Potato Rosemary Bread in a pan

We like bread with potato and honey. It gives bread a distinctive smell we like, especially when you also add fresh Rosemary.

I’ve baked with potato in Maggie Glezer’s Royal Crowns Tortano and Rewena Paraoa; both delicious breads. Today I make Dan Lepard’s crusty Potato Bread. The original recipe is found in his book “The Handmade Loaf”. I’ve tweaked it a bit, using whole wheat bran, rye, wheat germ and I added some fresh Rosemary.

Because of the grated potato the dough was wetter as I expected it to be. I used the mixing method from Maggie Glezer’s Royal Tortano and let it mix until the dough cleaned the bowl. This took about 10 minutes. I could almost pour it into the slightly oiled bowl. But it was tacky in stead of sticky and that's a good thing.
After baking the crust has a nice brown color, the crumb is moist and open and the bread  tasted and smelled nice.  

I wanted to use my ceramic pan to bake this bread. We had been looking for a cast iron pan for a long time now, but recently we found this new ceramic pan for about 2 euro. And it works great!

This is what I used for 1 big loaf:

330 gr all purpose flour  

27 gr rye flour

45 gr whole wheat bran

10 gr wheat germ

160 gr lukewarm water

11 gr salt

27 gr honey

75 gr grated potato

250 gr active sourdough starter 100% hydration

11 gr salt

1 tblsp fresh Rosemary 

This is what I did:

I peeled and grated the potato. 

I added the sourdough starter to the lukewarm water and saw it floated nicely. 

I dispersed the sourdough in the water and added the honey, grated potato and all the flours. With a spoon I mixed all ingredients until they are all incorporated. I covered it with a towel and left it to autolyse for 30 minutes.

I sprinkled the salt and Rosemary and mixed on low speed for 3 minutes. Then I continued mixing on medium speed for 8 minutes until the dough cleaned the sides of the bowl.

I could almost pour the dough into a slightly oiled bowl. I covered it with a plastic bag and left to ferment for 1,5 – 2 hours. Every 50 minutes I stretched and folded the dough to give it more strength. I'm using my ceramic pan. Now it looks like a no knead bread.

Pre shape the dough into a ball and cover it to rest for 15 minutes. Shape the dough into batard or boule as you like. Place it seam side up in a banneton or other proofing basket and into a plastic bag. I wanted to use my ceramic pan to bake the loaf, so I made a boule.

The original recipe says to retard it in the refrigerator overnight. Because we were going out the next day, I wanted to bake this bread the same day. I proofed it for 2 hours until it almost doubled in size.

Pre heat the oven, place the ceramic pan.

Place the boule or batard on parchment paper on a peel. I baked it at 230˚C for 20 minutes with lid on pan and 35 minutes without lid. 

Remove the loaf when it is nicely brown. It’s difficult to over bake bread. Leave the loaf in the oven with the door ajar for another 5 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.

I send this to YeastSpotting. Thanks for hosting this week’s YeastSpotting; Stefanie of Hefe und Mehr

I send this loaf also to Cathy, host of Bake Your Own Bread