Potato Bread

I love potato breads though, and have baked a few.  I've also just gone ahead and added mashed potato, either sweet or russet, to other bread formulas and had good results.  I don't make "mashed potatoes" when I do this.  I just cook the potato and then mash it good with a fork and add it to the dough.

I'm not familiar with your hashbrown product, but I suspect they are partly cooked.  If it were me, I would throw them into just barely enough boiling water to cover them until hot through, then mash one or two with a fork against the side of the saucepan.  Keep boiling until tender enough to mash.  Then strain them out and reserve the potato water to cool and use in the bread as a 1 to 1 substitute for the water in the dough.  Mash the potatoes with a fork and cool them as well.  Use the potato water to make up the dough, and add the mashed  taters when you make up the final dough.  The recipes I've seen use the equivalent of about one medium potato per pound of flour.  A little more or less won't make a great deal of difference, but I would overshoot rather than under.

I think if you watch the dough consistency like always, and make your normal hydration adjustments, you will be just fine.  The potato will make the bread more moist and it will stay that way longer because the potato will retain moisture.  It should not, however, make the dough a lot wetter than usual.

If you decide to try your experiment let us know what you did and how it turns out.  Best of luck!

OldWoodenSpoon

That is really useful information thanks

Anna, I would add these hash browns in chunks at the end of your mixing process, and see it works out.   They are cooked already.   Maybe just keep them cool in the mixing so they don't fall apart too much when incorporated?

Best wishes

Andy