Friends, I’m thrilled to be here to bring you this fantastic recipe for potato bread today!
Soft and flavorful, this potato bread toasts beautifully, stands up to thick spreads and other sandwich fixin’s, and is very easy to make. Plus you can use it to make an incredible stuffed French toast.
If you’re a fan of making baked goods with potatoes, you may also want to take a look at my super soft sandwich rolls or this fantastic recipe for mini brioche buns.
For ease of browsing, here are all of my bread and roll recipes.
Updated with beautiful new photos by Laura Bashar of Family Spice on April 9. 2020. Thank you, Laura!
Watch my potato sandwich bread recipe web story here.
Potato Bread, At a Glance
✔️Skill Level: Advanced Beginner
✔️Skills: working with yeast, shaping dough
✔️Type: Loaf Bread
✔️Number of Ingredients: 10
✔️Prep Time: 45 minutes
✔️Cook Time: 40 minutes
✔️Fridge and Rising Time: 12 hours
✔️Yield: 2 loaves
Jump Straight to the Recipe
My family is in love with this bread; my daughter-in-law gasped, “So THIS is how real bread is supposed to taste!!”
Reader and new Bread Baker Petra
You are genius, Jenni!
Why Make 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.
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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.
If you already know you want to make some potato bread, you can skip straight to the recipe. Otherwise, keep reading for an overview of the ingredients and procedure as well as some information about how baking with potatoes keeps bread moist and fresh longer.
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: 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 gets really happy with all the potato!
- butter: Carries flavor as well as adds some flavor. It also assists in browning
- vegetable oil: further tenderizes the crumb for a nice, soft bread that is easy to cut into slices thin enough for sandwiches
- salt: Helps to moderate yeast growth and lends 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 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:
- Cook the potato in plain water. Reserve some of the cooking liquid and mash the potato.
- Let potato and water cool to just warm.
- Put all the rest of the ingredients in the bowl of your
stand mixer and mix until you get a nice dough. - Knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth, shiny, stretchy, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl in sheets.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- Split in two and shape into loaves.
- Let rise.
- Bake.
- Brush hot loaf with melted butter.
- 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!
How Does The Potato Help 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.
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What this does is gelatinize some of the starches in the flour. This does two things:
- the gelled starches hold onto that liquid, and that’s part of what helps to keep the bread so soft
- gelatinizing 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 Tangzhong 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?
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.
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.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.
Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.
If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.
A Note About Measurements
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
I really hope you love this sandwich bread recipe, you guys!
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Thanks, and enjoy!
Potato Bread Recipe
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Ingredients
For the Dough
- 1 large Idaho Russet potato
- 2 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 oz about ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 11 oz 1 ¼ cup plus 2 T water from cooking the potato, cooled to warm
- 4 oz 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 2 oz about ¼ cup neutral vegetable oil
- 2 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 large eggs
- 30 oz about 6 ½ cups bread flour
To Finish the Loaves
- 2 oz 1/2 stick melted butter
Instructions
- Wash, peel, cube, and boil the potato in plain unsalted water for about 12 minutes, or until tender.
- Drain the potatoes over a bowl to catch the water. Measure out 11 oz of potato water and set aside to cool down.
- Mash the potato (by itself without butter, milk or seasonings) and measure out the 6.5 oz (about 1 cup, slightly packed down.) Save the rest of the potato for another use.
- Add all the ingredients for the dough (mashed potato, instant yeast, sugar, reserved cooking water, butter, oil, salt, and eggs) to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
- Mix on low speed to incorporate all the ingredients.
- Beat on medium low speed for 3 minutes.
- Switch to the dough hook and knead on medium speed for 7-10 minutes, until the dough is very shiny, smooth, and stretchy. NOTE: The dough is pretty sticky, so a lot of it will remain stuck in the bottom of the bowl. The sides will mostly be clear of dough. When it’s ready, it should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl in sheets even thought it may still be sticking in the bottom.
- Once smooth and supple, scrape the bowl down off the sides and into a compact round shape using an oiled spatula.
- Spray the exposed dough with pan spray or brush with oil.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 and up to 16 hours. The dough will be about doubled in size after refrigeration.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and cut into two equal pieces. To be completely accurate, I weigh the whole amount of dough and divide by 2.
- Press each piece firmly onto the counter to release as much of the trapped gases as you can. Shape into a rectangle—it doesn’t have to be perfect—of about 15” tall and 10” wide.
- Starting from a short end, roll each half of the dough tightly into a log. Press from either end of the log to compact it so it will fit into a 9×5” bread pan.
- Pan each log of dough in the same way and spray the tops with pan spray.
- Cover and let rise at room temperature until the dough rises above the top of the pans by about an inch. This could take a long time since your dough is starting out refrigerated, so plan for at least 3-4 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
- While the bread is rising, set a rack in the bottom third of your oven, and heat the oven to 350F.
- When fully risen, bake the loaves for 30 minutes.
- Rotate the loaves 180 degrees, tent with foil, and bake an additional 5-10 minutes, until the loaves reach 195-200F with an instant read thermometer. Loaves will be deeply golden brown.
- Brush the tops of the loaves with the melted butter. This will make for a softer crust and lend a touch more richness.
- Allow loaves to cool in the pans for 15 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
Splitting the Recipe in Half
You can divide all the ingredients except the yeast in half to make just one loaf of bread. Use 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant yeast for 1 loaf of bread.Freezing and Thawing
I suggest freezing the bread sliced rather than in whole loaves. To freeze, once the loaves have cooled completely, slice the entire loaf with a serrated bread knife. Stack the slices in 2 or 3 stacks and place them in a heavy duty zip top freezer bag. Gently press out as much air as you can before freezing for up to 6 weeks without any loss of flavor. To thaw, take out the slices you need and either microwave them for about 10 seconds or let them thaw on the counter. This will only take a few minutes. NOTE: Since the bread is moist, the slices may stick together when freezing. I don’t worry about it much and just pry them apart–gently–with a butter knife, but you can avoid having to pry anything by separating each slice (or two slices) with a piece of parchment paper.Nutrition
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.
Hi, y’all! I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and hopefully also learned a thing or two.
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What size and type of pans please ? 8 x 4 or 9 x 5 or something else? I’m looking for perfection and have cast iron 8 x 4’s and non cast iron 8 x 4’s and 9 x 5’s. Thank you very much !
As stated in the recipe instructions, I baked in 9 x 5 loaf pans. I hope you enjoy the bread!
I made this recipe about three weeks ago and the loaves freeze well. Makes fantastic french toast. My bread pans must be a little small as I was able to get three good sized loaves from it. I’m making the dough tonight to make rolls for Easter dinner.
I am so glad you like the bread! I appreciate your letting me know and confirming how well it freezes. I’m sure the rolls will be delicious, too. Happy Easter, and enjoy your dinner!
All the hours that it took to make this bread are well worth it. I love to bake bread and bagels and this recipe will be added to ‘My Favorites’. Thanks, Jenni!
Oh my goodness Jenni, thank you so much posting this wonderful recipe!! I am not new to baking BUT I’m new to baking bread, and this is the recipe I chose to start with. So glad I did! It was so easy to follow and feel successful. 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!
Wow, Petra, thank you so much for this comment! I’m so happy you love the bread–it really is one of my favorites, and easy + delicious is always the best combination! You made my day!
I love potato rolls so I want to try your bread recipe. I have leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving. Could I use those and just warm water instead of cooking a potato? This bread sounds amazing. Thanks!
I think that would make a great substitution, Becky. If I were you, I’d go for it! Please let me know how it works for you. If it’s a winner, I’ll add using leftover mashed taters to the post. Enjoy!
Could this be mixed through the first rise in a breadmachine, then put in breadpans to rise and bake in the oven?
Yes, absolutely Donna. You may want to half the recipe though. I’m not sure what the capacity of a bread machine is, but I think they usually only make 1 loaf at a time. The full recipe might be too much for the machine to mix. Fortunately, making a half-batch is as easy as dividing all the ingredients in half. Enjoy!
If the potato and water are cooled can you make the loaves without refrigerating overnight?
Hi, Nancy! Great question, and the answer is yes you can. Start early enough in the day and, after kneading, let the dough rise u til doubled, which will probably take around 2 1/2 hours or so, depending on how warm your kitchen is. Shape the loaves, pan them up, and let rose again until the dough peeks above the top of the pan by about 1″ at the highest point. Then bake, cool at least u til just-warm, and enjoy! Let me know if you have any other questions, and enjoy the bread!
Excellent recipe! Made two loaves today for lunch!
I’m thrilled you guys like it! Thanks for letting me know, Alyssa!
Hey Jenni,
I made this sandwich bread for my T-day stuffing but we snitched a couple of slices. It was soooo good. BTW, I divided the recipe in half because I don’t have that much room in my freezer. I found when the batter was mixed up it was too dry (I weighed everything). I wound up adding another 1/4 cup of water and it wasn’t quite as wet and sticky as you described but it would up perfect in the end. Thanks for such a great recipe.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Alonna
I’m so glad it turned out for you! Thanks for letting me know. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Alonna!
Hey Jenni,
I am on a roll (ha, ha) with your potato breads. Your Thanksgiving rolls were so good. Now I want to make a loaf of this bread. I have a stand mixer, but if one didn’t, is it possible to knead this dough by hand?
Thanks so much!
Alonna
Hello! Yes, you can make the bread without a stand mixer, but it will take a lot of kneading. I think you’ll really enjoy it–I’m glad you’re having fun with all my bread and roll recipes!
I love potato buns but never tried potato bread. Pinning this to bake with my little one in the summers.Doe it have to be Russet potatoes Jenni?
Hey, Kari! Yes, this one is a winner, for sure. So flavorful but not so assertive that it can’t stand aside so your sandwich fixin’s will shine! 🙂
Hi Jenni,
I enjoy your weekly posts and trying your recipes. Does the potato need to be a russet? I only have new potatoes. What accommodations would be needed?
Hey, Sarah. I’m so glad you are trying my recipes. Hopefully you are finding success! If you ever have any questions, feel free to get in touch directly at onlinepastrychef at yahoo (dot) com. What kind of new potatoes are they? If they’re yellow, you probably will be just fine, but red ones are waxy with a different kind of starch than fluffy russets. You could try it as a sub, but I cannot say for certain your results will be as good. I know that is not 100% helpful, but I’m just trying to give you some options. Please take care and stay safe.
Jenni, this is a great recipe and looks easy to bake. I want to try this. Can I substitute the same amount of all-purpose flour for the bread flour? Thanks in advance.
Hey, Betty Ann! Yes, it should be fine, but you may need to adjust the liquid down just a touch. Enjoy and take care!
I have never ever had any type of bread containing potato before, but I’m sold as a mega spud lover! I just love the colour of the bread too, it looks delicious! xo
I think you’ll really enjoy it, Gemma. Stay well, and enjoy the bread!
I won’t lie. I don’t bake bread often, but you have convinced me to try your potato bread recipe. I never understood what potatoes did to the bread texture until you explained it so well.
It is seriously good. Best sandwiches ever! And as I said in the post, I don’t have hard proof that potato works like Tangzhong, but it definitely feels right. Enjoy it! ❤️