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Recipe for the Week – Pumpkin Yeast Bread (Baking Partners Challenge #15)

1:43:00 pm

For everyone in the U.S., fall is here!! It’s time for your carved pumpkins, Halloween costumes and Trick o’ Treating. Over here in Kerala, we’re just enjoying the nice weather and wondering why there’s still a ‘fall’ in power supply in spite of more than enough water to generate electricity.

Anyway, keeping in with the theme of fall, we’re baking with Pumpkins at Baking Partners. I missed last month’s challenge since I was busy with my brother’s wedding, so I wanted to be absolutely sure to complete the challenge this time :-).

We had a choice of three recipes including a sweet, no-yeast Pumpkin bread with maple icing, a vegan bread and the one I’ve done here – a Pumpkin Yeast Bread.

The original recipe yields 2 large loaves. Since I have a smaller loaf pan, I halved the recipe and made 1 small loaf and two buns.


Pumpkin Puree:

500 g Pumpkin (this will actually be more than sufficient – probably 350 g would do)
½ cup water

1. Peel, wash and cube the pumpkin.


2. Place the pumpkin pieces in a pressure cooker with the water and cook on high heat for 5 whistles, then lower the heat and cook for 10 minutes more.

3. When the cooked pumpkin is cool to the touch, puree in a blender. 


What you’ll need:

1 Tbsp instant yeast
3 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (I didn’t use this much)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 t salt
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/3 cup warm milk
1 large egg, beaten
3/8 cup puréed pumpkin
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

What you’re going to do:

1. In a large bowl, stir together yeast, 2 cups flour, brown sugar, salt, cardamom, milk, eggs, pumpkin and oil.

2. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. I could only manage about a minute, before my dough began crawling up my beaters!! After this stage, I ended up with a fairly sticky dough like this:


3. Put away the beaters, and gradually add remaining flour, a little at a time, until you have dough stiff enough to knead.

4. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead, adding flour as necessary, until you have a smooth, elastic dough. I didn’t require the prescribed 3 cups of flour,  about 2 and a half will do, I think.

5. Put dough into an oiled bowl. Turn once to coat entire ball of dough with oil. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.



6. Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly oiled work surface. Cut into two unequal parts, almost ¾ and 1/4.


Note: This division of the dough is not at all necessary. I did this since I wanted a smaller loaf and decided to make buns with the leftover dough.

7. Shape bigger dough into loaf and place in well-greased loaf pan. (I forgot to grease the pan and had a tough time getting the baked loaf out). Shape smaller dough into buns and place on a greased baking sheet.


8. Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.


9. Bake in a preheated 190°C oven for about 30 minutes for the loaf, and 20 minutes for the buns. I baked my smaller loaf for 25 minutes.

10. Immediately remove bread and buns from pans and cool on a wire rack to prevent crust from becoming soggy. For a shiny crust, brush tops of bread or rolls lightly with vegetable oil.


Slice when completely cool. For the buns, of course you don’t have to wait that long :-).


I have to say that the aroma of the pumpkin bread while in the oven was heavenly!!! For that alone, I think I’d bake this bread again! And yes, it tastes really good too – not too sweet or savory, just right to be eaten on its own or with a spread. Cub had a bun with Nutella, and then came back asking for more!! See, kid tested too!!

Source



creativelylivingblog.com

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30 comments

  1. Yummm! I'm loving the look of this bread and the idea of neither too sweet nor savory works perfectly for me! Wish I could taste some of it too:-) Just had a question- do you suppose I can bake this without egg or substitute it with a vegetarian option?
    xx
    K
    klassystylefiles.blogspot.com.au

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Do try out the link I sent you, Kalyani and let me know how it turns out!

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  2. I don't like pumpkins much but the idea of munching pumpkin bread with a large slob of Nutella makes me salivate :P The pictures look lovely ^_^
    That Breaking Bad adaption is hilarious :P

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    1. Same here, Swarnali, the only way I like my pumpkin is in an 'olan' :-) But the baking smells alone made me salivate!!

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  3. You made very well, yes this bread can be used with savory and sweet topping no problem .Last picture is very funny.

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    1. Thank you, Swathi! My husband has been having it with his tea, by itself :-)

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  4. When it comes to baking, I give up. Yes, I am that bad. But this is so nicely explained. Interesting too.

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    Replies
    1. I did give up too, after several unsuccessful attempts. But I started over and now I'm not half bad!

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  5. cub tested too! :) I will definitely try this now.... i can almost smell it :) very well explained Fab.....

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  6. Love the texture of your bread, I am now inspired to try the yeasted version soon :-)

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  7. Loved the humor in the post. Though I am not much of a baker, I love reading about it. Glad you had fun at the wedding.

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  8. this winter, I am totally resolved to make different kinds of easy breads.....

    http://www.myunfinishedlife.com

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    1. This certainly falls into the easy category - not to mention yummy too!

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  9. I really loved reading this post and the way you explained the whole process with all the images. Thanks for sharing :)

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  10. This looks like something I might actually try to bake! Bookmarking. :)

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    Replies
    1. Be prepared for the amazing smells that are going to flood your kitchen :-)

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  11. Nice one Fab!! I have tried very few breads. Love the idea of pumpkin bread. I hope using active dry yeast will result in similar awesomeness :)

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    1. It should work with active dry yeast too, Priya. I've used both interchangeably in many recipes without any difference in outcome :-)

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  12. Have never baked a bread. It is only cakes for me till date. The way you have explained this recipe, I am tempted to try it. Thanks for sharing the tips too :)

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    1. Yes Shilpa, breads are a lot trickier than cakes. But they are somehow more satisfying - seeing the loaf rise is such a happy moment!

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  13. I hated pumpkin since childhood but bread made up with it sure looks inviting.Thanks for sharing the recipe..:)

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  14. Lovely bread and rolls..loved your step by step instructions including how to make pumpkin puree

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  15. Beautiful post on wedding lovely.

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