December 16, 2010 - 1:06am
potato substitutions
I have a recipe that requires dry (instant) mashed potatoes.
Can you substitute:
- Potato starch?
- Cooked mashed potatoes?
- Potato water?
If so, any recommendations on how best to work out the substitutions?
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I'd use cooked mashed potatoes and reduce the other liquids accordingly.
How much? I have no idea. "By feel", with the caveat that potatoes seem to keep releasing moisture into the dough after they've been mixed in, so I tend to keep my potato doughs a little lower hydration than my pure wheat doughs.
Good luck!
thanks for the input floyd.
I ended up using a microwaved potato, mashed with a fork. There were still a few tiny (1-2mm) pieces of potato in the dough, but when I baked it, it appears that they completely dissolved/disappeared. Next time I might boil and rice the potatoes to ensure that that doesn't happen.
FYI, the original recipe called for about 35g (~10% of flour weight) of instant mashed potatoes, and I substituted 60g of the mashed baked potato, and it worked out just fine. Some of the fluffiest, pillowiest, softest, cottoniest bread I've ever baked, in fact!
I wonder what it is about potatoes that makes breads creamy/tender when you incorporate them. Is it the starch, or some other quality? I've even heard the original Krispy Kreme doughnut recipe was a "spudnut"-style recipe, i.e., used potato, and they have some of the lightest, fluffiest doughnuts around.
--cranbo
If I recall correctly, the KA bakers in their forum explained that potato tends to retain moisture better than wheat, so the breads with potato turn out nice and moist.
Another alternative,though harder to find,is potato flour.Health food stores or a good supermarket should have that.Where I live Publix carries Bob's Red Mill brand.The batch I have now came from King Arthur's website.That's what I've been using.But actually I couldn't detect a difference between instant mashed potatoes and potato flour.Of course fresh cooked potatoes would be much cheaper and possibly better,plus you could try different varieties!
...equals two-thirds of a cup of potato flakes and requires 1 cup of liquid (usually, water: 2/3 cup; milk: 1/3 cup) for hydration...Without seeing the recipe, I can only give you these guide-lines. Is this useful?
If your recipe says, for example, to use 3 Tblsp of instant, I'd use one small boiled potato, mashed, and remove about 8-10 Tblsp of liquid from the recipe. It should work!
Best of luck,
copyu
is also an option. If you are not following a recipe, add a little more salt just for the potato and like Floyd & copyu say, reduce the liquids.
There is more than one way to skin a potato! :)
Mini