Whole wheat sweet potato yeast bread

We’ve had a couple of insanely busy weeks around here, but I can’t stop cooking–mostly because we keep eating! I had leftover sweet potatoes that I needed to use up, and this is what I came up with.

Whole wheat sweet potato yeast bread

I pureed 2 medium, cooked sweet potatoes and blended them with 3/4 cup of very warm milk. This was the base of my sponge, so I added:

• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 c. white bread flour
• 1 1/2 T. yeast
• 2 t. salt
• 2 T. molasses
• 2 T. oil

I let it bubble for about 15 minutes. Then, I stirred in

• 1/2 t. allspice
• 1/2 t. cardamom
• 1 egg

Once that was thoroughly mixed, I turned the mixer to speed 2 and used the dough hook to knead in approximately 1 c. white bread flour and 2 1/2 more cups of whole wheat flour. I kneaded the dough for about 4 minutes. When the dough formed a ball on the hook and cleared the sides of the bowl, I stopped the mixer and took the dough out.

I formed the dough into two loaves, slashed them, and let them rise for about 45 minutes. After the loaves had approximately doubled in size, I baked them in a 375° oven until their internal temperatures were 190°.

This bread was wonderful with soup and also worked really well for sandwiches. Using some white flour kept the bread light enough that it wasn’t too dense. The sweet potatoes made the bread incredibly moist. The bread wasn’t really sweet and actually tasted great with lunch meat and cheese.

Barb