Potato bread and potato bread rolls have long been one of those things I see at the store and wonder at (unlike Wonder Bread… which I generally balk at). “How does one make bread out of potatoes?” I have asked myself. Of course the answer is that you’re not using only potatoes, but I didn’t know that years ago.
The yellow color and soft, light texture of potato bread and rolls are a delicious mixture of starches that make for a perfect sandwich bread. Not too savory and not too sweet, potato bread can be used across the board. Hamburger, hot dog, and dinner potato bread rolls seem to add their own wholesome character without detracting from whatever they are paired with. So when I asked my boyfriend what kind of bread he’d like this week and he responded with “potato bread”, I jumped at the chance.
I’d been specifically looking for a recipe for rolls the other night, intending to pair them with a beef and barley soup for an evening with friends. While the evening did not come together as planned, the idea for rolls remained and with the suggestion of potato bread I immediately jumped to making potato bread rolls instead.
the Recipe
The recipe I tried came from Bread Illustrated: A Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving Bakery-Quality Results At Home. This book from America’s Test Kitchen has some phenomenal recipes. I especially appreciate that they describe why they are taking some of the steps they take in the recipe based on the tests they conducted and the food science behind the bake.
Another reason for this selection is the limited amount of butter versus some of the others. There were recipes calling for 12 tablespoons of butter! I can only imagine that this would make more of a potato brioche… which actually sounds delicious but is not what I was going for. I stuck relatively closely to the recipe. See my notes for next time down below for some additional thoughts following the bake.
the Process
the Prep
This recipe does not need a levain or poolish or anything requiring an overnight preferment. What it does require is that you prepare the potato for the potato bread rolls. Seems a fairly basic thing – cube up a potato and boil it until fork-tender. But there’s a trick! You’ve got to save a little of the starchy potato water for use in the rolls and you’ve got to cook out some of the water after draining the potatoes. This basically leaves you with some pretty dry potatoes for mashing. Trust me – there’s still plenty of water in the potato itself. Keep the potato water in a separate bowl.
Rice or mash the potato down and add the butter to it while hot then add the butter in pieces. Stir with a spoon, taking the opportunity to mash up any larger potato bits. The butter will melt in to the potatoes while you stir.
To the reserved, cooled starchy potato cooking water, add the sugar and the egg. Beat to combine until the sugar has dissolved.
That’s really all the advanced prep for the potato bread rolls.
the Mix
Potato bread and potato bread rolls use a fairly sticky dough. So for this bake, I resorted to a stand mixer for most of the work. Measure the flour, yeast, and salt into the bowl of the mixer and whisk together. Then add in the potato mixture and combine into the flour mixture with your hands. This is not as messy as it sounds. It doesn’t take long before the potato melds in with the flour to form a pebble consistency.
With the mixer on low speed, add in the water/egg/sugar mixture a bit at a time. It may take a couple of minutes to come together and the flour to absorb the liquid. Once there are no pockets of dry flour, turn up the mixer to medium-low and mix for about 8 minutes.
The recipe said that the dough should clear the sides of the bowl but still be stuck to the bottom. Mine did not act this way. Instead, mine still got stuck to the sides a bit after being scraped down. My instinct here was to add more flour but I resisted because I had seen several recipes indicating that potato bread rolls would have a sticky dough. The dough came away easily enough when scraped down so I called it good enough. More on that later…
the Knead
Knead on a lightly floured counter for about 30 seconds to a minute. The dough should be soft and pliable. If still sticky, use a bench scraped to pull and fold.
the Bulk Rise
Transfer to a lightly greased bowl, being sure to flip the dough so it gets some oil on both top and bottom. My dough was misbehaving and trying to stick to the bowl so I added a little more oil. One might say this was a little more than I should have used but it got the job done.
The potato bread dough rises rather quickly, all things considered. My kitchen was a couple degrees cooler than usual today on account of Florida deciding to participate in Autumn for three days. Even with a lower temp, it only took about 30 – 40 minutes to basically double in size.
the Shape
Turn the dough out onto a clean counter and cut into twelve (12) even pieces. I use a kitchen scale for this. The recipe actually calls for pulling the dough into a rectangle and then cutting. It really doesn’t matter so long as you deflate the dough a little before shaping.
Leaving the unshaped pieces under lightly greased plastic wrap, shape the potato bread rolls one at a time into a ball. To do this, fold the edges of the dough up and pinch so that you have a smooth, taut surface. Then place the ball seam side down on the counter and either roll in small circles or use the counter for friction to pull against.
As you can see from this picture, I opted to not follow the “clean counter” directions. My dough was rather sticky and trying to make rounds from it resulted in some rough bits where it clung to my fingers. I instead opted to put a little flour down so that the potato bread rolls might stand a chance of looking roll-ish ever.
Place the shaped rolls on to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. They should have some room between them to grow because they absolutely will expand. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap.
the Proof
Allow to proof about 30 minutes. The potato bread rolls should have spread a fair bit and be almost touching.
the Bake
Preheat the oven to 425F / 220C and place a rack one step above center.
Brush the potato bread rolls evenly with egg wash then bake 12 – 14 minutes, rotating the baking tray about halfway through the bake for even results.
My oven seemed determined to not hit 425. The rolls went in at around 375 for me and got a couple of extra minutes to bake because of it. I think they had maybe 16 – 17 minutes total. This actually worked out well because my dough had remained so wet. It gave time for the moisture to evaporate while not burning the egg wash.
the Finished Potato Bread Rolls
First of all, the potato bread rolls smell absolutely delicious! They won’t sing to your ears but they will definitely sing to your nose and your taste buds.
The finished rolls have the classic, golden yellow tops from the egg wash. These were not as yellow on the inside as many potato breads or potato bread rolls. I attribute this to the lower concentration of butter and eggs (again, potato brioche would be more akin to that yellow hue). There is still plenty of richness from the egg and butter in there. They are soft and fluffy but still hold their crumb when bitten or cut.
You may have noticed that there are only eight rolls in the finished picture above. That’s because four of them were already eaten by the time I got my camera.
The recipe says to allow the potato bread rolls to cool at least 15 minutes before serving. I really couldn’t wait that long for them to fully cool before trying one… or two. This did give me a moment of pause as they first one I bit into seemed just slightly under-baked. That actually wasn’t the case – it’s just that the heat and moisture hadn’t properly dissipated so it still seemed just a touch sticky in the middle. This effect went away after cooling so that the structure was more set, as shown in the photo of the interior above.
my Notes for Next Time
- The dough was very sticky. Probably too sticky. I saw this when I was mixing the potato cooking water mixture into the flour mixture. There was a point before I had put all of it in at which I thought it looked about right. This was probably less than a tablespoon of liquid from using it all and I probably should have stopped there. Next time I will.
- Because the dough was super sticky, I used a lot of oil to grease the bowl for the bulk rise. This resulted in having far more oil in the dough during shaping than should have been there. Partly, this is also because I had not used a paper towel to spread the oil around the bottom and sides of the bowl before dropping the dough in, which meant the dough started to stick and I had to use more oil to un-stick it. Next time, I’ll prepare the bowl a bit better.
- Get the oven temperature up to 425 and remove the baking stone. The stone will absorb some heat and is not necessary for this bake. Might as well take it out and let the tray just sit directly on the rack.
- There are some variations listed in the book for making the potato bread rolls with cheddar cheese and mustard powder. This I must try.
Potato Bread Rolls
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Plastic wrap
- Stand mixer
- Sauce pan
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 russet potato peeled and cubed
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter cut into pieces
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 315 g bread flour
- 2 tsp Rapid Rise yeast (or 1 packet)
- 1 tsp salt
Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp water
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Place peeled and cubed potato into a saucepan and cover with about 1 inch (2-3 cm) of water. Bring to a boil then turn down and cook covered for about 10 minutes until fork tender.
- Scoop out 5 Tbsp (75 ml) of the cooking liquid from the potatoes and drain the rest. Return the potatoes to the pot and cook on medium low to evaporate any excess liquid.
- Rice or mash the potato and measure out one cup of packed mash.
- To the potato, add the butter and stir to combine and melt the butter. Allow to cool.
- To the cooled, reserved cooking liquid add in the sugar and egg and beat to combine until the sugar has dissolved.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together flour, yeast, and salt.
- Add in potato mixture to the flour and combine with hands, breaking up larger clumps until pebble consistency.
- With dough hook in place, turn on mixer to low speed and slowly add potato water mixture until there is no dry flour.
- Turn up speed on mixer to medium-low and knead for 8 minutes, until the dough clears the sides but the bottom is still sticky.
- Tip dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand about 30 seconds until it is a smooth ball.
- Lightly grease a large bowl and place the dough in, turning to coat.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30 – 60 minutes until the dough has doubled in bulk.
- Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Tip out dough on to a clean counter and gently deflate a bit.
- Cut into 12 equal weight pieces and place some lightly greased plastic wrap over top.
- Working one piece at a time, form into a ball and place seam side down on the parchment-lined baking tray. You should have space for all 12 with a bit of room between.
- Once all 12 balls are on the parchment, cover loosely with the lightly greased plastic wrap and allow to proof 30 – 60 minutes until an indent made springs back halfway.
- Preheat the oven to 425F / 220C.
- Beat the ingredients for the egg wash together in a bowl then brush on to the rolls.
- Bake 12 – 14 minutes, rotating the tray once mid-way through the bake. They should be shiny and golden brown when finished.
- Remove to a baking rack immediately and cool at least 15 minutes before eating.