Okregly Chleb Kartoflany

Nope, I can't pronounce it either.  It's a Polish potato bread.

This is one bread recipe I found by simply browsing recipes from around the world.  The deciding factor in my choice to make it right now was the large amount of leftover mashed potatoes in my refrigerator.

As my eldest daughter made the mashed potatoes this Thanksgiving, instead of me, they were especially well-suited to this purpose.  When I make mashed potatoes, I put in butter, milk, salt, pepper, and maybe garlic.  When she made the mashed potatoes, she put in a little butter and kept the whole thing rather dry.  (I resisted the urge to insist she make them my way.)  There were a lot left over, and the thought came to me while spooning it all into a container and putting it in the refrigerator that this would be the perfect opportunity to try out one of the many potato bread recipes I had found and bookmarked.  (I figured the negligible amount of butter in them wouldn't affect the recipes too much.)

This was the first one I found which gave me the measurements in terms of mashed potatoes, instead of in terms of potatoes.  <shrug>  Hey, it makes life easier.

The recipe, as written, only makes one loaf, but I doubled it when baking.  I figured if I was going to go through three rises and a 45-minute cooking time, I was going to make it more worth my while by at least making two loaves.  (Besides, it used up more of those mashed potatoes.)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup mashed potatoes

3 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons butter, softened (I goofed here and used 3 Tablespoons.)

3 cups flour, divided

1 large egg, beaten

1 package active dry or instant yeast (about 2.25 teaspoons)  Do not use rapid rise yeast.

4 Tablespoons warm water

1 teaspoon salt

Scald the milk and place it in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add the mashed potatoes, sugar, and butter, and mix by hand.

In the mean time, dissolve the yeast in the water and allow to sit for about 5 minutes.

When the milk mixture has cooled a bit, add 1 1/2 cups flour and the egg, mixing by hand until well combined.  (By hand?  Face it, the bowl of my stand mixer does not lend itself well to hand mixing. I used the regular beater of my mixer until well combined. )

Add the salt and the yeast mixture to the potato mixture and mix well.

Cover the bowl and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours.  (Yep, you read that right.)

It's actually rather amazing what happens to this soft mixture after 1 1/2 hours.  It rises, all right, but it's one step shy of being almost a liquid.  (If you jiggle the bowl, it swishes just a little.)  I believe this is called a "sponge".  My daughters had way too much fun jiggling the bowl and watching the dough move.

Remember, this batch is doubled, so the bowl is extra-full.

Place the bowl on the stand mixer and attach the bread hook.  Add that last 1 1/2 cups flour, mixing as you would normally for a yeast dough.

Place the dough in a greased bowl (twirl around and flip so the side of the dough exposed to the air is also greased.)  Cover it and allow it to rise until about doubled.  This took about a half hour for me in a warm location.

Punch down the dough, form it into a round loaf, and place it on a greased baking sheet.  Cover and let rise until about doubled.  (Again, about a half hour for me.)  In the mean time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  (Yes, it is unusual to have a bread baking at this low a temperature.)

Before the rise.

With a sharp knife, cut a shallow "X" into the top of the loaf and sprinkle lightly with flour.

Sharpen your knife, or it won't cut risen dough well.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes.  For the giggles of it, I spritzed water into the oven when I put in the bread, because I felt like trying for an extra-yummy crust.  The original recipe says the bread is done when ". . . an instant-read thermometer reads 190 degrees."  I have never before used a thermometer on my bread, but, just in case there was a trick to this bread, I went ahead and checked it after 40 minutes, when the bread looked done to me.  No trick.  It was 190 degrees.  Next time, I won't bother to take the measurement.

As I removed the bread, I was almost overcome by the absolutely wonderful roll-your-eyes-in-the-back-of-your-head-in-ecstasy smell.  I tried to wait for it to cool--I really did--but the Senior Master Kitchen Helper (who had been dubious at the idea of mashed potatoes in bread) and I finally couldn't stand it anymore and decided we just had to see how it had turned out.

We couldn't stop with one slice.  The crust was crusty, the interior was extra-soft and fluffy, and the smell was decadent.  Good thing we made two loaves . . .

As far as I'm concerned, although it takes a little extra time, this recipe is definitely a keeper.  I feel sort of badly my husband is on travel and didn't get the chance to taste it, but that means I have the excuse to make it again soon.

Craving attack!!  Gotta go get another slice . . . be right back . . .