Potato Buttermilk Bread

Crusty, moist, chewy, this bread has a texture quite unlike the soft, fluffy sandwich loaves I’m accustomed to with potato breads. It has definite potato flavour but lacks the sweetness the tuber usually imparts to breads.

This is a 2-day bread that starts with a biga, a mixture of bread flour, water and yeast. It only takes about 5 minutes to make the biga but it must sit for 6 hours before refrigeration for up to 3 days. Once you’re ready to make the bread, the biga is added to the other ingredients and the process is fairly standard: kneading, 1st proofing, shaping, 2nd proofing, baking.

The ingredients for this bread are unusual in that the recipe calls for potato flour and vital wheat gluten. It was my first time using the gluten and it was clear that the chewiness of the bread was due, in part, to this ingredient. The bread is baked in a very hot, preheated oven using Rose’s ice cube method to create the steam necessary to develop the crispy crust.

I doubled the recipe and made 12 sandwich buns that tasted like they came straight from an artisanal bakery. Delicious!