Polish potato bread: soft, moist, slow to go stale
A traditional way to bake a loaf that is slow to go stale: boiled, riced potatoes go into the yeast dough. Potato starch binds water and releases it slowly, so the crumb stays moist and springy days later, while the crust is thin and crisp. Half a kilo of flour and 300 g of potatoes make a big loaf for several days of sandwiches.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Potatoes boiling and cooling 35 min
- Kneading 15 min
- Rising 60 min
- Shaping 10 min
- Rising in the tin 40 min
- Baking 40 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneBoil and rice the potatoes
Peel the potatoes, quarter them and boil in lightly salted water 20–25 minutes, until tender. Drain, keeping the water. Press through a ricer while hot and spread on a plate to cool to lukewarm: hot potatoes would kill the yeast.
Ingredients: 300 g potatoes · 500 g plain or bread flour · 200 ml water · 15 g fresh yeast · 2 tsp salt · 1 tbsp oil · 1 tsp sugar
TipFloury potatoes give the fluffiest crumb. Using the cooking water instead of plain water adds extra starch and flavour.
Through the ricer, then cooled to lukewarmStart the yeast and combine
Cream the yeast with the sugar and 3 tablespoons of the lukewarm water, leave 10 minutes until frothy. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl, add the riced potatoes, the yeast mixture, the rest of the water and the oil. Mix with a spoon into a shaggy mass.
Potatoes, flour, yeast, waterKnead
Knead on a lightly floured counter 10 minutes (or 6 with dough hooks), until smooth, springy and only slightly tacky. It is softer than ordinary bread dough; don't add more than a spoon of flour or you lose the moistness that is the whole point.
TipThe potatoes make the dough cling to your hands at first. After a few minutes of kneading the gluten develops and the dough starts to come away by itself.
Soft, smooth, slightly tackyFirst rise
Shape into a ball, put in an oiled bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm 60 minutes, until doubled.
Doubled under a clothShape the loaf
Butter the loaf tin. Knock the dough back, flatten into a rectangle as wide as the tin and roll up tightly from the short side. Place seam down in the tin (or shape a round loaf on a lined tray). Dust the top with flour.
Ingredients: 10 g butter · 1 tbsp plain flour
Rolled tight, seam down, flour on topSecond rise
Cover and leave 40 minutes, until the dough stands 2 cm above the rim. Meanwhile heat the oven to 220 °C with an empty tray on the bottom shelf.
Bake with steam
Slash the loaf lengthwise 1 cm deep. Put it in the oven, pour a cup of boiling water onto the bottom tray and close the door. Bake 15 minutes at 220 °C, then lower to 200 °C and bake another 25 minutes, until the crust is golden and the base sounds hollow when tapped. Turn out and cool on a rack an hour before slicing.
TipSteam in the first minutes lets the loaf rise before the crust sets. Cutting potato bread hot gives a gummy crumb: the hour of patience pays off.
Fifteen minutes at 220 with steam, then 200Store
In a linen cloth or a bread bin it stays fresh 4–5 days, noticeably longer than an ordinary homemade wheat loaf. It slices thin without crumbling, freezes in slices, and the slightly stale end makes the best croutons.
Days of freshness, thin slices
Before you start
From leftover potatoes
Yesterday's mash or boiled potatoes from dinner work just as well. 300 g is about 1½ cups riced; with mash made with milk and butter, use 30 ml less water.
With caraway or seeds
A teaspoon of caraway in the dough and sunflower seeds on top: the village-bakery version. Or swap 100 g of the wheat flour for rye for a darker, slightly tangy loaf.
Potato rolls
The same dough divided into 12 balls, a 30-minute second rise, 18 minutes at 220 °C: soft burger buns that don't go soggy.