The purple sweet potato bread I baked last week was not purple enough, so I baked another version using my usual mashed potatoes recipe.  Actually the earlier version got its color from only 30 grams of sweet potatoes and 20 grams of water that I boiled the potatoes in.  This time, I made the color more intense by using 100grams of potatoes, steaming it instead of boiling to cook it.

Thinking that the sweet potatoes will be sweet enough to replace the sugar, I omitted any sweeteners, and ended up with a really bland but still pillowy loaf.  Not that I mind, traditional bread recipes do not add sugar anyway.  The bread was meant to be eaten with butter and spreads, so it did not really bother me, though I did wonder if the bread would have risen higher if sugar was added, given that it was a 220g of flour recipe.  I have baked taller loaves.

I will find out when I bake this again if I see purple sweet potatoes available in the market next week.

Purple Sweet Potato Bread Loaf

220g plain flour
1/2 tablespoon instant yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
100g mashed purple sweet potatoes
1/2 egg
40g water
30g cold unsalted butter, cubed

Combine flour, yeast and salt in a mixer bowl and stir with hand whisk to mix them well.  Add sweet potatoes, beaten egg and water, turn the mixer on lowest speed (KA1) with a dough hook, and knead till the ingredients come into a ball.  Stop the mixer and let this dough stand for 15 minutes to allow liquid to be absorbed better by the flour, I find that kneading to reach window pane stage later will be easier with this additional dough resting step.

After 15 minutes, turn the mixer on again to knead the dough for 1 minute, then slowly add cubed butter one by one, and knead till dough reaches window pane stage.  Remove bowl from mixer, and let it proof for 60 minutes, covered and placed in a draft free place.

The dough would have expanded to twice its size, punch down the dough to deflate it, and transfer it to a clean work top.  With a rolling pin, flatten the dough to push out gases trapped inside the dough.  Shape the dough and place in bread tin, seam side downwards, and proof for another 60 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 30 minutes.  When done, remove bread from tin immediately and let it cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing.

If you like bread loaf soft at the top, brush over the top crust with butter when the bread is freshly hot out of the oven.  The soft dome top also makes slicing the bread easier after it has cooled down.

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