Potato Rosemary Whole Wheat Bread

2008 is the year of the potato. This is not some random decision made by someone, but it has been announced as such by the UN. Don't believe me? Here's their official website. Alex, of Eating Leeds, decided that this warrants a blog event. To participate, one has to prepare a dish featuring potatoes and post it before February 29. This is my entry.

Ever since I tasted the Potato Rosemary Whole Wheat Bread from Peter Reinhart's newest book, Whole Grain Breads, it has been on my "to bake list." This list isn't written down anywhere, and it isn't getting any shorter. This blog event seemed like the perfect occasion to bake this bread.

Others who have baked this bread warned me that the dough is extremely wet and slack, and that rather than getting nice, tall, loaves, it is more likely to get a flat (yet flavorful) pancake. I therefore decided to take caution from the start, and cut down the water content.

The bread takes two days to make. On the first day, you first boil potatoes. I boil them whole in the skin, as I believe that more nutrients stay in the potato this way. Also, the potato gets less waterlogged after it boils. When the potatoes are done, you strain and keep the potato water, and you mash the potatoes. I used a ricer to mash them.

After the potato water has cooled, you prepare a soaker and a biga. The soaker is simply whole-wheat flour, salt, and some potato water. Instead of a biga, I made a wild-yeast starter with some leftover levain that I refreshed with potato water. It's always wonderful to find a use for leftover sourdough. The soaker stays on the counter for up to 24 hours; the wild yeast starter is given time to rise, then, after a short knead, it moves to the fridge. Both of these I made with a little less water than called for in the recipe.

As life would have it, I was unable to make the dough the day after making the soaker and starter, so I put everything in the fridge and waited until the following day, when I had some time. In a large bowl went the soaker and starter, along with some more flour, salt, mashed potato, a little bit of olive oil, yeast, and rosemary. Then the kneading begins. Kneading this dough with the potato proved to be not the simplest thing in the world. I insisted on kneading it by hand, and it took quite a while to get a well kneaded dough. I actually had to add a little water during kneading. Potato, however, retains water, and the dough turned out a little wetter than I had expected.

The dough rose rather slowly. The temperature was pretty cold in the house, which probably partially accounted for this. After it had risen, I decided to shape it and put it in a loaf pan, contrary to the recipe directions, which suggest baking it into two free-form loaves. I did a pretty hasty job shaping, and put it into a loaf pan. I had a little too much dough for a standard loaf pan, so I used a larger, 5"x9" loaf pan for this bread. I let the dough rise until it reached the top of the pan.

This was a sluggish, wet, dough, and I think it could have used some more time during bulk fermentation and proofing. Either way, it was time to bake. The oven was hot, and I put the bread in. I created some steam, and baked the bread. There was little oven rise, and the bread did not open much along the slash. I baked the bread a long time. As it was baking, the house was filled with the wonderful scent of rosemary. What a great ingredient for bread.

After the bread had cooled, I cut it open. The bread was denser and moister than I had wanted. This is not the first time that I get such a moist bread, and I don't know what causes it. It's not that's it's bad; it's just that I prefer my breads to be a little less dense and moist. It wasn't anywhere near being brick-like, but it was substantial.

Flavorwise, it was excellent, though. The potato gives the bread a certain softness. Its flavor is definitely not pronounced, but its presence is definitely felt due to the texture of the bread. The rosemary flavor is very overpowering, in a good sense.

I brought this bread to a dinner party. The bread was enjoyed by all. I found it to be excellent with a little brie on it. Others said that it complements peanut butter and jelly very well (this is a combination that is beyond my comprehension). I was most delighted that people didn't realize that this bread is 100% whole-wheat!

I am pretty happy with how this bread turned out, but I still think that there is room for improvement. With every bread that I make, I get better. Perhaps I will revisit this bread in due time.