Kura

Ingredients

• 8¾ ozPotatoesfloury, weighed peeled, boiled and mashed
• 15¾ ozWheat flourwheat or wholemeal spelt flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 cupWaterlukewarm, for the dough; source 5 uses the potato cooking water
• ¼ ozDry yeastor half a cube of fresh yeast
• 3 tbspOlive oilinto the dough
• ⅓ ozSaltfor the dough, plus extra for the potato water
• 1 tspSugarto activate the yeast (optional)

Method

1. Peel the potatoes, cut them into even cubes and boil them in salted water until tender, about 20 minutes.
2. Drain the potatoes, catching the cooking water, then mash them finely and let them cool to lukewarm. The reserved potato water can stand in for the water in the dough later on.
3. Mix the flour, dry yeast, salt and, if you like, the sugar in a bowl. Add the lukewarm mashed potato, the olive oil and the lukewarm water.
4. Knead everything for 5 to 15 minutes into a smooth, slightly sticky dough.
5. Cover the dough and leave it to rise in a warm spot for about 1 hour, until doubled in volume.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape it swiftly into a loaf, or transfer it to your prepared tin, then dust it with flour.
7. Let it prove for another 15 to 30 minutes and heat the oven in the meantime.
8. Bake the bread first with steam or with the lid on, then uncovered until golden brown — about 35 to 40 minutes in total.
9. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack before you cut into it.

Tips and variations

Kura comes out best in a preheated cast-iron pot: 15 minutes at 190 °C with the lid on, then 20 to 25 minutes without. With no pot to hand, bake it in a loaf tin lined with baking paper and set a dish of water in the oven — 10 minutes at 230 °C, then 25 minutes at 200 °C. If you like, prove the loaf in a floured banneton and slash a cross into the top before baking. Wholemeal spelt flour, with the yeast dissolved in the potato cooking water, gives the bread an even nuttier flavour. Serve it lukewarm or cooled, in thick slices.