Let's Make Pumpkin Bread | Autumn Cooking

Sunday, October 04, 2015

It's October and my favourite time of the year has finally arrived - it's autumn! :) The leaves are starting to turn all colourful in the parks of London, everything gets cosy and the knitwear's back out too! What's not to love eh? Also autumn equals pumpkins and I absolutely ADORE them. I love making pumpkin soups and if you read this post here last year you might also have seen my pumpkin muffins - they're a big hit with everyone who ever tried them! :) But I like to experiment and try new things every once in a while so this year I decided to bake my own pumpkin bread - it's easy to make, you don't need a lot of ingredients for it and it's so so good! So here's how I made mine:

You'll need:

1 small pumpkin (about 300 - 400g of peeled and deseeded pumpkin)
100g pumpkin seeds
80g honey
75g salted butter (or add a tsp of salt if you use unsalted)
1 egg
250g plain flour
250g wholemeal flour
1 sachet of baking yeast

What to do:

Cut your pumpkin into small cubes and boil in hot water for about 10 minutes til your pieces are soft enough to be pureed. In the meantime, roast the pumpkin seeds in a small frying pan til golden. After you pureed your boiled pumpkin pieces add the honey, butter and egg and combine to form an even mixture.

In another bowl, mix your dry ingredients, the two kinds of flour as well as the yeast. Then fold this and the roasted pumpkin seeds in with the pumpkin mixture and give everything a good knead (make sure it's not that hot anymore before getting your hands in there!)

Once it's kneaded enough to form a smooth dough cover with a tea towel and leave to proof in a warm place for at least 30 minutes, til it's doubled in volume.
Line a loaf tin with baking powder than fill it with your bread dough and leave to proof again for another 15 minutes. After that it can go into a preheated oven at 180°C for about 40 minutes. Use a skewer to check if it's all cooked, if it comes out clean your bread is ready to leave the oven.

Now there's only one thing left to do: enjoy the fruits of your labour and tuck in! :)

Have you ever made pumpkin bread yourself? Or do you think you'll give this one a go? Let me know in the comments below :)

Lots of Love,
Jess x