Rosemary and Olive Sweet Potato Bread

I just made this up so many ingredients are optional. Feel free to tweak it to be sweeter or saltier for whichever suits your taste better. Jon said he loved it; this recipe makes about 1/4 lb loaf in my breadmaker since it was very dense and heavy. I could have made it a lighter loaf by excluding the sweet potato skin, but I always use the skins of fruits and veggies since they contain most of the fiber and vitamins. The fiber helps lower the glycemic index and load of the bread, while the sweet potato is a great lower glycemic stand in for white potato.

Dy ingredients:
1 medium sweet potato, cooked
1/2 c. instant potato flakes (optional)
1 c. organic brown rice flour
1 t. xantham gum
1 T. baking soda
1 T. baking powder
sea salt
1 T. natural brown sugar (optional, but may be too salty without it)
1 packet Red Star gluten free dry yeast, proofed with 2 T. warm water and a dash of real sugar

Wet Ingredients:
~2 T. pitted olives (I used salad olives with pimento for a salty to contrast the sweet potato)
1 egg, room temperate
1/2 stick Earth Balance Vegan butter, melted and room temperature
1 T. extra virgin olive oil (optional)

Seasonings:
2 T. dried rosemary

First, warm about 2 T. water to about 110 degrees or until it feels warm against the inside of your wrist. Stir in a dash of real sugar (artificial sugar or honey will not work to proof the yeast) until dissolved then add the yeast. Set aside; the yeast should consume the sugar and become foamy if it is fresh.

Spray the inside of the bread maker pan. Add all dry ingredients to the pan. Wash and fork the sweet potato and cook. A simple microwave method is to wrap the forked potato in Saran wrap and nuke it on the vegetable setting (high I think) for about 4-5 minutes. Let the potato cool and be careful not to burn yourself with the steam when removing the Saran. I used kitchen shears to first cut up the potato skin into small chunks. I then mashed the potato with the olives and wet ingredients with a potato masher. Continue to mix together all of the wet ingredients until smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the breadmaker pan on top of the dry ingredients. Add the foamy, proofed yeast. Close the lid and set the breadmaker to "quick" loaf or just to "bake" if you've mixed everything separately in a bowl before adding it to the breadmaker. I let the bread maker knead the dough and occasionally opened the lid to scrape off any dough stuck to the sides while it kneaded. I let the loaf bake for about 1 hour until the crust was brown and a toothpick came out clean. You could also do this in the oven, but it is too hot here! The loaf is very dense like potato bread but also very rich and flavorful.