Tender Potato Bread

This month was Round 2 for me of the Daring Bakers challenge, in which over 300 food bloggers prepare the same elaborate recipe and post about it on the same day. This month, our chosen baked good was savory, not sweet: a Tender Potato Bread with mashed potatoes mixed right into the dough. I decided to make this as my contribution to my family's Thanksgiving dinner (fortunately my Mom took care of a good bit of the rest).


Before setting out to bake this delicious bread, I perused the Daring Bakers internal blog to see if anyone had any tips or suggestions. Fortunately, in this manner I was warned that the dough was incredibly sticky due to the mashed potatoes. In fact, sticky would be an understatement. While I was kneading the dough, I had to get my Mom to gradually add in the flour for me, since my hands were literally stuck to the ball of mush. It didn't take too much flour to wrangle it into control, though, and even though it was incredibly soft (I didn't want to add too much flour for fear of making the bread tough) I decided to shape it into rolls to go with Thanksgiving dinner. Well, the dough was so soft that it couldn't hold the roll shape. When I put the balls of dough onto the baking sheet, they just flattened out into one big...sheet of bread. It was odd. But when I tore it apart into pieces to put into the bread basket and carried the hot-from-the-oven mini-loaves to the table, no one was complaining. The bread had a nice crusty top and was chewy and moist on the inside. Definitely well worth the effort.


To see hundreds of other takes on this Tender Potato Bread, formed into all sorts of shapes and topped with yummy extras, cruise on over to the Daring Bakers blog roll starting today. If you're feeling particularly daring, check out the recipe over at My Kitchen in Half Cups, whose creator, Tanna, selected this tasty treat. (Don't let the recipe's length scare you; it just contains a lot of variations.)

Happy Turkey Day

Well, folks, two chipped teeth didn't stop me from pigging out like a fat cow today. Wow, I really mixed up my animal metaphors in that last sentence. Anyway, my Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous, and I hope yours was too. No recipes for now unless I get specific requests. In the meantime, here's our menu and a picture of my plate:

Mixed Greens with Beets, Orange Slices and Goat Cheese
Potato Bread
Mustard and Herb Turkey with Scallion Gravy
Lemon Roasted Green Beans
Sweet Potato-Bourbon Mash
Cranberries in Port Wine and Cinnamon
Texas Pecan Pie

In the picture: turkey, cranberries, sweet potato mash, green beans.