Butter Mashed Potato Rosemary Black Pepper Sourdough
I’ve wanted to make a mashed potato bread for some time and just got around to it. This has 25% butter mashed potatoes, 82% hydration, 9% prefermented flour. I did an overnight levain build which grew to over 3x and was used young just as the dome started to flatten. A saltolyse was done also overnight, both starting in the fridge to slow things down. The mashed potatoes were added to half the dough after Rubaud mixing when the levain was added. Then was fully mixed with slap and folds on the counter. The two halves of the dough were combined using a lamination and then the black pepper and fresh rosemary were added during lamination as well. Three coil folds were done. I was aiming for a 60% rise in the aliquot jar because that is what seems to be ideal, however, for some reason the bulk was going really fast and I was late to shape the dough and there was at least a 65% rise by the time bulk ended. I believe evidence of the over fermentation can be seen in the lack of ear and relatively poor oven spring of this bake. It also has more slopping shoulders than I like. I suppose the 25% mashed potatoes may also contribute to this, but I don’t think so.
This bread smells so good right now with the rosemary and black pepper aromas filling my kitchen. I will bake this again and watch bulk more closely than I did this time to get a better bake. There’s always room for improvement.
Comments
Oh I didn’t mention how I made the mashed potatoes. I didn’t want to make a big dish of mashed potatoes for this bread and I didn’t want to add excess water during the preparation of the potatoes. So a quick easy way to make a small amount of mashed potatoes goes like this.
Clean the potatoes thoroughly, then prick all over with a fork. Place potatoes on a microwave safe dish. Uncovered, microwave for 5 mins, then turn potatoes over and microwave again for 5 mins.
Cut hot potatoes in half and scoop the potato out of the skins, this is quite easy as the meat of the potatoes have shrunken a bit from the skin while cooking. The mash adding salt, pepper and butter or whatever else you like to have in your mashed potatoes.
The crumb does have some evidence of overfermentation, so I was correct in my thinking that is was a bit over, but it isn’t too bad. The flavours are excellent and what I imagined with some rosemary without it being overbearing and then the gentle heat of the black pepper in the finish. The potatoes lend a tenderness to the crumb and thinned the crust, yet the crust was still crisp. All in all a good bread that I will definitely bake again.
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I wouldn’t say it’s over fermented at all. Looks soft and delicious. When you mentioned the hydration, were you including the water in the potatoes? ( just curious)
Thanks Sumi. The hydration was just water added to the flour. I have no idea how much water the potatoes added, I guess they would add some but the way I cooked them was without any water at all just simply using the microwave, so quick and easy and tidy. No extra water added by boiling or even steaming them.
You are being way too hard on yourself! Gorgeous loaves!
Danni, thanks. I’m being very picky I guess, I haven’t quite achieved great consistency especially when trying to make up new recipes. This one just got a little bit away from me but overall the crumb is much better than I was expecting.
Can't go wrong with rosemary black pepper butter mashed potato. Crumb looks moist and open too. I find the dough to be sturdier when heavy ingredients like porridge and mashed potato are involved. This usually leads to less spreading and thus a taller slice.
Thank you Elsie, other than one larger hole that shows signs of gluten weakening, the crumb was otherwise very good for me. My koji rice porridge loaf was the worst for spreading for me, but that had 50% uncooked koji in it, which in retrospect is much too much in my opinion, Chad Robertson not withstanding.
Very nice Benny, i'm a big fan of Potato and Rosemary, there is a lot that you can play with , so many different potatos and quite a few different Rosemarys too. There is a very fragrant and soft white rosemary and i do like the Gallipoli Rosemary purpotedly bought back from the shores of Gallipoli (Turkey) by returning first world war soldiers. Gallipoli has great significance for Australians as so many didn't come back from those beaches.
I recently found a prostrate Rosemary that i managed to get a cutting from growing in and cascading from a planter box in a small country town of Kojunup when I stopped at their Bakery for a pie. I was so pleased that i managed to get a cutting that has started growing because when i passed through again recently the planter box had been cleared out and replanted with flowers. i have not seen this form anywhere else.
I too have recently made a bread that i over proofed both in the bulk fermentation stage and final proof, it still produced a tasty loaf but i was caught out by being busy doing jobs in the garden, i will post it soon. I used green split peas and bacon bits, virtually the ingredients for a good Pea and Ham soup but more of that in the post. I think you will be super impressed with your Potato and Rosemary toasted too.
kind regards Derek.
Thanks for your comments on my bake Derek. I never knew, but shouldn’t have been surprised that there are so many different types of rosemary. It’s cool that you have so many of them, I suppose where you live in Australia you have them planted in the garden and have no issue with them surviving the winters which aren’t very cold.
I look forward to seeing your split pea soup bread.
Stay well
Benny
Hello, could you tell us how much pepper you used in this formula, or the percentage? Thanks!
Sure of course. For herbs I typically add between 1-2% so I added 1% cracked black pepper and 1% chopped fresh rosemary.
Benny