Potato Sandwich Bread
Big, beautiful, and the softest potato sandwich bread, sliceable and toastable right from your kitchen.
For someone who isn’t a huge potato fan, I love potato bread. It’s so so soft and wonderful. Whether I’m making my Potato Burger Buns or buying burger buns, it’s always potato rolls these days. Most likely because potato bread actually doesn’t taste much like potato. Adding potatoes to bread is similar to what the tangzhong does in Japanese milk bread. It introduces a starch into the bread contributing to gelatinization, in turn the starch molecules can hold onto water much longer and hold off drying out – make bread dry and stale.
I know, science.. but baking IS science, and it’s fun to know WHY things work. When you understand why, it often increases your capability. I don’t know about you but I’m always trying to make a better bread next time than last even if it was great.
To create this recipe, I took my Potato Burger Buns, Sweet Potato Rolls, and my Easy Honey White Sandwich Bread and blended them to create a potato sandwich bread loaf that was soft, tasty, and easy to bake. You don’t need to make mashed potatoes, instant potatoes is all you need.
Baking Notes & Tips
This potato sandwich bread can be baked in two different size loaf pans. Honestly, it could be baked in many different ones, but I tested it and it fits well into either an 8.5×4.5 inch pan or a 9×5 inch pan. If you are baking it in the smaller pan, you will have a quite tall loaf (which is fine). Sometimes a larger pan requires a longer bake time, but honestly this did not.
I tested this recipe both with bread flour and all purpose flour. Generally I advocate for using bread flour because it tends to give better rise and the better chew. I know all purpose is more common though, and usually substituting AP for bread flour works but the bread can be a little softer. Potato bread is one of those breads that is super soft so I wanted to see which I preferred. There is not a huge difference, use what you have. Personally I did actually prefer the all purpose in this one.
Optionally, after the bread comes out of the oven, you can brush some melted butter over the top for just a little bit extra flavor in the crust. If you forget, or don’t want to though it’s not required. Salted or unsalted is fine, I personally would probably use salted though as salt is the key to flavor.
Potato Sandwich Bread Key Ingredients
- Instant Potatoes – You could make homemade mashed potatoes but because it’s a lot more work and you won’t taste the difference, I would just use instant. If you wanted to flavor your bread I’m sure you could use one of the flavored varieties but I just used the original flavor.
- Milk – The majority of the liquid in the potato bread is water, however adding some milk (about 1/3 of the total amount) adds some extra fat which will help make the bread more tender, and a little more flavorful. Don’t use skim, whole if you have it or 2% will work best.
- AP Flour – I normally am the bread flour is best champion, but to get the ultra softness that potato bread has, all purpose won the battle. It wasn’t a big difference, and I do use King Arthur flour which tends to have a higher protein count than other AP flours. Use what you have, it will be great either way!
Ingredients
- 44 g Instant potato flakes â…” cup
- 210 g Water â…” cup + 1 tbsp, boiling
- 400 g Bread flour 3â…“ cup
- 7 g Instant yeast 2¼ tsp
- 10 g Sea salt ½ tbsp
- 25 g Granulated sugar
- 1 large Egg room temperature
- 80 g Whole or 2% milk â…“ cup, warmed
- 28 g Unsalted butter softened/room temperature
- optional 1 tbsp Salted butter melted
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add your potato flakes and pour in your boiling water. Use a fork to stir and fluff the potatoes. They may feel a little dry compared to regular mashed potatoes, but there shouldn't be any dry bits left. Let them cool for a few minutes.44 g Instant potato flakes | 210 g Water
- After the mashed potatoes have cooled for at least 5 minutes, add the rest of your dough ingredients, except for the butter but including the mashed potatoes, to the bowl of your stand mixer with dough hook attached. Mix until the dough comes together into a very rough/shaggy mix.400 g Bread flour | 7 g Instant yeast | 10 g Sea salt | 25 g Granulated sugar | 1 large Egg | 80 g Whole or 2% milk
- While the dough mixes, add softened butter 1 tbsp at a time into the dough, allowing it to be fully incorporated before adding the next.28 g Unsalted butter
- Knead/mix the dough on low/medium low until dough is smooth and elastic, clearing the sides of the bowl. (10-15 min)
- Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and allow to rise for 60-120 min.
- Line an 8.5×4" or 9×5 loaf pan with parchment and set aside.
- Gently transfer the dough to a lightly greased counter. Pat out the dough into an 8×10" rectangle.
- Roll the dough up on the short side and place into the loaf pan. Cover dough with greased cling wrap or a floured tea towel.
- The dough is ready when the top of the loaf has risen slightly above the edge of the loaf pan. This should take 30-60 min. Preheat oven to 350°F while dough is proofing.
- When bread is ready to bake, bake on center rack for 30 min. The bread will have a nice golden color on top and smell fragrant when it's fully baked.
- Optional step: When bread comes out of the oven, brush the top crust with salted melted butter.optional 1 tbsp Salted butter
- Remove bread from pan to wire cooling rack immediately. Wait until bread has cooled completely before slicing into, this may take a few hours. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Enjoy!
