In a massive food fail, I let almost 20 pounds of organic potatoes freeze on my enclosed front porch over the weekend. Yeah, pretty dumb, huh?? I beat myself up pretty good over that!
Immediately, I turned to google to figure out what the heck to do with all of my rock hard potatoes and was dismayed to find that almost every source said they had to be trashed. I’m not going to lie to you: they were quite nasty: soft and squishy and very “juicy.”
But, I wasn’t giving up that easily!! Potato bread was on my mind, but I’d never made it and needed to find a recipe. Since I bake almost exclusively with freshly ground flour, I wanted to find a recipe that incorporated fresh flour.
Through Pinterest, I ended up at the blog Common Sense Homesteading and found a recipe that looked promising. I decided to make 3 small loaves to see if it would work and I was delighted that it did! In fact, this bread is beyond good – it might just be my new favorite bread!! I only hope I don’t always have to start with frozen potatoes to get this result!
I adapted the recipe to fit my needs and made THIRTEEN loaves {3 batches}. It’s that good, people. Here’s my adaption:
- 3 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
- 4 cups warm water {potato water is perfect, if you have any!}
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- 10 cups whole wheat flour {I use freshly ground hard white wheat}
- 1 heaping TBS salt
- 3 TBS yeast {I use SAF yeast}
- 1-3 cups additional flour
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
- Prepare 5 loaf pans.
- Put mashed potatoes, water, butter, and honey in a big mixer {I use a Bosch}.
- Add 10 cups flour, salt, and yeast.
- Mix everything together and quickly add enough flour to clean the sides of the bowl. If the dough looks too dry, add additional liquid instead.
- Knead on Bosch Speed 1 for 5 minutes.
- Punch dough, form 5 loaves, and place into 5 prepared loaf pans.
- Let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Let cool. Cut, slather with butter and Enjoy!
Please head over to Common Sense Homesteading if you would like to see her original recipe for 2 small loaves, perfect for small amounts of left over mashed potatoes!
Have you transformed “trashed” food into a great dish? Please share! Please don’t let me think that I’m the only person to accidentally let potatoes {or anything else} freeze… 
Linking up: Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; Simple Lives Thursday;
About Michelle
Welcome! I'm Michelle and I'm glad you're here. Simplify, Live, Love is a blog about simple life in rural Iowa. We are a self-employed, frugal, green, mostly homeschooling family of 6 working to go off the grid on a modern day homestead in Eastern Iowa. Please subscribe for gardening tips, green living hints, recipes, fun giveaways, and frugal ideas. Thanks for stopping by.
I am not a whole wheat fan. But this looks so good I am going to give it a try. I also pinned it.
Michelle, I love freshly ground whole wheat flour, but I don’t much like the commercial WW flour. I’d probably use unbleached white flour if I didn’t have access to freshly ground WW flour! Hope you like it!!
Great information. Lucky me I ran across your website by chance (stumbleupon). I have book marked it for later!
I’ve never made potato bread before but I am going to try this recipe out – maybe even this weekend. By the way, I found you through Food Waste Friday, and I will be back!
Thanks, Denise! I’m sure you will LOVE the bread!
Absolutely GORGEOUS photo – I can almost taste that toasted bread with melty butter! Pinning this, and will definitely try the recipe.
I love baking bread, just printed this recipe so I can give it a try. Thanks for sharing!
Holly
PS, discovered your site while visiting Simple Lives Thursday Blog Hop.
I ALWAYS MADE HOMEMADE BREAD FOR MY FAMILY, BUT I AM 74, AND I JUST MAY TRY IT…DO YOU HAVE A GOOD RECIPE FOR EASTER BREAD/BRAIDED…
I don’t. I’m sorry.