savory sweet-potato bread

i made this savory sweet-potato bread for a potluck at the buddhist monastery last night.

the author said the bread has a good but not particularly strong flavor, so we bumped up the thyme. left out the sage since we didn’t have any.

the bread was good – nothing spectacular, but a great twist on a typical french loaf. i’d say this is the perfect bread to bring kids and other picky eaters. it’s gorgeous, but not too challenging a flavor. and a good blank canvas to spice up.

the dough is a dreamy, easily workable consistency, and the mild orange color is interesting. we did one in a loaf pan and one on a cookie sheet, and the cookie sheet loaf  spread out to this big, beautiful, even loaf that looked very fancy. definitely impressive. the one in the loaf pan was a little unpleasantly dense, but makes good “toast bread”

you really can’t taste the sweet potato.

interestingly, we’ve discovered that only rising breads a third instead of a half beats the weird-rise-altitude problem. and a pan of water in the bottom of the oven gives a super-thick crust. every bread we’ve made so far has been amazing. the ciabatta was incredible, light and springy and crusty and sour.

1 cup vegetable stock

1 cup hot water

1/2 cup cold milk.

2 T yeast

1 medium-large sweet potato, baked, cooled enough to handle, and peeled.

2 T unsalted butter

2 tsp sugar

1  1/2 T salt

6-8 grinds of pepper (I didn’t measure it – it’s probably about 1/8-1/4 tsp.)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp dried sage

5  1/2 – 6  1/2 cups flour

proof the yeast in the warm liquids. smash it all together, knead ~5mins, rise, divide, re-rise and preheat oven to 375, and bake for an absurdly long time (~50mins, rotate pans halfway)

check out the link for a visually detailed recipe.

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