Make Ahead Sourdough Potato Bread
As I mentioned in a previous post, I am not an artisan baker. I am a SAHM who homeschools 3 young kids and wants to feed them the healthiest bread possible while still catering to their "We love white bread" tastes. I modified a make ahead potato sandwich bread like this:
1/2 cup active starter
1/2 cup water
1 T sugar
1 t salt
5.5 T softened butter
1/4 cup egg whites (could've used one egg, but I had liquid egg whites leftover from making homemade mayo)
1/2 cup lukewarm mashed potatoes
About 3.5 cups flour (I used 1 cup bread flour, the rest AP)
Mixed everything in KA until it just formed a workable dough. No excessive kneading. Formed dough into ball and tossed into a greased plastic container. Let sit on counter for about 4 hours (my starter tends to be sluggish). Put in fridge. (I did this Thursday afternoon.)
On Friday evening, I pulled off a hunk of dough and shaped into a loaf. As with the yeast version of this recipe, I don't think it can really be shaped by typical methods (flattening and rolling up). I just kind of mold it in my hands like it's play doh. Placed loaf in greased (buttered) loaf pan. Covered and let rise overnight.
On Saturday morning (today), the dough had risen. Probably doubled in size or a little more. I baked at 375 degrees for 30 mins and got this:
The texture was almost exactly the same as the yeast version of this that I make, which is decent for kid-friendly sandwiches and makes an excellent dinner roll. There was a definite tang that my kids didn't like, though, and in the future I may experiment with more/less starter to see what happens.
There's still enough dough in my fridge to make 2 more of my sized loaves (I use an extra small bread pan... Fat Daddio that I think is only 6 inches long). I am going to bake a loaf each day for the next 2 days to see how the quality of the bread changes. If I can mix together a fast batch of dough in this manner and basically have bread for the workweek for my kids with only the need to shape and rise in the pan overnight, it would make my life much easier.
Thought I'd share for anyone else in my situation.
One thing to keep in mind is that SD breads will keep much longer than yeasted versions especially if you add potatoes as well. You may want to make a larger loaf which would last you 4-5 days simply wrapped in some plastic wrap.
I'm not sure how fresh your starter was, but if you want a less sour flavor you can refresh the starter over-night and use it first thing in the morning.
If you do want to make the bread a little less white, you might try adding a small amount of white whole wheat flour. It tends to be much more mild than the red whole wheat which is so common, so the kids might not notice it as much. Maybe try substituting about a 1/2 cup of the AP with it, and maybe every couple weeks or so, increase the amount a little more and see how they react.