1 cup potatoes (boiled and mashed)
1 3/4 cup milk (whole, room temperature)
1/4 cup butter (room temp)
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp. instant yeast
5 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp. sea salt
Preheat the oven 375 F 20 minutes prior to baking.
Mixing the dough
- Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender.
- Remove potatoes from water. Mash the potatoes and let them cool.
- Once potatoes have cooled put them in mixing bowl. Add the milk, butter, honey, instant yeast, and half the flour. Stir until the mixture looks like a batter.
- Add the rest of the flour and salt. Stir until the mixture comes together into a dough. (the dough is pretty crumbly at this point. Don't add more liquid. They have handy little paddles for us to use while kneading. At home I use a rice paddle to gather up the loose pieces and my other hand to knead. It works pretty well.)
- Scrape the dough from the bowl onto your work surface.
- Knead the dough for 8 minutes, until it feels nice and strong and doesn't tear easily when pulled upon.
- Put the dough in a spray bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
- Ferment for 1 hour.
- After the hour, give the dough a fold: turn the dough out of the container onto a lightly floured surface. Fold it towards you about 2/3 of the way, then away from you. Then fold it in the same manner from left to right or right to left.
- Once folded, let the dough rest in the bowl again for 30 minutes, covered with plastic.
- After 30 minutes, divide the dough into 2 pieces of equal size. Shape each piece into a loaf shape and place in a sprayed load pan.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment for 60-90 minutes, or until the loaves are 1 1/2 times their original size.
- When ready, bake for 30-35 minutes, or until loaves are nicely browned. Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.
