Potato Bread

First the bread. I love Potato Bread, its got a flavor all it’s own. As a matter of fact I probably have an obession with putting potatoes in baked goods! When I started looking for recipes for the bread I found recipes for Potato Doughnuts, Potato Rolls, I even found a recipe for a cake that called for mashed potatoes. I can’t remember where I came across this recipe, I was just very happy to find it. The recipe calls for 2 medium potatoes. Well medium to me may not be medium to anybody else, I wasn’t real happy with a measurement like that . I had made the bread several times with different sized “medium” potatoes and got different results each time, altough each loaf was always good I wanted a more substantial measurement. So I went on a Potato Bread recipe hunt. I looked at dozens of recipes, comparing ingredients and amounts of the mashed potatoes to see how I could adapted the recipe. I settled on 1 cup of mashed potatoes. It was the right choice, the bread turns out beautifully every-time I make it. Please remember to keep the potato water that you boil the potatoes in as it is used in the recipe, put enough water in the pot so you have 1 cup of water after potatoes are cooked. I absent mindedly drained the potatoes once and forgot about the water! There were alot of bad words floating around the kitchen that day. I use rapid rise yeast for the bread. The dough for this bread is sticky, and that’s the way you want it to be. I can use a hand held mixer (I don’t have a kitchen aide) to mix the flour into the liquid ingredients to a point , I can mix 5 cups of flour with the mixer, after that I take the sticky dough out of the bowl and knead the last 1 cup of flour into it by hand. I don’t add any extra flour to the recipe, just flour on the counter so it won’t stick. I oil a large bowl , turn the dough in it and cover it to rise in a warm place. I usually turn my oven on to 350 degrees and put the dough on the stove top to rise. After the first rise I knead it a couple minutes not long at all, divide the dough in half and place in 2 greased 9 inch loaf pans for the second rise. Before I bake I brush the tops of the dough with an egg wash. This bread is baked at 375 degrees for about 30 to 40 minutes. When ever I make this bread it’s usually eaten before it has a chance to cool completely! The kids love it warm!! Enjoy!