Sweet Potato Sourdough

We found sweet potato at our local market. We had no idea what to do with these funny looking red roots. Somewhere in my memory I had seen bread with sweet potato. 

The sweet potato were very cheap, so we decided to buy a kilo. Back home I found the recipe at Wild Yeast and the next day I started to bake sweet potato. Of course we had to taste it before adding to the dough. The name says it all; sweet and potato. Because we bought a kilo I started to clean the rest and baked them like baked potato. I added some roasted potimarron with herbs from the oven. What a nice orange treat we had.

Back to the bread; because I added the baked potato in the mixing machine most of the pieces were smashed. It gave the crumb a nice yellow-orange color. The bread had a thick crusty crust and a lovely crumb. The loaf had a nice oven spring.

Sweet potato will be back in our house and in our bread!

This is what I used for one loaf:

200 g high-extraction flour (I used all purpose flour)

90 g water

265 g ripe 100% hydration sourdough starter

7 g salt

100 g cooled mashed baked sweet potato pulp (I used cubes)

65 g toasted pumpkin seeds, plus, optionally, more for the crust

This is what I did:

Mix all ingredients except sweet potato on low speed until combined, about 5 minutes. Add more water to get a medium consistency. Also add the sweet potato. Continue mixing on low or medium speed until the dough reaches a medium level of gluten development. When you do the window pane test you still see some thicker pieces of dough.

Transfer the dough to a slightly oiled bowl. Cover and let ferment for 1.5 hours.

Preshape into a ball, cover and let it rest for 25 minutes.

Shape the dough into tight balls and place seam-side-up in linen-lined banneton. Place the banneton into a plastic bag and proof at room temperature for 2 hours.

Check with your finger if the dough is proofed enough. When your finger indent springs back very slowly, it’s done. When it springs back quickly, the dough needs more time. 

You can place the banneton in plastic bag in the refrigerator for the night (8 – 12 hours) or bake it the same day. If you bake it the next day, take it out of the refrigerator 1 hour before baking it.

Preheat the oven, with baking stone and your steam apparatus, to 230˚C.

 I scored the loaf with 3 cuts. Place the loaf on the baking stone. Bake for 15 minutes with steam and another 30 minutes without. When the loaf has a nice brown color, turn off the oven but leave the loaf with the door ajar for another 10 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack and enjoy this bread with a nice crumb and thick crust  like we did.

I found this at Susan’s blog Wild Yeast 

I send this to Susan’s YeastSpotting and Cathy of Bake Your Own Bread