Raisins in bread are always welcome. The addition of potato made the loaf really soft, as I was slicing it, every piece bended and collapsed beautifully on the one before.
This loaf got wiped out in one day. Time to get on with ideas for the next potato bread. I think I just saw purple sweet potatoes at the kitchen counter.
Raisin Potato Bread Loaf
220g plain flour 1/2 tablespoon instant dry yeast 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 2 tablespoon raw sugar 100g mashed potato 1 large egg, beaten ** 30-40g potato water *** 35g cold butter, cubed 60g raisins ****
** I used a large egg that weighs 70grams with shell.
*** Potato water refers to the water that the potatoes were cooked in. Cool it down to room temperature before using.
**** Up to 100g of raisins if you really like lots of raisins in your bread.
In a bowl, add the raisins and pour just enough warm water to cover the raisins. This helps to hydrate them and prevent the raisins from drawing moisture from the bread when they are mixed into the dough.
In a mixer bowl, combine plain flour, instant yeast, raw sugar, sea salt with a hand whisk to form a uniform mixture of dry ingredients. Add mashed potato, egg, and water next. Turn on the mixer with a dough hook attachment and knead these ingredients on the lowest speed (KA 1) till they come into a ball. Continue to knead for 3 minutes, then stop the mixer and let the dough sit for 15 minutes.
Turn on the mixer again and knead for 1 minute before adding butter cubes one by one while the mixer is running on its lowest speed. Keep kneading till there are no traces of butter left and the dough has reached window pane stage. At this stage, the dough will be extremely pliable and baby-bottom soft. Stop the mixer for a while.
With one hand, squeeze to dry the raisins that have been soaked in warm water. Add them to the dough in the mixer bowl, and start the mixer again on its lowest speed to incorporate the raisins into the dough. Frankly, the electric mixer won’t do a very good job at mixing the raisins uniformly into the dough without over-kneading it. I usually stop the mixer after 1-2 minute and take over to knead by hand, trying my best to spread the raisins and make sure that they don’t clump at one spot. This is to ensure that there will be raisins on every slice of the bread.
Leave the dough in the mixer bowl for its first proof of 60 minutes. The dough will rise to double its volume, punch down to deflate and transfer it to a clean worktop.
Flatten the dough with rolling-pin to push out any gas trapped inside the dough during proofing. Shape the dough and place in a bread tin. Proof for 50-60 minutes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 30 minutes. Remove bread from bread tin immediately after baking and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.
To soften the top crust, brush melted butter over the top of the loaf while it is hot. I keep a handy small block of butter just for this purpose and run it over the crust and let the heat from the bread melt the butter as they come in contact. Save the hassle of melting butter and washing an oily brush.
MONO and CO 