Ricotta Cheese Potato Sourdough Miche

Well this was supposed to be rolls and not a miche, but when mixing up this concoction it ended up very wet.  I was just going to make a simple potato bread but after I accidentally dropped the container of ricotta cheese out of the refrigerator and onto the floor where it proceeded to crack open I figured I might as well add it to the cauldron.

I have to say the addition of the ricotta cheese and mashed potatoes really made this dough extremely light and moist.  This is the most potatoes I have ever added to a sourdough before and it worked out great.  I also added some dried onions to the potato water I saved after cooking the mashed potatoes.  To try to make this a little healthier and wholesome I used some rolled oats and Graham flour along with First Clear and European style flour.

The final result was an extremely moist and open crumb with a nice thick crunchy crust.  The bread melts in your mouth and you almost don't need anything on it.  This is one of those keep it away from me breads or I will eat the whole thing in one sitting!

AP Starter

227 grams AP Flour

71 grams AP Seed Starter

151 grams Water at Room Temperature (80-90 degrees F.)

Mix ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined.  Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for around 8 hours.  The starter should almost double when ready to proceed.  You can either mix in final dough or put in refrigerator for at most 1 day before using.

Main Dough Ingredients

425 grams AP Starter from above

100 grams First Clear Flour

275 grams European Style Flour (KAF--you can substitute AP or Bread Flour)

115 grams Graham Flour

75 grams Rolled Oats

235 grams Mashed Potatoes with Skins

225 grams Ricotta Cheese

397 grams Potato Water 85 - 90 degrees (I added about 1 tablespoon of dried onions to the water)

20  grams Pistachio Oil or Olive Oil

16 grams Seas Salt or Table Salt

3 Teaspoons Dried or Fresh Chives

100 grams Softened Butter

Directions

Mix the flours and butter with the potato water in your mixer or by hand for 1 minute. Let it rest covered in your bowl for 20 minutes.   Next cut the starter into small pieces and put into the bowl and also add the rolled oats, potatoes, ricotta cheese,  chives, oil and salt.  Mix for 4 minute to incorporate all the ingredients.  The dough should form a sticky ball at the end of 4 minutes mixing.  This dough like I said before was very moist so it didn't really form a ball.  Resist the urge to add too much additional flour.  If you are uncomfortable working with a wet dough, hold back some of the water from step 1.

Next take the dough out of the bowl and place it a well oiled bowl.  Do several stretch and folds in the bowl and rest the dough uncovered for 10 minutes.  After the rest do several more stretch and folds in the bowl and cover the bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes.  Do one more stretch and fold and let it sit at room temperature covered for 2 hours.  Feel free to do some additional S&F''s to build up more gluten strength.  After 2 hours you can put the dough into the refrigerator for 24 hours or up to 2 days before baking.  I baked the bread about 14 hours later.

The next day (or when ready to bake) let the dough sit out at room temperature for 1.5 - 2  hours.

Next, form the dough into your desired shape and put it in a floured,  or bowl and let it rise covered for 2 hours or until it passes the poke test.

Score the loaves as desired and prepare your oven for baking with steam.

Set your oven for 500 degrees F. at least 30 minutes before ready to bake.  When ready to bake place the loaves into your on  your oven stone with steam and lower the temperature immediately to 450 degrees.    When the loaf is golden brown and reached an internal temperature of 200 degrees F. you can remove it from the oven.

Let it cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before digging in if you can wait that long.