavor and a slower rise. Download PDF
100% Spelt Italian Bread, whole grain
Makes: 1 loaf / 16 slicesPrep Time: 1 hour 25 minutes (mostly inactive)Bake Time: 50 minutesTotal Time: 2 hours 15 minutes Download PDF
4 Grain Italian Bread from Hydration Test
Learn how to test the hydration percentage of your flour, and bake a loaf of bread with it. Do NOT follow my water amounts in this recipe - it is an exercise in learning the IDEAL hydration for the grains you have in your kitchen. They will vary batch to batch. It's also a great way to learn how to make bread and hydrate the flour without a mixer. Download PDF
Ancient Grain Baguettes - Fresh Milled
These are crusty on the outside, and perfection on the inside. Using Kamut, Einkhorn, and Spelt - the flavors are out of this world! Download PDF
Crusty Whole Wheat Italian Bread with NO ADDITIVES
Rustic whole wheat Italian bread, for the best big holes. This is wet enough to develop gluten with wire whips or the roller and scraper on the Ankarsrum, at highest speed, to develop gluten before switching to the dough hook (if using whisks). KitchenAid friendly recipe Download PDF
High Hydration Rustic Italian Bread with Whole Wheat Flour
Higher hydration rustic Italian bread, for bigger holes made with whole wheat. This is wet enough to develop gluten with wire whips, or using highest speed roller and scraper on the ank. Download PDF
Poor Man's Potato Bread
This is a large loaf of potato bread made without mashed potatoes. Instead, we use the water potatoes were cooked in, cooled, as the liquid in our bread. We can skip yudane method with this recipe since the water will have plenty of gelatinized starch in it. Download PDF
Potato-less Potato Bread - with tofu and honey
This is the same as my Poor Man's Potato bread recipe, but I added a few things: turmeric, tofu, and a drizzle of honey. It counts as an enriched bread since soy has fat in it (and lecithin) and honey counts as a sugar. We open baked this, but of course, it can be baked in a bread pan. I'd use 9x5" Download PDF
Sourdough Ciabatta & Italian Bread
These are crusty on the outside, and perfection on the inside. Final,y made with sourdough instead of commercial yeast. Download PDF