Sweet Potato and Olive oil Bread

Bread experiment of the week was another success! I thought about it a few days ago when a friend of mine talked about sweet potatoes and how good they are...That gave me the idea, so I kinda threw this all together this morning. The sweet potato taste here is very subtle, but it gives the bread a nice yellow-ish color and a great texture. Especially with the olive oil! I used light-flavored olive oil, so the taste would not be too over-powering. When I do this again though I will use a bigger potato, or a bit more honey, to make it sweeter. The one taste that comes out as a nice surprise is the bay leaf I threw in the pot while cooking the potato. Also subtle but evident. Anyway, I really like this bread a lot, it's really soft inside, and it'll be great for sweet or savory meals.
It also, like the cheddar-jalapeno bread form last week, got HUGE in the oven, and crooked because of my slanted floors...I should really find a way to fix that...



Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour, +1/2 cup for kneading
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt

1 sweet potato
1- 1 1/2 cup potato cooking liquid
4 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP honey
1 bay leaf, 2-3 sprigs of thyme, salt and pepper

Start by cooking the potato in salted water, with the bay leaf and thyme. Reserve the liquid and mash the potato with the oil, salt and pepper. Add honey to the potato water and dissolve, let the water get to 120F.
Meanwhile, mix the flour, yeast and salt.
When the water hits the right temperature, pour it in the flour/yeast mix and stir with a fork, add the mashed potato and mix until it forms into a ball, if you need more flour, add flour. When it's no longer sticky transfer to a kneading surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, adding flour if necessary, or if the dough is too dry add warm water. It should get really nice and smooth, then transfer to an oiled container and let it rise in a warm place, covered, until double, about 45-60 minutes.
After it's rised, deflate it and transfer the dough to a floured surface and gently fold: to do this I flatened the dough, folded the top end to the centre, the bottom end to the same center, and same thing with the sides.(if this sounds weird...just knead it gently, it'll be the same...)
Shape into a thick log and put in a greased loaf pan, and let it rise a second time for 35-40 minutes, again until it's doubled in size.
Brush with milk, or butter, or egg white. I used milk this time.
Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes, until it sounds hollow when tapped. Unmold right away and let cool on a rack.

Get you favorite jam or cheese and dig in!


This is heading to yeastspotting!!