Potato bread with Guernsey butter

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Why buy bread and butter when you can make your own? Emily Watkins' appealing potato bread recipe includes a method for making your own butter too – a handy recipe to add to your scrapbook.

First published in 2015
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Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Potato bread

  • 375g of Désirée potatoes, or Maris Piper
  • 525g of strong white bread flour
  • 12g of salt
  • 330ml of milk
  • 90g of lard
  • 20g of yeast
  • 110ml of water

Guernsey butter

  • 2l Guernsey single cream

Cider salt

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl with dough hook attachment
  • Mini loaf tins

Method

1
Firstly, make the cider salt. Combine the salt with the cider in a small frying pan and bring to a very gentle simmer. Continue to cook until all the liquid has evaporated and there is a cider-flavoured salt left in the pan. Remove and set aside until required
2
To make the butter, place the cream in the mixer and whisk until it splits from the milk, then pour everything into a piece of muslin set over a colander
  • 2l Guernsey single cream
3
Allow the buttermilk to drain off, then tightly squeeze the muslin to make sure all of the milk has drained out
4
Spread the butter onto a sheet of parchment and sprinkle liberally with the cider salt. Roll the sheet of butter up into the rough shape of a Swiss roll, using the edge of the parchment to aid you. Once you have rolled the butter into a neat cylinder, leave in the fridge to firm up
5
To make the bread, peel the potatoes and cut into large chunks. Submerge in a pan of cold, salted water. Bring to the boil and cook until tender
6
Drain off the liquid, allow to steam in a colander for a few minutes and then mash. Allow to cool completely
7
Mix the flour and cool mashed potato well in the bowl of a kitchenaid blender and add the salt
  • 525g of strong white bread flour
  • 12g of salt
8
Add the lard and milk to a pan and gently melt
  • 330ml of milk
  • 90g of lard
9
Gradually add the hot liquid to the mash and flour mix along with the water and yeast, using a kitchenaid fitted with a dough hook. Once incorporated, knead for 12 minutes
  • 20g of yeast
  • 110ml of water
10
Cover the dough lightly with cling film and set aside to prove for 3 hours
11
Knock back and knead the dough for 10 minutes. Cut the dough into 80g portions and place in some greased and lined mini loaf tins. Leave to prove until well risen
12
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4
13
Bake the loaves in the oven for 12 minutes, then turn and bake for a further 3 minutes so they are evenly nice and golden all over. Remove from the oven and allow to cool
14
Serve the bread with plenty of Guernsey butter
First published in 2015
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Mother of three and previously chef-owner at The Kingham Plough, Oxfordshire, Emily Watkins has a lot on her proverbial plate. But it hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of Britain’s leading chefs.

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