Rosemary potato bread

Bread that goes boing!

Fancy a spot of trampolining anyone?

This is an adaptation of Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno's Hungarian Potato Bread, from their wonderful book Bread. The texture is intriguing: dense and moist yet with an incredible springiness. Like a sourdough crossed with a potato scone of springboard descent. You really have to try it for yourself to see what I mean.

I went through a major bread-making phase several years ago and this was one of my all time favorites. The texture had me coming back for more and more, despite the clart I got myself into working with the wet dough. In fact, maybe that was part of the appeal because I always preferred to get down and dirty with my bare hands even after I discovered those plastic dough scrapers you get for working with slippy doughs.

The original is made with caraway seeds, which I'm not a huge fan of. At least in bread. Fine if you're eating it alone - perhaps with a scrape of butter, ricotta or cream cheese - but otherwise so damned bossy and overbearing that you can't taste the accompaniments.

Why rosemary instead? Because it was destined to drag up every last shining bead of gravy from a lamb stew I'd made for some special foodie friends of mine, Michael and An Bennett, now proprietors of their very own funky bistro, Epulum. They loved it, though I perhaps didn't appreciate just how much until, all these years later, they asked me to do a demo as part of a Slow Food bread event they recently ran. That was a lot of fun - thanks guys.

Neither did I appreciate how well rosemary goes with citrus until I ate a slice of this toasted with dark marmalade (you know the intense, almost toffied kind favoured by Ian Fleming's James Bond?). A vigorous, aromatic duo that will immediately snap your taste buds to attention. 

One word of warning - make sure not to overdo the rosemary or the bread will taste of soap. Ick!

Have fun getting clarty!

Ingredients

500g potatoes
2 teaspoons dried yeast (15g if using fresh)
375g strong white flour
½ teaspoon salt
1½ tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

Method

Peel potatoes, quarter and boil until cooked through. Make sure to take them off the heat as soon as they’re ready otherwise they’ll become waterlogged and you’ll end up with a dough that’s difficult to work with. Drain, reserving 175ml of the cooking water and let it cool until tepid. Meanwhile, pass the potatoes through a potato ricer or mash until smooth.

Place 100ml of the warm reserved water into a small bowl and sprinkle the yeast over. Leave for 5 minutes until dissolved and slightly frothy on top. Put flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeasted liquid. Use a metal spoon to draw in just enough of the surrounding flour to form a soft paste when mixed thoroughly. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave for 20 minutes to form a ‘sponge’ - until the paste is frothy and has expanded slightly in volume.

Add the mashed potatoes, salt, and rosemary. Using a wooden spoon, work in just enough of the remaining 75ml of reserved cooking water to bring together into a dough. If it seems like you don’t have enough liquid, you may need to finish off by using a kneading action with your hands in order to incorporate the flour. Don’t be tempted to add more water at this stage! It will moisten a lot as you knead.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for about 10 minutes until smooth, shiny and soft.  It will become wetter as you continue to work, but dust only very sparingly with flour as you want to preserve the springiness and moist texture that the potato lends. It’s normal for it to stick to your hands a bit more than a plain bread, don’t worry about it.

Return the dough to the large mixing bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave to rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Knock back, then shape into a long loaf as below.

Shaping a long loaf

1. Dust the dough and your hands with flour and pat it out into a rough square. 
2. As though you were using the dough to wrap a parcel, fold the corners of the topmost side (i.e. the one furthest away from you) in towards you, then fold that whole side in towards the centre and press down gently to seal the fold. 
3. Turn the dough 180 degrees and repeat with the other side, again pressing down gently to seal. 
4. Finally, tuck in the edges of the vertical ends and fold the entire length of dough in half, folding the horizontal side nearest you over to meet the other. Pinch the seam together to seal the fold and flip over so the dough is seam-side down.

Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. This allows the glutens to relax making it easier for you to do the final shape.

Give the dough its final shape by repeating step four above. Place on a well floured baking sheet, sift the top with a light dusting of flour and cover with a tea towel. Prove until well risen and the dough springs back slowly when gently pressed with a finger, about 30 minutes.

Cut several slashes across the top, each 1cm deep, and sift with another dusting of flour. Bake in a preheated oven at 190C until crusty and hollow-sounding when tapped underneath, about 50 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack. If you prefer, you can make it into 2 smaller loaves which will take about 30-40 minutes to bake.

To see how to shape and slash a long loaf, check out this YouTube video on working with wet doughs. The only difference I've suggested is to place the potato dough seam-side down after each shaping, easily done as it's not as slack as the one being demonstrated in the video.

Comments

[bonnie Catto]

I don't need to make this bread as no-one makes it better than the blogger who wrote all these wonderful musical words- anyway. I feel as though my effort will not produce the perfection of this particular bread-maker.

[Nancy Singleton Hachisu]

I on the other hand NEED to make this bread and will do so post haste. I have home grown flour and potatoes in the garage, rosemary in the garden and yeast in the larder. I'm good to go. I wish I still had my goat for a bit of cheese as well. But I do have some of that marmalade you described. I make it every year and store it in 4 liter jars. We have a stockpile at this point. Love the characteristically lyrical posts. Tried to subscribe to "Sign up for New Posts" but the button doesn't seem to be functional. Maybe it's me.

[Sonndapond]

Hi Nancy. Wow, home grown flour, tatties and rosemary will take it to a whole new level! Please let me know how it goes - the recipe was a hard one to write up so would be useful to know what you make of it. I read your 'Mommy Goat' piece a while back. Aside from generating the usual slightly green twinges at your way of life, I found it very sad and tender. She looked so soft and gentle. Really very graceful. Have a special fondness for goats. Never having owned one, not quite sure why, something in their natures I think.... sprightly yet serene and damned headstrong with it! Plus they don't look half as daft as sheep, of which we had plenty. You simply can't have much of a relationship with a sheep! Hope you find a way to replace her soon.
ps thanks for the tip off on the "Subscribe" button. Will enlist the help of a friend I think - I'm not sure I entirely understand what they're supposed to do.