Whole-Meal Bread with Potatoes

Amelia here (for once). It's Hanukkah! Or possibly Chanukah. Which means that shredded potatoes are on our mind here at Casa Verde. Which additionally means that potato bread was the obvious choice for today's Adventurein Baking. In a pleasing homage to my roots, this particular potato bread is, according to Beard, "provided by the Norwegian Government School for Domestic Science Teachers."

I made half a batch; a whole batch makes two immense loaves and requires 10 cups of flour. I also altered the recipe somewhat, substituting sour cream for buttermilk.

The dough was a joy to work with once it was finally mixed -- not at all sticky, not at all crumbly, generally awesome. And of course, it being a yeasted bread with sour cream and potatoes, it smelled amazing. Like a lot of Beard's recipes, this one has the potential for undersaltitude (yeah, that is totally a word) -- I added a bit more than the suggested amount (1-2 Tbsp for a whole batch, which, again, I halved), and if I had it to do again, I'd probably add even more.

A lot of potato bread recipes (and I say this on the basis of two or even three whole minutes of browsing Beard + internet) require a significant chunk of processing for the taters -- boiling or mashing or what have you. This one, not so much -- another bonus. Grated potatoes go into the proofed yeast with the sour cream (or buttermilk if you like following recipes), followed by salt and flour. Combine. Knead forever. Rise. Knead. Rise. Bake. Et voila. All of which is to say that this is a very small amount of labor for a very large amount of awesomeness.

Here are the fruits of my labor (NB: not the actual fruits) -- post-first-rise dough on top, pleasingly crunchy finished product below.