Food

How to Make Potato Bread: Fluffy Potato Bread Recipe

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Oct 22, 2024 • 3 min read

Learn how to make spongy, golden potato bread at home.

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What Is Potato Bread?

Potato bread can be any type of bread that uses cooked potato to replace some of the starch typically provided by wheat flour. The added potato starch gives wheat bread a fluffy texture that works as well for sandwich bread as it does for pull-apart potato rolls. Though potato bread is typically white bread, you can make it with whole wheat flour.

7 Tips for Making the Best Homemade Potato Bread

Whether it's your first time baking or you've already mastered homemade bread, potato bread can present a unique but rewarding challenge.

  1. 1. Let your dough rise overnight. For the best flavor, allow your potato bread to rise overnight. Although you can make potato bread in one day by letting the dough rise quickly in a warm place, the dough develops more flavor with a longer rise in the fridge.
  2. 2. Use leftover potato water. After you boil your potatoes, reserve some of the leftover potato water for the bread. It's full of starch, which keeps bread fresh and moist by retaining liquid. If you don’t have potato water, use milk or buttermilk.
  3. 3. Use a potato ricer. For the smoothest mashed potatoes, use a potato ricer. You’ll get airy, easily mixable results.
  4. 4. Allow potatoes to cool before use. Make sure the mashed potatoes are completely cool before mixing them into the dough, or the heat from the potatoes could kill the yeast.
  5. 5. Substitute potato flour. If you don’t have fresh potatoes on hand, you can use potato flour, which is made from dried potatoes, instead. Use a third of a cup of potato flour for every cup of mashed potatoes and increase the liquid by 50%, using milk or buttermilk instead of the potato water. Alternatively, substitute two parts potato flakes (instant potatoes) for one part potato flour.
  6. 6. Store your potato bread properly. Tightly wrap potato bread in plastic wrap. It will last for up to one week.
  7. 7. Use a stand mixer. Since potato bread dough is wet and difficult to knead by hand, break out the stand mixer or use a bread machine to knead the dough.

Fluffy Potato Bread Recipe

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makes

2 loaves

prep time

25 min

total time

13 hr 10 min

cook time

45 min

Ingredients

  1. 1

    In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine all ingredients on medium speed, scraping down the sides, until mixture becomes smooth, about 5 minutes. Alternatively, use a bread machine set to the dough cycle.

  2. 2

    Switch to the dough hook attachment and continue kneading the dough on medium speed for 7 more minutes. For the bread machine, allow the dough to go through the full kneading cycle.

  3. 3

    Form the dough into a ball and transfer to a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise overnight in the refrigerator, up to 24 hours.

  4. 4

    Remove dough from the refrigerator, divide in half, and shape into two logs. Place logs in greased loaf pans. Cover logs with greased plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until dough puffs about 1 inch over the rim of the loaf pan. Heat oven to 350°F.

  5. 5

    Bake loaves for 25 minutes, then tent with aluminum foil and bake until bread is golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 190°F, about 15–20 more minutes. Place loaf pans on a wire rack and let cool for about 5 minutes, then remove loaves from the pans and let cool completely on the wire rack.

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