Potato starter and potato bread...never need yeast again.

[ChefTessBakeresse]

Started Potato Bread Ooo Laa Laa


Papas! Potatoes. Spud-nifticent creation. All hail the zee pommes de terre. Yup. We're making potato bread. I'm really excited about that. Can you tell? Well, look at this fluffy cloud of bread. What's not to love about a light luscious spud cake? Spud muffins are hot. My auntie Dorothea is the queen of puns. She used to do a whole spiel about potatoes. Or was it a potato peel? Participa'taters...anticipa'tators...pontifipa'tat ers. "The eyes have it"...

This bread is raised without the use of regular yeast...just potato starter. Once you have a potato starter you can bake forever and a day using just it in place of commercial yeast. So, my cousin String Cheese came over yesterday and I had to make sure she had an ample sample (see my rhyming skills...yeah, be impressed). This onion poppy seed potato bread is out of this universe bursting with homemade matronly goodness and glory. Praise be.
You will need to make some of the basic potato starter.

Potato Starter (basic everlasting yeast)
4 oz cooked potato, mashed smooth (about 3/4 cup packed) Cooled to room temperature.
1 cup water
1/8 tsp active dry yeast

Combine all in a one quart plastic container (or larger depending on how much you want to make) and keep at 75 degree room temperature for 2-3 days. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent boogie bugs from getting in there. Don't use metal. I don't reccomend it, in case you do take your sweet time using the start and it goes into the depths of sourdough. Eeek that would make a mess of a metal container.
I like to puree mine in a blender to start it really going. After the first puree you don't have to puree it every time, but I like to make the smooth stuff. It just morphs better into the dough. Morph...is that the right word? That's like what superheroes do when they go from their secret identity plain self into the Mega dudes, right?
Isn't that amazing?Can you use instant mashed potatoes? Yes...just use 4 oz prepared...but don't use the butter or milk, just water.

Okay, let us proceed. The starter will smell nice and "yeasty". It will not smell sour unless you've let it sit for more than a few days. The beauty of this potato starter is in fact that it doesn't get too sour if you use it frequently enough, which for me means I get a nice long fermented dough that doesn't taste sour. Sometimes I just want a deeply intense earthy bread with a nice flavor, but not have it be a sourdough. I also happen to be to my core one of the most frugal people you will ever meet, at least when it matters most. I also know when to just blow the wad and get a quality product. Seriously, I have such a split personality in that sense sometimes. Buy a quality solar oven and grain mill (coming soon, I might add)...scrimp and save on ingredients by grinding my own flour and making my own starters, cottage cheese... I'm nuts. I also buy really good quality spices and extracts. I got a pedicure once. Like I say, I'm such a split personality.

My cousin "String Cheese" got a jar full of potato starter from me today. I'm cool that way. You know, giving away fermented potato goop is such an act of love. Really. Like Valentines day for really quirky people.


Chef Tess' Basic Started Potato Bread Ooo Laa Laa
yield 2 loaves

8 oz potato starter (scant 1 cup)
16 oz water (2 cups)
3.3 oz oil or melted butter (about 6 T)
1 lb 11 oz. bread flour (about 7 cups) Whole wheat is okay.
.2 oz salt (about 2 tsp)

Combine all ingredients in a 2 gallon bowl and knead by hand about 5 minutes, until smooth. You may need a little more liquid if your flour is really dry. Notice the weights on the recipe? That's a new feature. I'll be doing a lot more of that in the future for the pro-bakers out there who want to use my recipes. Notice the other regular measurements? Those are for the beginners who don't have a scale. Honestly, I love you all wherever you are in your baking. Smoooches.

Okay, form the dough into a ball and place in an ungreased bowl and cover with plastic or a lid. My dough was 90 degrees and my room was 75 degrees. At that temperature the dough took 8-12 hours to raise. Before you panic, realize that you can mix this dough at night before you go to bed, and whenever you wake up...it's ready to form into loaves. Easy stuff right? It can be done as early as 7 hours and as late as 12 hours, so there isn't a rush. Or, if you make the dough in the morning before you leave for work, you can form it into loaves when you get home. It takes 2-4 hours for it to raise into loaves to go in the oven...again it's very flexible for life "happening". I love that. If I want it for dinner, it's golden. If I want to bake it in the morning after running all my errands, I'll form it into loaves first thing in the morning and it's ready when I'm done with my 3 hours of running around. Nice...and it's flexible either way.


When the bread has raised and is ready to bake, preheat oven to 425 degrees. ( You can also bake it in the solar oven around 350 degrees...but add 15 minutes to the baking time) Bake 35-40 minutes until internal temperature of 165 degrees. Oh...I also really love replacing one cup of the bread flour with fresh ground cornmeal...this one was made with fresh ground popcorn.

There you go. Okay if you're new to starter baking, you may ask, as Angela did, "Okay, I've never done sourdough (crazy, I know, it's on my list though) so this might be obvious to someone who has worked with starters before but humor me anyway. So your potato starter has been sitting on your shelf for a couple days, then you use some of it and the rest is still sitting on the shelf but you don't have as much now and it's sitting longer than 2 days if you don't use it. What do you do now? Do you add more potatoes? More water? another whole recipe like the first? If it's called a "starter" I assume there's a continuation to it--what is it? "

Your brilliant question has merit. It shows you are reading well...and I am in need of editing for beginner starter bakers. I've been at this so long sometimes I forget. OK.

Answer...add same amount as first recipe and mix it up. Allow to sit a couple more day. In this way, the portion that was left in your container is fed starch to keep being effective yeast, and the portion you put in your dough is raising your bread. You can make a double recipe of the bread and have just a little bit of starter left...mix this with a new recipe...same as the first, and there you go. It just continues.
Be a participa'tater. Go make some.

[AZ Prepper Lady]

Yeah I'm so gonna try this. I'm a little scared to make the potato starter but I'm gonna do it. I've never done any kind of starter. Just regular old yeast around here.

Thanks for the recipe!

Oh and that bread looks delicious!!

[Angela]

Okay, I've never done sourdough (crazy, I know, it's on my list though) so this might be obvious to someone who has worked with starters before but humor me anyway. So your potato starter has been sitting on your shelf for a couple days, then you use some of it and the rest is still sitting on the shelf but you don't have as much now and it's sitting longer than 2 days if you don't use it. What do you do now? Do you add more potatoes? More water? another whole recipe like the first? If it's called a "starter" I assume there's a continuation to it--what is it?

[ChefTessBakeresse]

Your brilliant question has merit. It shows you are reading well...and I am in need of editing for beginner starter bakers. I've been at this so long sometimes I forget. OK.

Answer...add same amount as first recipe and mix it up. Allow to sit a couple more day. In this way, the portion that was left in your container is fed starch to keep being effective yeast, and the portion you put in your dough is raising your bread. You can make a double recipe of the bread and have just a little bit of starter left...mix this with a new recipe...same as the first, and there you go. It just continues.