Thursday 17 July 2008

Yeasted pumpkin bread

As I've mentioned before I'm trying to use up all my frozen pumpkin to clear some space in my freezer (thanks for all the great ideas I plan to make some soon!). Well in our house we make almost all our own bread, normally just simple loaves with maybe a few seeds in. While I was searching for things to do with my pumpkin I came across this recipe for a loaf of bread made with pumpkin purée. I like to try new and unusual things and this sounded really interesting so, I gave it a go and the results were brilliant. It rose to a huge size, much bigger than I expected, this made for a very light loaf rather than the dense bread I anticipated. The pumpkin gave it an amazing orange colour and helped to keep it really soft. I decorated the top with pumpkin seeds (what else?) and this is the result.Unfortunately I can't remember where I found the recipe, if anyone can tell me I'll gladly credit it to them, but here it is:

Ingredients (for 12 rolls or 1 loaf):

  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of good Active Dry Yeast.

  • 1 Tablespoon of sugar

  • 1/2 cup of 110 degree (Fahrenheit) milk

  • About 4 cups of flour (add more as you need when kneading)

  • 1 cup pumpkin canned or home-made

  • 1 teaspoon of nutmeg

  • 3/4 stick of butter

  • 1 egg, beaten a bit

Instructions:
  1. Mix yeast and sugar into the milk and let the yeast grow for about 10 to 15 minutes.
  2. Combine all the dry ingredients into a bowl
  3. Chop the butter into bits and mix it into the dry ingredients
  4. Add the egg, pumpkin and foamy yeast mixture
  5. Mix everything together until its all combined
  6. Next, take the dough and knead it on a floured surface (and keep it floured on top and bottom to keep from sticking on you and the surface) for about 10 minutes.
  7. If you are in a hurry you can skip this step but your rolls might not be as good. Set the dough in a bowl and cover with a tea towel for about 1 hour (or until it doubles in size). Indeed, I was in a hurry and skipped this step so please comment if you include it and let me know how it turns out.
  8. Punch the dough down and separate into 12 balls.
  9. Place the balls on an oiled baking tray (or use a springform pan or glass baking dish) and let them rise for another 45 minutes.
  10. Bake the rolls for 30-40 minutes or until they just turn golden at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Alternatively do as I did and put all the ingredients in a bread machine on the dough setting, then continue from step 8 onwards.

4 comments:

Christine said...

This is really great! The one recipe I found for raised pumpkin bread was sweeter and more complicated, but this is great to make because it's simple and will accompany dinner nicely. I can't wait to try this out (that is, if I have any pumpkin left!).

Sam said...

Christina: If you do try it I'd love to hear how you get on.

Anonymous said...

Sam,

I'm here through Christina's blog. This just went on my to bake list as it looks like a very interesting bread and from Christina's description, wonderful tasting too.

Sam said...

Breadchick: I really hope you try it. Your blog is great I wish I could make sourdough like yours!