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A Holiday Bread Recipe Gift

newchapter's picture
newchapter

A Holiday Bread Recipe Gift

It's not sourdough, and it's not a technical (weighed ingredients) type of recipe.  It is a family holiday tradition that I bake each year, for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and upon request for a special birthday, or homecoming.  It's just thrown together, pretty much any old way, using U.S. standard measurements.  My family & friends LOVE this bread, and I can think of no one better to share the recipe with, than those here at The Fresh Loaf.  Merry Christmas!

*Kitchen Hack - the night before you make your bread, bake your whole sweet potatoes (usually 2 medium/small ones are enough) poked with a fork, on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet @350* for an hour, or until they ooze their juices & the juices start to caramelize on the parchment paper.  Leave them to cool on the counter, over night.  

 

Sweet Potato Bread

1 & 1/2 c sweet potato (Roughly 1.5 cups. A little more/less is fine.)

2 c milk (room temp)

1/2 c butter (room temp)

1/4 c brown sugar (packed firm)

2 large eggs (room temp)

2 pkts instant yeast (4.5 tsp)

6+ c bread flour  (yesterday it was more like 8 cups)

1 Tbsp salt

 

Peel the skins off of your sweet potatoes and put them in a large bowl.  Peeling is super easy, you just do it with your hands.  No peeler necessary.  Pour in the milk.  Add the stick of butter, brown sugar, yeast, and eggs.  Now, get messy.  Just sink your hands into it and make a slurry of sloppy goo, making sure to mush up the sweet potato & stick of butter pretty evenly. Add the flour and salt.  Mix to form a knead-able dough. (it's messy, so I knead it right in the mixing bowl.) 

You will need more flour, based on the moisture content of your sweet potatoes, which can vary.  Keep adding flour, until you have a very soft, slightly sticky dough.  I hand knead, which takes about ten minutes before my dough passes the window-pane test.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and bulk rise for two hours, at room temperature.

Divide into 6 equal hunks of dough (I do break out my gram scale for this part).  Roll each hunk of dough into a long slender shape.  Take 3 pieces, and braid them.  Repeat, for your second loaf.  Place both braids on a large cookie sheet that has been sprayed with no-stick, or coated with shortening, and lightly sprinkled with kosher salt. (I like using coarse ground kosher salt as a substitute for corn meal)

Give your braided dough a final rise, on the counter @ room temp, covered with plastic wrap, for 45 minutes.

Bake @ 350* for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.  Brush tops with melted butter.

Allow to rest, for 2 hours before slicing.

 

I will post pictures of yesterday's loaves, for Christmas Eve. 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

newchapter's picture
newchapter
newchapter's picture
newchapter
Benito's picture
Benito

Wow marvelous, they look so inviting, well done.

Merry Christmas

Benny

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Hey Cathy, you’ve got my interest.

Just put 3 sweet potatoes in the oven for tomorrow morning. How would you describe the texture and also the flavor?

I am surprised the total dough weight was so large. But then again you said you used 8 cups of flour. What consistency are you looking for in the final dough? I assume it is very extensible with the sugar, fats amd seeet potatoes.

Are you pleased with the amount of yeast or would you consider lowering it?

newchapter's picture
newchapter

The texture/taste of the final product?  The texture is similar to a brioche, very soft & pillowy.  The taste is mild, and not as sweet as you might imagine.  King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread is sweeter.  This is a great bread for making leftover smoked turkey & cranberry sandwiches...if you actually have any bread left over; which you might not, as it is a solid stand alone side dish, as a buttered slice on your plate.

The final dough consistency is heavy, supple, and slightly tacky.  Extensible - yes.

As far as the amount of yeast used, I have thought about it in the past, but never taken the time to experiment with it.  Because the bread is so weighty, due to being heavily enriched, I have worried that it would be too dense, and therefore gummy, without that much yeast. 

 

 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

I'll be giving this a try tomorrow.

Since I am a grams and technical kind of guy, I think it will be converted to weights and put into a spreadsheet. That way if I want to bake it again, any necessary tweaking will be a breeze.

newchapter's picture
newchapter

I love the consistency I get with converting my recipes to gram weights.  That way, the only variables you really have, are room temperature, and seasonal humidity differences.  For some reason, though, I always go "old school" when it comes to this recipe; with the exception of weighing my braid strands.  Back before I started weighing those, it looked like my bread was braided by a kindergartener.  

Please, let me know how yours turns out, and post pictures if you don't mind.  I think you'll love the process, and the product.  It is usually the first thing we run out of, on our holiday dinner table.  Sometimes, I double it, to insure having leftover bread, for sandwiches.  Speaking of which, this bread would be "bomb" turned into pepper-jack grilled cheese sandwiches, paired with a hearty tomato soup. :P

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

I will post the good, the bad, or the ugly :-)

I’m looking forward to baking this one.

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Tomorrow morning I'm planning to give your bread a go...

I anticipate some tweaking. I tried to convert your ingredient weights to grams. Setting the sheet up for 7 cups of flour, the Total Dough Weight came out to 2907g. Your post showed 2316g. But there was a lot of room for adjustments. NOTE - the sheet below was adjusted to a TDW of 1700g.

Thanks, Cathy!
Danny

newchapter's picture
newchapter

That looks like a lot of work!  Very cool!  Thanks for sharing <3

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Have sliced or tasted it yet, but it smells great. The loaf itself is nice a squeezably soft. Will post crumb once the bread is sliced.

I ended up using 8 cups of flour. The dough was still a little slack. Even though it hasn’t been tasted yet, the percentage of milk will be lowered to facilitate better braiding in the future.

newchapter's picture
newchapter

Looks great!  I look forward to your opinion after tasting.  I will also want to try your final alterations, once you've worked it through, to your satisfaction.

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

The bread reminded me more of Challah than Hawaiian Bread. Had the texture characteristics of Hokkaido Milk Bread with Tangzhong. You are right it is not very sweet. It is super soft with a very fine and light crust. The color of the crumb is also nice looking. Each slice is as light as a cloud.

newchapter's picture
newchapter

Nicely done!

Booda's picture
Booda

That's a great looking bread and one that I'd be proud to have on my holiday table. I used to love watching my two grandmothers bake nearly seventy years ago, and I don't ever remember them checking the instructions in a book or on a recipe card. I finally convinced one of them to write down a few of my favorite recipes, which I still bake today. Thanks for sharing a favorite family recipe.

newchapter's picture
newchapter

You're welcome!  

That's awesome! I wish I had some of my grandmother's recipes. 

AlisaFrost's picture
AlisaFrost

This recipe looks great, and I think that I should try to make it. I'm usually making apple bread for my family, and they like it very much. This recipe is so simple, but at the same moment taste of it incredible. I want to share this recipe with you https://recipes.cafe/en/Bake-Apple-Fritter-Bread-as-Your-Preferred-Dessert-or-Snack