Toch: The Pelzel Family’s Yeasted Potato Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Ingredients
⅔ c
warm water
1 tbsp
sugar
1 tbsp
dry-active yeast
3-4
potatoes (about 2¼ pounds), peeled and grated
2 lg
eggs
4 c
plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tbsp
fine sea salt
2 tbsp
canola oil
1
stick unsalted butter (5 tablespoons at room temperature, 3 tablespoons melted)
Butter and flaky salt for serving
Toch: The Pelzel Family’s Yeasted Potato Bread
Toch (rhymes with poach) is a yeasted potato bread baked in a tube pan—the kind you use for angel food cake.
10-12 servings
- Whisk the warm water, sugar, and yeast together in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm spot for 5 minutes. You should see the yeast bloom at the top of the water.
- While the yeast reactivates, take half of the grated potatoes and place them in a colander set into the sink. Squeeze the liquid from a handful of grated potatoes at a time until when squeezed, the potatoes don’t give off any liquid. Add the squeezed and unsqueezed potatoes to the water-yeast mixture along with the eggs, flour, and salt and stir to combine. The dough will be wet and sticky. Stir in the oil (the dough is very stir-able), then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the bowl aside so the dough can rise until it has doubled, 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes.
- Wrap the bottom of a 9¼- to 10-inch tube pan (at least 4 inches tall) in a double layer of aluminum foil and set the pan on a rimmed sheet pan. Grease the inside of the pan all over with 5 tablespoons of the softened butter. Place the dough in the pan. Pour the melted butter over the dough.
- Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and place the toch in the cold oven. Set the oven to 300°F and let the toch have its second rise in the warming oven for 15 minutes. Increase the heat to 475° and bake the toch for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350° and bake the toch until it forms a hard, golden crust on top, and when you shake the pan, the toch “jumps” out from it, about 1 hour.
- Remove the toch from the oven and turn it out from the pan. Serve hot or warm and with plenty of butter and flaky salt on the side.
Raquel Pelzel
Raquel Pelzel is the Editorial Director for Clarkson Potter Publishing, a division of Penguin Random House. She has co-authored more than 20 cookbooks and was formerly an editor at Cook’s Illustrated and the food editor of Tasting Table. Her next cookbook, Sheet Pan Suppers – Meatless, comes out in Fall 2017.