This month I decided to do something I’d been wanting to do for a few months now…join the Daring Bakers! If you’re not familiar, the Daring Bakers are an ever-expanding group of bloggers who pick a recipe each month for everyone to make and write about. The main attraction for me is that the monthly recipes are not contests but challenges, and there is a great community for help and inspiration. Everyone makes the same recipe as written, and the only deviations allowed are specified by that month’s host. This may sounds restrictive, but it’s actually extremely interesting to see the differences and personalizations that pop up. From professionals to amateurs, there is a wealth of creativity out there!
This month’s recipe and my first challenge was chosen by Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups. She picked Tender Potato Bread, from the book Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour & Tradition Around the World, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. This was indeed a challenge for me, as I have very little experience baking yeast breads. I’ve only done so a couple of times in the past (apart from pizza dough, which I make regularly), and those tries…well, they left something to be desired. Some of the rules for this challenge were that it had to be kneaded by hand, and the result had to be savory, but the final shaping and topping options were up to us. This left plenty of room for variation, but since I was already a bit apprehensive about the bread-making process, I kept things fairly conservative.
I followed the recipe carefully, and used about 5 cups of flour (the maximum was 8 1/2) and about 12 oz of potato (max for this was 16oz). I then divided the whole yeasty bundle into a foccacia and 11 rolls, topping the foccacia with chopped fresh rosemary, sliced olives, and a small amount of black Hawaiian sea salt. In retrospect, it probably didn’t need the extra salt, but it was still pretty tasty.
As an aside, I think Santa might be bringing me something to help my losing fight against the shifting of the Earth and frantic attempts to coax November light.
For the rolls, I experimented a little with different shapes: spirals (or cinnamon-roll shape), S-shapes, and knots (not pictured). Some I left plain and others were topped with shredded Gruyère. The Gruyère ones got eaten first.
I’m pleased to say that everything turned out pretty well. Although it was somewhat chewier than other potato breads I’ve had, there were some nice, small holes in the crumb and the crust was pleasantly crisp, especially after being toasted the next day. I might have done the rolls on a baking sheet instead of the baking stone, as the bottoms of some of them were on the verge of being a bit too crisp. Still, I can make bread! And boy, hot bread fresh from the oven…soooo good.
I am totally looking forward to next month’s challenge.
The recipe for this is a bit long, so I’ve moved it to after the jump.