Potato Pull Apart Cinnamon Bread

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It's time for the Potato Ho-Down again! In the spirit of the season I decided to go with something sweet and goo-ey and Christmas-ey. And good. SO good.

First of all here is our girl - brainchild of that fabulous duo Cathy and Krysta, of Noble Pig and Evil Chef Mom - our chief Potato-Hos as it were.There are good reasons to use potatoes in making yeast bread. The starch in the potatoes gives you a nice light rise with a rich flavor. They even stay fresh longer. You can use leftover mashed potatoes for this, cutting down a bit on the salt, but I think it is better to just start from scratch.

Peel one large or two medium potatoes. I used Yukon Gold because that is what we still have from the garden - you can use whatever you have. Cut the peeled potato into cubes and place in a sauce pan with 3/4 cup of water and simmer until potatoes are soft. Do not drain the liquid - just mash it and the potatoes togther until nice and smooth. Measure one cup of this mixture for the recipe.

Here is what you need:
1 cup potato, mashed with cooking liquid
1 cup milk, heated to just below boiling and cooled [the microwave works well for this]
1 egg
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 packet Rapid Rise yeast
4 cups flour, divided

Topping:
1 & 1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted

I don't have a stand mixer [I know - can you believe it?], so I do this the way I always have - by hand. This could easily be made in a mixer - where I say "whisk or stir", just dump in that ingredient and let 'er rip.
Whisk together the potato, milk, egg, sugar, salt and dry yeast. I rarely bloom yeast these days - the rapid rise stuff works just as well this way.Once that is nicely mixed, add 1 & 1/2 cups of the flour and whisk for another couple minutes to develop the gluten in the flour.Switch to a wooden spoon and mix in 2 more cups of flour until well incorporated.Dump it out on a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, adding in the remaining 1/2 cup pf flour. If it still seems terribly sticky, you can add more flour, but this is always going to be at least a little sticky because that is the nature of potato bread dough.Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a dampened kitchen towel and allo to rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.Punch down, turn out on the floured surface again and knead briefly. Form into a ball again and cut in half. Cut those halves in half and then each of those halves in half. I stopped when I had 32 pieces and if there was just one thing I would have done differently when I made this batch, it would have been to cut the dough into smaller pieces. When I make it again, I think I will cut the dough ball into 3 piece initially, and then start cutting them all in half, and in half etc, which if my math is correct [and that is by no means certain], you would end up with 48 little dough balls instead of 32.Have your melted butter in a small dish and mix the sugar and cinnamon together in another bowl. Dip each piece of dough in the butter and then roll in the sugar mixture to coat thoroughly.This is too large for a regular bread pan - I used my 5 quart oblong french white casserole dish. Grease well. I also lined the bottom with parchment paper just for some extra insurance against sticking. Arrange the dough pieces in the baking dish, making sure to overlap them in a staggered formation, rather than stacking the pieces evenly on top of each other. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with any remaining sugar mixture and pour over any remaining butter. Set to rise in a warm place until it is just peeking over the top of the dish - I think it took about an hour. Place on a baking sheet [it did run over just a bit] and bake in a 350º oven for about 50 minutes, turning dish half way through the baking time.When done, it will be very well browned on the top. Cool on a rack for about 10 minutes and then carefully remove to a platter, peeling off parchment paper if you used it.You don't really need butter on them, but it's Christmas, so go all out!

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