A sticky situation with Potato Bread

Oh the possibilities are endless... should I make a couple of loaves, or rolls, maybe olive rosemary focaccia ... that was the toughest decision about this recipe. I was a little nervous about making bread but the anticipation of eating the finished product far out weighed any anxiety about charting unfamiliar territory. This month's Daring Baker challenge was Tender Potato Bread, hosted by Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups.

First, let me say this was the stickiest dough I have ever worked with. It was a blob of a dough. The dough took a lot longer to rise than I expected. Maybe my yeast was old or I didn't mix in enough flour when kneading. That's if you can call it kneading.

When I "poured" the dough out onto a well floured marble slab I basically had to use a pastry scraper as my right hand, constantly folding the dough on top of itself and adding flour as needed. I did this for over 10 minutes, adding an extra 3 cups of flour to the dough. It was still very sticky but for fear of over flouring I stopped and scraped it into a greased bowl and allowed it to rise. In hindsight I should have used the rest of the flour. The dough would have still been soft but I have a feeling much more manageable.

After about 3 hours it just barely doubled. I gave it another 1/2 hour and it really didn't expand much more, so I figured it was time to turn it out. The dough was still very sticky when briefly kneaded for a second time. I cut 2/3 of the dough off and folded in kalamata olives and chopped rosemary and placed the dough in a loaf pan. I made 4 small round loafs out of the remaining dough and allowed everything to rise for another hour or so.

The loaf and rolls didn't come close to doubling in size this time. They rose, but hardly doubled. I topped with sea salt, chopped rosemary and olive oil then stuck them in the oven for 50 minutes. The top of my loaf got really dark unfortunately and the smaller loaves really browned.

The whole process including rising time and clean up took about 7 hours. I think it took so long because I had to let my dough rise forever - the combined rising time of first and second rise was at least 5 hours. I will definitely make this dough again now that I have an idea what to expect. I know not to worry about adding too much flour, go with what the dough feels like rather than an exact measurement of flour. Maybe use less potatoes. I used 15 oz this time - helping to create the sticky blob. Next attempt I will use closer to 8 oz. of potatoes for a more manageable dough. Also, buy fresh yeast instead of using what I had in my pantry already.

Please check out the recipe for this fabulous bread on Tanna's site. It's out of Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour & Tradition by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.