April 8, 2009 - 2:26pm
How to add potatoes to a recipe?
What should I keep in mind when adding cooked and/or dried potatoes to a recipe that didn't previously call for it? I can assume that if I add instant potatoes to the recipe, it doesn't add to the flour and being dry, doesn't add to the liquid. However, what if I cook and mash whole potatoes? Even if fully drained, there will be an addition of water to the recipe. Is there an easy way to tell how much I'm adding?
Also, how would the addition of potatoes affect the final product? How much is too much?
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I developed a recipe basing it on my 70% whole wheat recipe. The greatest change was in the texture. It was a potato onion bread that I eventually developed into a potato/WW/rye because I liked the texture for a rye sandwich bread.
But back to the potato/onion-it seemed to make the dough a little stickier and needed a small addition of extra WW. The texture became finer and a little chewier but not pasty in the mouth-just wonderful for a sandwich bread and cutting thin, deli slices.
My advice is to add about 1 medium potato (mine measured 140g)mashed, to your favorite bread recipe,add a little extra flour or water as needed and see what happens. I used the potato water in the recipe,too. There waas 4 cups of flours in the recipe-3 c WW and 1 c AP (about 600g total).
I've had good results by using mashed potatoes either from cooked potatoes or prepared from dried potatoes. I put the mashed potatoes in a measuring cup and add water (including potato water if applicable), to equal the volume of water called for in the original recipe. When using dried potatoes, which I nearly always do, I prepare about 1/4 serving of mashed potatoes for each loaf of bread.
I find if the mashed potato is fairly dry I don't need to change the recipe. I add them to just about any recipe if I have too many. Sweet potato is ok too--maybe a little wetter. Pumpkin is great but since they vary so much I drop the water a fair bit and then just wing it.
Liz