Soft Potato Bread for Sandwiches and More

Watch my potato sandwich bread recipe web story here.

Excellent recipe! Made two loaves today for lunch!

Reader Alyssa

Why Potato Bread?

Unlike traditional homemade sandwich bread that can stale in as little as a day, potato bread stays soft and fresh for a few days at room temperature.

I also love potato bread for its slightly “boingy” softness and its ability to stand up to buttering, toasting, and the spreading of spreads like mayo, mustard, and even peanut butter.

For my money, potato bread is a better investment in time, since you know it’ll keep longer. Plus the added potato does bring a bit more nutritional value and flavor to the sandwich bread party.

How Does It Stay Fresh?

Potato bread is very similar to tangzhong bread. Tangzhong relies on cooking a portion of the flour with a portion of the liquid in a bread recipe and then adding it back into the rest of the dough.

What this does is gelatinize some of the starches in the flour. This does two things:

• the gelled starches hold on to that liquid, and that’s part of what helps to keep the bread so soft
• gelatinizing a the starches in a portion of the flour also keeps the proteins in that same flour from combining and forming gluten. This’ll keep your bread softer and less chewy.

In the case of potato bread, the mashed potato plays the part of the Tangzhong. You get the starch matrix holding onto the liquid it was cooked in much like you would with Tangzhong, and you also end up using less flour because you’re substituting potato.

In a way, making potato bread is like making a shortcut Tanghzhong bread. Sweet!

Take a look at my Grits Bread too. The grits act very similarly to cooked potatoes, so it’s another bread that stays fresh for days.

How Long Does Potato Bread Last?

At our house? Not very long!

Sorry. I couldn’t resist!

Potato bread will stay fresh, wrapped in a lint-free kitchen towel, for a good 4 days before slicing.

Since sliced bread doesn’t have the protection of the crust like a whole loaf does, I don’t recommend storing the sliced bread at room temperature.

For longer storage, I like to slice the whole loaf as soon as it cools completely, place the slices in a zip top freezer bag, press out as much of the air as I can, and then freeze.

I remove slices as I need them to make toast, sandwiches (yes, a bread butter and sugar sandwich counts!), or what my grandfather used to call a “jilly piece.” That’s a slice of bread slathered in butter and jam or jelly.

My family is in love with this bread; my daughter-in-law gasped, “So THIS is how real bread is supposed to taste!!”

You are genius, Jenni!

Reader and new Bread Baker Petra

How to Make Potato Sandwich Bread

Ingredients

Bread has been made literally for millennia out of easily obtainable ingredients. This sandwich bread is no different. I bet you have most if not everything you need to make it right now:

• Russet potato (commonly referred to as a baking potato): Think of using the potato as a shortcut Tangzhong. The starch granules in the potato hold onto liquid, keeping the bread soft and also providing deep yet subtle flavor
• instant yeast: You can substitute active dry yeast if you want to. Just proof the same amount in a portion of the potato water and add it to the mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients once it starts foaming.
• sugar: For a touch of sweetness. Sugar also assists with moisture, softening the crumb, and aids in browning
• water from cooking the potato: Delicious water full of potato starch. Yeast loves it! Note that this bread proofs (rises) pretty quickly because the yeast get really happy with all the potato!
• butter: Carries flavor as well as adding some flavor. It also assists in browning
• vegetable oil: further tenderizes the crumb for a nice, soft sandwich bread texture
• salt: Helps to moderate yeast growth and lend structure as well as flavor.
• eggs: For richness, color, moisture and structure. Eggs do a lot!
• bread flour: I don’t recommend subbing all-purpose flour here. You want a flour with a lot of protein in it to lend structure, especially with so many ingredients that soften it (potato, eggs, butter, oil, sugar, etc)

Procedure

This bread is pretty straightforward to make. Here’s the rundown:

1. Cook the potato in plain water. Reserve some of the cooking liquid and mash the potato.
2. Let potato and water cool to just warm.
3. Put all the rest of the ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and mix until you get a nice dough.
4. Knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth, shiny, stretchy, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl in sheets.
5. Refrigerate overnight.
6. Split in two and shape into loaves.
7. Let rise.
8. Bake.
9. Brush hot loaf with melted butter.
10. Cool and enjoy.

Shaping the Loaves

Pretty much all loaf breads are shaped the same way.

• Press the dough into a rectangle.
• Roll the rectangle into a log, starting from a short end.
• Tuck the ends under.
• Place in loaf pan.

Why do we shape loaves of bread like this?

It’s more than just convention.

Forming loaves in this way allows for a tighter, more uniform crumb and a nice smooth top of your bread.

If you just haphazardly shape each piece of dough into a loaf shape, you can end up with very flimsy slices of bread.

Taking the time to press out the dough and roll it up before baking makes for a sturdier slice. And sturdy slices are perfect for making sandwiches!

More Bread Recipes and Serving Suggestions

If you love a nice soft-yet-chewy sandwich bread and can get your hands on some spent grains from home brewing beer, my spent grain sandwich bread is really very good.

And if you love a good focaccia, I highly recommend this “grandma pizza dough” recipe. It’s great for pan pizza, Sicilian pizza, stromboli (when rolled out thin), and of course focaccia.

If you’re more into sourdough, you can’t go wrong with this beautiful whole wheat sourdough artisan style loaf or this sourdough apple bread. Yes please!

This soft potato bread will welcome pretty much anything you spread onto it. Make a pb & j using my peach plum jam or mixed berry jam.

Toast it up for a breakfast sandwich featuring bacon jam or tomato jam. Or both. Plus a fried egg and melted cheese.

If you have any questions about this or any other recipe or post on the site, there are a few ways to get in touch.

You can leave a comment on the post, and I’ll be back in touch within 24 hours.

If your question is more pressing, don’t hesitate to email me, and I should be back in touch within 4 hours (unless I’m asleep) or often much more quickly than that.

A Note About Measurements

This is the kitchen scale that I recommend for home cooks and bakers. Using a scale will help you be more accurate and consistent in your measurements.

It is lightweight, easy to store, accurate, and very easy to use.

I really hope you love this sandwich bread recipe, you guys!

I hope you’ve learned something from this post or that you’ve decided to make the recipe.

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Thanks, and enjoy!

And there you have it friends. Enjoy the potato bread.

Thanks for spending some time with me today. Take care, and have a lovely day.