Swabian potato bread using rye sourdhough

Potato bread baked and ready

Some time ago I felt like making a potatoes artisanal bread. We like our potatoes where I come from. We make noodles out of it (later more about that), why not bread? So when I saw this awesome homemade bread over here, for sure I had to try it, as even this is bread that comes from my region in Germany.
As this is the first time I made this organic bread, I had a few problems. The crust of the bread turned out awesome, nothing to complain about. But the bread dough was a bit too soft and running away so that when I transferred it in the oven; it went a bit flat on me. I think this might be, because the potato just adds wetness to the recipe. So, depending on the kind of potato I get next time, I will try to reduce the water or put up a bit more flour if the dough is too runny. Anyhow, here we go with the Swabian potato sourdough bread:


Sourdough:

• 135 g rye flour
• 135 g water
• 7 g sourdough

Leave 16 – 20 hours at room temperature

Swollen pieces:

• 40 g breadcrumbs
• 75 g water

Leave out for two hours at least

Dough

• Sourdough
• Swollen pieces
• 150 g cooked and peeled potatoes
• 555 g wheat flour (originally mentioned 515 g, I had to add 40 g flour cause the dough was just way too soft at first)
• 20 g fresh yeast or 7 g dried yeast
• 220 g watet
• 18 g salt

Mash the potatoes and the rest of the ingredients together and knead for about 5 – 8 minutes. Now let the dough rest for 60 minutes. We now form the bread. If you are not sure how to form / shape bread, please follow my link on "bread baking basics + know how". This is another one of my free formed bread and so, it has to rest in a form in order to not run flat on you. So normally you would put in a bread fermentation basket it you have one. This is a basket that bakers will let their breads ferment in for a while to get in form while fermenting. As I don't have a special basket for this, I am just taking a normal high bowl (I am still using the same on that I used when I made this bread) with a round bottom that gives my bread more or less the form that I desire for the bread. I wet the bowl before I add the dough, this way later it won't stick to it. Now I add the formed dough bottom side up into the bowl. Once the dough is added, I also wet the top of the dough (which means the bottom of the bread) one more time so it won't get a hard crust on top. Let the bread ferment another 40 - 60 minutes.

Once the breads have been fermented, I drop them upside down from their bread baskets on my permanent Teflon baking foil on which I already sprinkled a bed of flour. I wet the top of the bread one more time and sprinkle some sesame grains over the bread before it goes in the oven. The oven should be pre heated on 250°C. Now pour a cup of hot water in the oven (if you do not have this inbuilt steaming program in your oven at home), pop the bread in the oven and also place a cup of water on the floor of the oven to give some additional steam later on. Quickly close the door so the hot steam will be caught within the oven. Having all that steam in the oven is, like mentioned many times before, extremely important for a scrumptious crust and a great consistency of the bread.

Bake the self made bread for 10 - 15 minutes like this, then open up the door, let the steam out, lower the heat on 180°C and continue to bake the bread for another 30 - 40 minutes. Now switch off the heat, keep the door open and let the bread cool down slowly. I always spray a bit of water on top of the fresh loaf when it's still hot. It gives a nice and shiny surface the fresh baked crust.

Fresh baked potato bread