Weekly recipe: Potato and herb bread

My sister gave me a breadmaker for my 30th birthday and I haven't looked back. We make all our own bread now, as well as pizza dough and hot cross buns (so far). But earlier this year, that breadmaker broke, so we purchased a new one and have been busy getting to know it. Over the years, I've learned that you have to be very careful to weigh out the ingredients carefully on scales and that humidity has a big effect on bread quality - it's a fine line before you get a rubbish loaf. The extensive recipe book that came with this new breadmaker has been so reliable that I haven't wanted to get too creative. But today I made the first loaf of bread that wasn't directly from the book - a potato and herb loaf.

This is the kind of breadmaker where you add the dry ingredients first (the opposite from our old one), so I started by adding the 1 1/2 teaspoons of yeast, 520 g of flour (oh gluten, where would I be without you?), 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 1/2 tablespoons of milk powder and 20 g of butter (the old machine didn't suggest using butter, but the results are much softer).

I picked 3 tablespoons of chives and thyme from the garden and cut them up and then also added 1/2 a cup of boiled potato chunks.

Next was 340 g of water (yeah, I weigh my water. Short of stealing a measuring cylinder from work, this is the most accurate way of getting the right amount.) and then GO!

Our breadmaker takes about 4 hours, which includes a resting period at the beginning, then the kneading , rising and baking.

Lunch for me! Worked out well.