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Soft Crunchy Sweet Potato Bread

6 sweet potatoes, peeled boiled and puréed (or you could roast them and then scrape out the pulp)

800g Shipton's bread flour of your choice - I chose Organic Malthouse 301

2 teaspoons of dried yeast

1 teaspoon table salt

Warm water as needed.

Mix the mashed potato (puréed if you want no lumps at all) with enough warm water to make it runny.

Add the yeast and leave it for 15 minutes.

Grease the tins - I've used 2 different sizes of loaf tins here, but one roasting tin would do, if you want batch loaves to break apart).

When the mixture looks alive, add the flour and salt and squeeze it all together with your hand until you've got a good sticky ball of dough. Add more water if it's looking a bit dry (the French apparently make a much wetter dough than the Brits, what's not to like? There are c.3million different opinions on this. I've never measured the water I use)

Cover the bowl with a wet tea towel or put it in a large plastic bag. Anything that will stop the top forming a hard crust. Put the bowl in a warm corner of the house or by a sunny closed window to rise.

When it's doubled in size, heave the mixture out onto a floured board. Cut it into the right number of pieces to fit in your tins - each tin should be up to half full. Then kneed each piece using your signature kneeding style. There really isn't a right way (although many different theories, see above). I like my loaves smooth on the top, so I tend to keep folding in from the outside to maintain a smooth side to the dough).

Leave to rise somewhere warm, again lightly covered. Heat the oven - c.190' (or hotter, say some. Or hotter then turn it down, say others. Whatever you can afford, I say).

After 40 mins or so (I put these on a radiator cos I was very hungry by this stage), put your loaves in the oven. They'll rise a bit more in there, getting this wonderful split that looks so mouthwatering.

30 minutes in a hot oven should do it. Take them out and immediately shake them onto a wire tray so that they maintain their crispy sides.

These loaves are quite soft, so if you can, wait until they are cool before slicing in. They're orange inside, as I used orange sweet potatoes.