In my post earlier this week I talked about Holiday Traditions and mentioned Irish Potato Bread – my grandfather’s family tradition. I promise, this is seriously the easiest thing you will make this holiday season, there are only three ingredients! Okay, okay, I said it was easy, I never said it didn’t make a huge mess! There’s something about your kitchen looking like this that tells you it’s the holidays!
Ingredients
3 lbs russet baking potatoes
2 cups all purpose flour plus more for the board
Salt
Directions
Peel the potatoes and cut into 1″ cubes. Place the potatoes in a large pot with heavily salted cold water and bring to a full boil. Cook the potatoes until they are VERY tender. Drain and cover with a clean kitchen towel to steam and cool for ten minutes. Return the potatoes to the pot and mash thoroughly with a potato masher. Let the potatoes cool until you can just handle them with your hands – you want the dough to be warm to roll, so just as you can handle the dough, proceed with the recipe.
Add the flour and kneed into a dough. If the dough is too sticky and won’t roll out without sticking, add flour in 1/2 cup increments until it just comes together. Working in batches, roll the dough to a 1/4″ thickness and cut into slices. Using several frying pans, dry fry the bread on both sides until browned. The bread will not be cooked entirely through. Cool completely on baking racks and repeat for the rest of the dough. Keep the remaining dough warm in the pot with the lid on.
When ready to serve, lightly fry the bread in some olive until crispy and heated through. As I mentioned in the previous post, you can enjoy potato bread plain, with ketchup, butter, or even peanut butter! I hope you enjoy this wonderful but simple bread. When there’s potato bread on the table, I know it’s Christmas! Bon appetit!
The Homemade Chef 