What is Potato Bread?

Made with potato instead of entirely wheat flour, potato, or tatie, bread is a type of bread that includes potato as a major ingredient, though in varying degrees, dependent upon the recipe that is followed. Potato bread can come in both leavened and unleavened varieties. It is cooked in a host of different ways, including the traditional oven method, pan fried, or slowly cooked on a griddle or slow cooker.

The appearance of potato bread differs from a white or a wheat bread in color. This type of bread has a light yellow hue that often makes it a standout when presented in a bakery's display. Potato bread is often woven in a braid when sold in bakeries.

Available commercially, this type of bread can be purchased in a variety of forms. There is the traditional loaf of sliced bread, which is a very popular choice as it tends to be softer than a whole wheat bread would be. Hot dog buns and hamburger rolls are offered in a potato based variety as well.

Recipes for homemade potato bread vary greatly. There are those recipes that call for freshly mashed potatoes, while others cite using potato flakes. Others combine both the mashed potatoes and the dried flakes to produce their end result. Those recipes specifically created for use with a bread machine call only for the dried flakes, as the addition of mashed potatoes would create a problem in the leavening process.

As the potato has been a staple in the Irish cooking tradition, potato bread is very common and has many different forms. Known in Ireland by its common name of tatie bread, it is made in a number of different ways. The heavier, more dense bread uses a recipe that calls for the addition of oatmeal along with the potato flour. There is also a popular Irish potato bread that contains a sweetened apple filling at its center.

Peru, the Ukraine, and Germany all have breads native to their country's traditional recipes that feature a potato-based bread. The Cherokee Indians also have a bread that uses sweet potatoes in place of the standard white potato. Potato bread is popular throughout the world in its many and varied forms. It is as different from bread to bread as the people who make it.