Pumpkin Yeast Bread
Though pumpkin is available in cans all year long, I seem to associate this bread with autumn. It makes marvelous turkey sandwiches spread with cranberry jelly and lettuce or sprouts. Because of the golden color, they also make especially festive dinner rolls for the holiday table. Make half the dough into rolls, and the other half into loaves for sandwiches.
1/2 cup warm water
2 packages (2 tablespoons) active dry yeast
2/3 cup warm milk
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups puréed pumpkin, either fresh or canned
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 1/2 cups (approximately) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
In a large bowl, stir yeast into water to soften. Add milk, eggs, pumpkin, oil, 4 cups flour, brown sugar, salt, ginger and cardamom to yeast mixture. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.
Gradually add remaining flour, a little at a time, until you have a dough stiff enough to knead. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead, adding flour as necessary, until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
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.
Turn dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface. Divide dough in half. Shape dough into loaves and place in well-greased 10 x 5-inch pans or, shape half into a loaf, and other half into 12 large dinner rolls. Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.
Bake in a preheated 375°F oven. Loaves bake about 30 minutes, rolls about 20. Check the internal temperature of each with an instant-read thermometer; a reading of 190°F means bread or rolls are done.
Immediately remove bread or rolls 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. Makes 2 large loaves, or 1 large loaf and 12 dinner rolls.
This recipe reprinted from The Baking Sheet Newsletter, Vol. III, No. 1, November 1991 issue.
Reviews
03/30/2010
OH MY GOSH. I admit, I was skeptical at first in using pumpkin for a yeast bread but oh boy, i should have made it as soon as i had seen the recipe. This bread is amazing. Made one loaf, and am now regretting it. I should have made 2! Absolutely delicious, great crumb and a wonderfully soft texture - as well as a pretty orange-yellow colour - it was especially yummy as toast. Will definitely make again! :D
02/08/2010
I made this recipe when looking for a way to use a very large crown prince pumpkin. I roasted the pumpkin before pureeing it. I changed this recipe a bit, using part wholemeal flour and part white, and also varied the spices, adding cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg and pepper to the mix. The loaf is delicious. It rose well, has a fine, even texture with a good crust. It toasts well, and I expect it will keep well.
12/28/2009
This tastes amazing! Pumpkin-y, but not too sweet, chewy-fluffy and moist. The only problem was the dough was incredibly sticky- I probably used 8 cups of flour, instead of the 6.5. But it resulted in a deliciously moist bread, so I will definitely deal with the sticky and make this recipe again.
12/07/2009
This makes fantastic dinner rolls. I cut back the sugar to 1/4 cup, since pumpkin is plenty sweet. The hint of spice in this bread is so faint that I'm just going to omit the ginger and cadamom next time around.
10/17/2009
Delicious! I halved it and subed a heaping teaspoon of Penzey's pumkin pie spice for the spices the recipe calls out for. I also divided it on half and kneaded plumped raisins into half of it and made the recipe into 16 rolls. Yummy, tender and delicious. I plan on making these to go with Thanksgiving dinner.
10/13/2009
I increased the spices by using 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon each ginger and nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon cloves. This bread is slightly sweet and extremely soft. Toast your leftovers and spread with spiced pear butter for a delicious Autumn breakfast!
04/09/2009
These do puff up in the oven! I did substitute a bit of whole wheat flour and it came out great. Nice crunchy crust, will make good sanwhich bread!
Bookmark/share
this recipe