Daring Bakers Debut: Tender Potato Bread

Feeling daring…
After deliberating for several months, Eva of Sweet Sins and I decided we are daring enough to join the Daring Bakers. I was thrilled to find out that for our first challenge, Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups, chose a recipe from a gorgeous book Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World by the Toronto couple, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. They met in Tibet in 1985 and began a career which combined their travel memoirs with the food they discovered, researched and photographed along the way. Watch out for their forthcoming book Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Stories from the Other China which will be published in May 2008.

More about the book Home Baking…

I have not read their very popular book of Hot Sour Salty Sweet, but if it’s anything like Home Baking, then I should definitely put it on my Christmas Wish List. Home Baking is a mammoth hard cover book of global recipes, from sweet pies and tarts to festive breads, bagels, flat breads, a variety of cakes and cookies. The couple have visited countries and kitchens where ingredients and techniques are widely divergent and the local tastes lean to quite varied flavours. It’s not just the recipes, or the beautifully captured images (the couple took all the location photos) in the book that makes this one of my favourite books. It’s the evocative stories about their encounters with the people they met along the way that they've woven through the book that adds an intriguing dimension to it.

I can’t praise this stunning book more highly. But do not expect this book to be a general purpose book for baking or a resource for techniques because some of the recipes (just like this month’s DB recipe challenge) are at times rather vague and can be somewhat tricky to follow. However, Naomi said in this interview, “Don’t not do it cause you’re afraid…Forgive yourself, enjoy it…everything takes practise…it’s that less-than-perfect look that gives the baking such character.”

On to the DB challenge…Tender Potato Bread
With that in mind, I pursued this month’s DB challenge with a relaxed attitude. You can see from the original recipe posted here that the amount of potato and flour is not precise, and Tanna suggested that for the potato, we could use between 8 oz (beginner) to 16 oz (advanced). I have been baking bread for many years now, and since the whole point of joining DB is about taking risks and reaching beyond my comfort zone, I decided to use 14oz of sebago potato (unpealed weight) and ended up using about 7 cups of flour (plus extra for kneading).

Making the dough…
Once I decided on the proportion of potato and flour, I found the process pretty straight forward. The dough was quite soft and sticky so using a plastic scraper to gather the soft dough together helped. The dough rises fairly quickly, maybe because of all the starch in the potato. The bit that I found slightly tricky (or should I say sticky?) was when I wanted to shape the dough. I had grand plans of making cute mini buns with fillings but my dough was quite soft. But I didn’t want to add more flour (or else it will be less "tender"). I quickly improvised and was very happy with the final results.

My DB touch…
- I made a meat-filled ciabatta looking loaf. Due to the spicy filling, it almost reminded me of a stuffed Turkish pide.
- I also made some dinner rolls. For a more interesting shape, I placed the dough in mini tart moulds and placed a fresh rosemary sprig on top.

Curry Meat Filled Potato Bread

Tender Potato Buns

Potato Bread with Curry Beef Filling
The idea for this curry flavoured filling idea stems from my Singaporean upbringing. When I think of potato, I think of curry, when I think of curry, I think of mopping up the rich gravy with bread. Hence the birth of the curry beef filled potato loaf.

Half quantity of the tender potato bread dough
250g mince beef (or lamb)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 tbspn of curry powder mixture*
2 small carrots, cut into small cubes
1 cup frozen peas
Tomato paste
Fresh coriander, chopped rouhly
Salt
Vegetable oil

* Try to use better quality curry powder from a specialty shop (not commercial brands). Mine is from Singapore and it is a blend of the following ingredients: Coriander seeds, cumin, tumeric, fennel seeds, chilli, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and cloves.

1. In a non-stick pan/wok, sauté the meat at high heat till it’s brown and cooked through. Set aside.
2. In the same pan/work, sauté the garlic and onion in a bit of oil till fragrant. Add the curry powder and cook for a few more minutes.
3. Add carrots, peas and return the cooked meat into the curry mixture. Add tomato paste and salt. Stir-fry till peas are cooked. Take the pan off the heat and stir through the fresh coriander. Set aside to cool completely before filling the dough.
4. After the first proofing, on an oiled non-stick baking sheet, stretch the dough into a rectangular shape (about 13 x 11 inches) . Place the meat filling in the centre and seal it with the dough. Rub the top of the loaf with olive oil. 5. Bake it at 210° C (fan-forced) the first 10 minutes, then 180° C for another 20 minutes.

Freezing...
I froze half of the meat-filled loaf. More than a week later, I defrosted it slightly in the microwave oven, rubbed some more olive oil on the loaf and reheated it in the convection oven. It was still delicious and moist, but crispier then when it was first baked.

Final verdict...
True to it’s name, we loved the tender texture (airy and moist) and the flavour of this bread. Quikong said it all when he remarked. “You should make this again.”

Curry Meat Filled Potato Bread, Sliced

Do check out the creations of the other Daring Bakers here. A big thank you for this month’s host, Tanna, for choosing such a fabulous recipe.