Do You Know How to Use Potato in Lemon-Thyme Bread?

Summer. I LOVE SUMMER, DO YOU? THERE’S SO MANY GORGEOUS INGREDIENTS available during the summer months and they all taste so fresh. Playing with fresh ingredients, combining flavors, designing new creations, is why I bake and cook, even in the heat of the summer. I love to see how fresh flavors can be combined into something wonderful and new. Like my Lemon Thyme Potato Bread. Do you know how to use potato in Lemon Thyme Bread? No! Well, read on and find out…

Summer Flavors

Summer Ingredients = Perfect Time Together.

Who said social distance = isolation?! Not ever. For instance, due to the pandemic, my son said to me this morning, “Mom, I have been feeling depressed lately but today, I feel so much better.” I attribute that to a bike ride yesterday with another family and dinner spent last night with close friends. Dinner was eaten in their beautiful backyard with a stunning view of the mountains.

For an example of social distanced togetherness, we physically distanced on two separate dinner tables but were still “together.” So darn important. I was asked to bring a dessert – so I made a summer-inspired beauty, a Mixed Berry Shortcake Stack. The sponge is soaked in orange blossom simple syrup, then stacked with dairy free pastry cream and fresh seasonal berries, topped with mint sprigs from my garden. It was delicious!

Summer Lemon-Thyme Potato Bread – My Inspiration

Today, I present an example of using summer ingredients in fresh bread. But first, a detour about the inspiration for this combo. When I was serving in the U.S. Army, my family and I had the incredible opportunity to live in London, UK. It was an absolute dream to live in one of the most amazing, historic cities in the world.

Photos of my family visiting HMS Belfast & Tower Bridge.

Inspiration for Today’s Recipe. While working in Westminster, one of the biggest summertime treats was to take an afternoon off, leave my stuffy, windowless office in the Old War Office Building and spend time at an outdoor café for afternoon tea. Can anyone say scones and Devonshire cream, oh yes, please? Tea is really something special. It is a mid-afternoon pick-you-up consisting of petite sandwiches, sweets and tasty tea shared with good friends. When in London, I do recommend you find a good tea house and try it after a long day of sightseeing. I remember on one particularly dreamy summer afternoon (meaning no rain), I patronized a Victorian tea house in Mayfair with covered porch seating.

Breakfast, Lunch or Tea Time

On that day, I had the pleasure of trying a thyme scone with fresh lemon curd and Devonshire cream. Oh my goodness, what a combination! Who said that thyme was only for turkey and potatoes at Thanksgiving!? Thyme is actually a lovely aromatic that is appropriate in both savory and sweet applications, especially when it is fresh.

Okay, fast forward to today, I wanted to whip something up to share with you all that incorporated fresh summertime ingredients. In my garden, I happen to have growing, you guessed it Thyme! Thyme comes in many varieties, but I grow Lemon Thyme in a ceramic pot that winters over inside and then summers outside on the patio.

I decided to reach back to that summer tea on a Victorian porch in London and use the flavors in the scone to create a delicious sandwich bread. Thus, I am presenting here to you today, the recipe that I developed using Thyme, lemon zest, lemon juice, and a touch of honey added to a soft potato sandwich bread recipe.

Using Potato in Bread — 3 Myths Busted.

Myth #1: Potato Makes Bread Dense – False! Actually, quite the opposite. A small amount of potato completely changes the consistency of bread for the better. Potato lends a softness and fluffiness to fresh bread. It does not make it dense.

Myth #2: You Can Taste the Potato – False! Fresh plain potato when boiled, whipped, and added to flour completely blends and does not change the flavor of your bread. I use a immersion blender to get my potatoes completely smooth.

Myth #3: A Bread Dough With Potato Will Not Rise – False! A bread dough actually proofs (or rises) up nicely and completely (doubling in size) with no additional yeast needed.

Need to learn some baking bread basics? Start here – 12 Steps to Producing Breads.

Now you know why to use potato in bread, let’s get to the recipe to see how to use potato in Lemon Thyme Bread! If you make it please share your photos on social media and tag me @christinasbreadbakes on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest. Share the love.

Lemon Thyme Potato Bread

Christina

This is a potato bread with fresh thyme & lemon for a summertime treat. Potato adds structure and softness but no flavor so it's a great addition to sandwich bread where you need it to hold together.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Resting Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs

Course afternoon tea, Breakfast, lunch

Cuisine American

Servings 16 slices

Calories 150 kcal

Equipment

• Digital Metric Scale
• Zester (to remove outer skin of a lemon)
• Electric Mixer with Dough Hook
• 4 Liter food container (or bowl)
• Cover for container (or plastic wrap)
• Bread pans (2 each)
• Sharp Smooth Knife (such as a paring knife)
• Pastry Brush

Ingredients

  

• 1 ea Russet Potato (225 g mashed)
• 40 g Unsalted Butter
• 485 g Bread Flour
• 5 g Sea Salt
• 6 g Instant Yeast
• 180 ml Reserved Potato Water
• 2 T Honey
• 1 ea Organic Lemon (1 T zest and 1 T juice)
• 2 T Fresh Thyme Leaves

Egg Wash

• 1 ea Egg
• 1 T Water

Instructions

 

Ingredient Preparation

• Peel the russet potato and cut into pieces. Place in a pot and cover with water. Boil on stovetop until potatoes are soft.
  
• While potatoes are boiling, zest one small lemon, measure 1 T of zest, set aside.
• Squeeze lemon removing seeds. Measure 1 T of lemon juice, set aside.
  
• Remove thyme leaves from their woody stocks.
  
• Measure 2 T of thyme. Finely chop the thyme leaves. Set aside.
• Drain potatoes, reserving 180 ml of the potato water, set aside.
• Return potatoes to the pot and dry the potatoes out over heat until no liquid remains (about 2-3 minutes). Measure out 225 grams of potato. Set aside.
  

Scaling

• Using a digital scale, measure out all other ingredients.
  

Mixing

• Add butter to 225 g of the boiled, drained and dried potatoes. Blend butter and potatoes together or run them through a ricer or food mill until smooth and butter is melted/mixed in.
  
• Check temperature of the potatoes and the reserved potato water.

  Note: Both the water and the potatoes should be cooled to 100-110 F (38-43 C) degrees before moving on to the next step.
• Add lemon juice and honey to potato water and stir until dissolved.
  
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together by hand the flour, salt and yeast.
• Add potatoes to the flour mixture, stir together by hand.

  Note: The mixture will be course but this is okay as it will blend together as it is kneaded.
  
• Attach the dough hook and add the liquids to the flour mixture.
  
• Mix on Level 1 (low) for 2 minutes until wet and dry ingredients are combined.
  
• Mix on Level 2 for 8 minutes until a smooth dough is formed.

  Note: Dough will pull from the sides but stick to the bottom of the bowl.
• Add lemon and thyme and mix on Level 1 (low) for 1 minute until incorporated.
  
• Dump dough onto work surface, knead 30 seconds into a smooth ball.
  

Bulk Fermentation (First Rise)

• Place dough ball seam side down into a container sprayed with oil and cover tightly.
• Allow to rest for 1 – 1½ hours until doubled in size.

  Note: As with all bread making, this step may take shorter or longer depending on the room temperature.
  

Folding (sometimes called punching)

• When dough has doubled in size, gently dump onto a work surface.
  

Dividing

• Note: If using smaller pans or making up rolls, you can divide dough here, otherwise skip this step.
• Press dough into a 8" x 6" rectangle (20cm x 15cm).

Pre-Shaping or Rounding

• Roll dough firmly from the long edge into a tight cylinder.
  
• Seal the seam together.
  
• Flip over so seam side is down.

Makeup and Panning

• Prepare a 9" x 5" (23 cm x 12 cm) bread pan with spray oil.
• Gently lift rolled cylinder and place seam side down into prepared pan.
  
• Cover with sprayed plastic wrap.

Proofing (Second Rise)

• Proof at room temperature for 30 minutes until doubled in size and about 1" (2½ cm) above pan.

  Note: It was very hot the day I made this bread so to control the second rise I placed the panned bread into the refrigerator while the oven preheated to ensure it did not rise too quickly.

Baking

• Preheat oven to 350 F degrees (177 C degrees/Gas Mark 4)
• Remove plastic cover and create a center cut about 1 cm deep with a sharp smooth bladed knife, such as a paring knife.
• Mix one egg with 1 T water.
• Gently egg was the top of the bread so as not to deflate it.
  
• Place into the oven.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes, turning dough mid-way through to ensure even browning.

  Note: The loaf will be golden brown, sound hollow and register 200-205 F (93-96 C) degrees on a kitchen thermometer.

Cooling

• Remove bread immediately from the pan and place on a cooling rack.
  
• Cool for 45 minutes before slicing.

Storing

• Store completely cooled bread in a plastic bag on the counter. This bread keeps well for 3 days (if it lasts that long, it's delicious)! Enjoy.

Keyword herb bread, lemon, potato bread, sandwich bread, thyme

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