BEER FLAVORED POTATO BREAD

I've started with potato flakes. Here I am adding 2/3 cups of the flakes. If you want to, you can easily cook a potato in the microwave, cool it, then mash it. As long as it comes up to 1 cup, you're good to go.

Of course, if you want to store this as a mix on your shelf, potato flakes are the way to go. 

Instead of adding the same amount of flour as the original recipe, I replaced part of the flour with the potato flakes. So here, I added in 2 2/3 cups of bread flour.

Could you use all-purpose flour, yes of course. However, if you find yourself making bread multiple times a week, I would recommend bread flour.

I do realize economics will dictate what you will use. I do try to use the King Arthur brand. It is more expensive, but I've had great results each time I use it. I also like the Costco brand, but use what you can.

Next, I added 2 Tablespoons of sugar. It doesn't have to be anything fancy; regular sugar will work.

If you don't want to use sugar, you can always put a little honey in its place. 

The original recipe only called for 1 tablespoon of Powdered Milk. I wanted to put in 2, so that's what I did here. I'm also thinking about trying a buttermilk powder in the future bread I bake.

I realize that some individuals will have to watch how much salt they ingest. If you can, I am recommending 1 teaspoon worth of Kosher Salt.

If you only have regular salt and you have medical issues, decrease it to 1/2 teaspoon.

Of course, to make bread, you need yeast. If your yeast is a little old, you can always try to bloom it. Take the yeast, 1 package or 2 1/4 teaspoons, mix it with a small amount of lukewarm water and a teaspoon of sugar. After 5 minutes, if it looks like sludge, that's good. Your yeast is perfect.

I'm adding 1/2 cup of powdered butter.

Now it's time to add the beer. You may like to refrigerate it, but to be kind to my yeast,t I'm using lukewarm beer. Don't pour the entire bottle in; pour in some and mix it in. 

What you want to do is to continue to mix in the liquid until it forms a dough ball. The texture of the ball should be a bit tacky. If a little of the dough winds up on your fingers, that's OK.

Knead the bread by hand for approximately ten minutes. I normally don't dust the surface with flour. That's adding more flour to your dough and can make it dry or tough. I like to spray PAM or a little oil on my hands to work with it.

If you have a stand mixer, you can toss the bread in there with the dough hook on low for ten minutes.

After I finished kneading, I poured a tablespoon of oil into my bowl and made sure to cover the dough ball so it wouldn't dry out. Cover it and put it in a warm place. Leave it for an hour or until the dough ball doubles in size.

When the dough rises, you'll now divide it up to make the individual buns or a loaf of bread. Here I'm making buns; this technique can be used on a loaf also.

I could weigh everything out. However, I'm not selling the bread; I'm just using it at home. I cut it in half, then the half into another half. I wound up getting 8 buns from this recipe.

I worked on each piece of dough separately, I flattened it out, then rolled it like a little cigar. From that point, I roll it into a smaller cigar and then work on forming the dough into a ball for the bun.

So why worry about rolling the dough in on itself? It helps to improve the structure of the dough and helps it rise better.

Once you finished dividing up the dough and shaping it, cover it and let it stay in a warm area for about 45 minutes.

Here you can see that my buns are done. To finish them off, I'm taking butter and painting the top of each one of them. This actually gives the bread such a soft feel. It's quite nice.

I waited for the bread to cool off and cut one of the buns here. It is soft as a pillow and yummy.