Sweet Potato Bread

I've been reading posts at A Year In Bread http://ayearinbread.earthandhearth.com/ and Beth posted a recipe for potato bread. We love potato bread here but we didn't have any potatoes. We did have some sweet potatoes that were getting close to going bad so I decided to use them instead. We also didn't have any bread flour so I used unbleached white flour instead. I also halfed the recipe since I only own 1 bread pan right now.

This bread was incredible! It was by far the best bread I've made and the loaf was gone that night. We've never eaten a whole loaf of bread in 1 night! It was sweet and moist, just perfect. I may try it with some whole wheat flour next time, or I may not mess with it and just leave it as it is. I would highly recommend making this bread. And it was one of the easier one's I've made.

Sweet Potato Bread (The recipe as I ended up doing it, you can find the original recipe at A Year in Bread)

water - 1 cup
Unbleached white flour - 2 3/4 cup
Instant Yeast - 1 tsp
mashed sweet potatoes - 3/4 cup
softened butter - 1 tablespoons
Unbleached white flour - 1/2 cup
salt 1/2 TBS

I peeled and boiled the sweet potatoes until they were falling apart and then I mashed them with a fork. My cup of water came from the pot I boiled the sweet potatoes in.

In mixing bowl, combine water, potatoes, yeast and 2 3/4 cups flour and mix until well combined. Add the butter and mix until it is integrated into dough. The dough will still be very soft. Cover and let rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

Add the salt to the dough and spread the 1/2 cup flour on the counter and knead the dough for 4-5 minutes, adding more flour if needed. Roll the dough in flour, put it in a clean bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk (about an hour).Turn the dough out on a lightly floured counter and shape the loaf. Grease the loaf pan. Put the shaped loaf in the pan and let rise until doubled in bulk (about an hour).Preheat oven to 375°f . Bake bread for 35 minutes or until golden brown (~195°f). Turn out of pan onto cooling rack for at least an hour.

Both of my rises took less than an hour (about 35 minutes) but it was 85 in the house. We also didn't let the bread cool an hour before eating. We couldn't wait that long.