Mashed Potato Bread

Leftover Mashed Potatoes? How about using them to make great tasting Mashed Potato Bread. I first started baking breads when I was a young kid after my mother gave me a hard covered book titled “Baking Bread”. The book detailed how to bake a loaf of bread, from activating the yeast to finishing the loaf with butter to soften the crust. And for the years right up to high school I would bake a loaf every few weeks, I even had the recipe committed to memory. Then as I progressed in life very little to no baking that’s not to say I gave up cooking. I just didn’t bake; there was the exception when I made Bagels for Christmas gifts one year while living in Colorado they turned out far from perfect.
Then during the summer of 2013, Barry King a friend of mine who owns the windjammer Mary Day needed a cook mid-way thru his summer chartering season. That summer instead of running dinner charters in Maine on Makana as we left our boat in Florida I was spending most of my free time riding my bike and working part time as a captain when jobs came along. I offered Barry my services and on Aug. 1st that summer I awoke aboard the Mary Day at 4:30 am to start the wood burning stove. Barry and the Mary Day are known for serving quality home cooked food with every meal containing; a protein, fruit or veggies, a starch and two separate types of baked goods. No popping out a tray of Crispy Creams for breakfast everything had to be home made using the wood burning stove. My baking learning curve was straight up and rocket fast. Luckily there were several baking books which I pored over with the best being one from the The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook. That book ruled as did their flour I was going thru a 50 lbs. sack every 5 days. From sun rise to sun set I had a constant supply of yeast being proofed, dough rising and baked goods in the oven. One of the cook books I used that summer was “Ring That Bell” which was a collection of recipes from the late Mary Barney a longtime cook aboard the Mary Day. One of my favorite bread recipes from Mary’s book is her Potato Bread. Aboard the Mary Day we had no real refrigerator just a huge 12 foot tall ice box so leftovers were typically used ASAP and what better way to use the leftover mashed potatoes than in bread. Potato Bread is very easy to make with the texture of the bread best described as silky, enjoy.

The past several days have been a whirlwind of activities; provisioning for 5 months, boat projects, weather watching, course calculating with  organized mayhem occurring with all.  We are currently in Vero Beach Fl and planning on heading over to the Bahamas soon, possibly even this Saturday!