This is one of many variations on "No-Knead Bread" recipe that came out in the New York Times in 2007.
Before we begin, a note on flour. King Arthur's flours are excellent but and widely available, but I am currently buying organic stone-milled flours from Janie's Mill in Illinois. These flours are excellent, freshly ground, reasonably priced. Highly recommend.
- 4 cups bread flour
- 1 cup wheat flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
- 3 teaspoons/1 tablespoon salt
- 1 sweet potato, cooked
- 2.5 cups +/- potato water and/or tap water.
- for extra richness, add a few tablespoons of olive oil or butter, and substitute milk or buttermilk (or buttermilk powder) for some of the water. note, though, that buttermilk "fights" with yeast a bit, so you will need longer rising and/or a bit more yeast.
Chop the sweet potato into a few pieces and cook until tender. Set the water aside. Mix the dry ingredients. When the sweet potato is cooked, set aside the water, then mash the sweet potato with a knife. It should be easy to mash.
Add the sweet potato to the center of the dry ingredients then add the potato water as needed. Mix together with a large metal spoon until you form a dough. The dough should be almost dry enough to handle without getting your hands sticky, and wet enough for all the flour in the bowl to come together.
Cover the bowl with a plate and leave it until at least doubled in size. If it's cold, this could take 12 hours (slower rising = more flavor). If it's super hot in the house/summer, you might want to let it rise in the fridge, though this might take 24 hours. The exact rising time doesn't matter and if the dough is overflowing the bowl and you need to punch it down to go do an errand, that is fine.
When the dough has risen, pour it out onto a floured surface and cut it in two. Knead each piece lightly and shape into a bread pan shape (I prefer cast iron bread pans from Lodge, which need to be coated with olive or other oil before use).
Let the dough rise in the pans until more than doubled in size, covered with a hand towel, which normally takes an hour or two. Bake at 350 for forty minutes and then turn them out onto a rack. You can put them away when they are entirely cool, may take 4 - 5 hours. Freeze the extra loaf if you want, just wrap it up thoroughly (in a cloth then plastic).
Note: this particular batch of bread was made with a blue sweet potato which makes the bread a beautiful and exotic purple color.