Madeleine's Neighborly Bread

Potato bread has that unmistakable soft, almost cushiony texture that regular bread just can’t match. This bread machine version uses both mashed potatoes and potato water to load the dough with starch, which traps moisture and keeps the crumb tender for days.

The whole wheat flour provides substance and a nutty backbone, while the applesauce and honey add gentle sweetness without any greasiness. No butter or oil in this recipe at all. The applesauce handles the fat’s job of keeping things moist.

This is the kind of loaf you slice thick for sandwiches or toast with just a scrape of butter in the morning.

Kitchen Tips

• Save your potato water next time you boil potatoes. It’s full of starch that feeds the yeast and softens the bread. Freeze it in portions if you don’t bake right away.
• Use plain mashed potatoes with no added butter or seasonings. Garlic mashed potatoes would be... interesting, but not what you want here.
• The dough will look wetter than a standard bread recipe. That’s the potato starch at work. Trust the process and let the machine handle it.

Variations

• Add a tablespoon of dried rosemary for a savory potato rosemary loaf.
• Swap honey for molasses for a darker, more robust flavor.
• Toss in a handful of roasted garlic cloves at the mix-in stage for a fragrant garlic potato bread.