World Bread Day 2020: Pumpkin Yeast Bread

Baking yeast bread is something I really enjoy doing, and even more so this year. Where I live, there is plenty of flour and yeast now, so I can continue this relaxing and tasty hobby of mine. I bake all of our bread; whether it's sandwich bread, hamburger buns, or cinnamon rolls. No more store-bought bread or buns for us anymore!

Zorra from the blog Kochtopf organizes World Bread Day every year. I love baking with pumpkin so for this year's entry I baked two loaves of Pumpkin Yeast Bread, heavily adapted from the King Arthur Baking Company.

#wbd2020 #worldbreadday #worldbreadday2020

This bread is easy to make, and is really soft and fluffy. What I also loved is that this recipe makes two loaves at the same time. I like to store my bread in the freezer. First I slice the whole loaf and then I put the sliced bread in a Ziploc bag, and into the freezer it goes. When you need bread, you only take out what you need, and either let it thaw it out on the counter, or put it in the toaster.

With this bread, you have the option to add warm spices like ginger and cardamom. I decided to leave those out and instead, add walnuts to one loaf for my husband, and add a cinnamon swirl to one half of my loaf. This worked out great!

Pumpkin Yeast Bread: plain, cinnamon swirl, and studded with walnuts

ABC - Pumpkin Buns

The ABC challenge for the month of November wouldn't be complete without a pumpkin recipe. When I saw these cute Pumpkin Buns, shaped like little pumpkins, I couldn't resist adding them to the list.

Only made two pumpkin shaped buns with an almond for a stalk :)

So light and fluffy!!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Cranberry-Pumpkin Rolls

I can't help but love Fall. The changing of the colors around us, brisk weather but not too cold (except for late last week where the temps dipped below freezing, brrr), and of course baking with apples, pumpkins and lots of spices. Last month's Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread was a big hit with the ABC bakers. This month we moved on to another Fall favorite: pumpkin. Although pumpkin played a big role in these dinner rolls, let's not underestimate the other side kicks: craisins (and for some of us, golden raisins too), and lots of warm spices like cinnamon, ginger and cloves. I'm talking about this month's Cranberry-Pumpkin Rolls. They're soooooo good! Thanks to a tip from my ABC buddy, Paula, I doubled the spices in the recipe, which transformed these dinner rolls into something even more fabulous.

They may look humble but these babies pack a big flavor punch!

This is making me feel a bit sentimental. All (well, most) King Arthur Flour recipes have been so good to us these past two years. But, as the song goes, "every new beginning comes from another beginning's end". I'm sure this won't be our last time baking KAF recipes in our kitchens. But for right now, I won't say goodbye yet. I'm very much looking forward to making next month's Chocolate Eclair recipe. Are you?

With that, I have an announcement to make. Starting in January 2015, we will be baking recipes from the wonderful blog, Scientifically Sweet, written by food scientist Christina Marsigliese. Her recipes are awesome, and I really dig her scientific approach to baking (yes, I'm a nerd, if you didn't know already).

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Cinnamon-Swirl Pumpkin Rolls

I love cinnamon rolls. Homemade cinnamon rolls, that is (don't care much for the mass-produced ones you get at that famous Cinnamon Roll chain). When I came across a pumpkin version on the King Arthur Flour website, I knew I had to try it. I actually made these back in April of this year and after the first bite, I decided that these needed to be a recipe for our ABC club. And here we are making the Cinnamon-Swirl Pumpkin Rolls :o)

Soft and fluffy Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

ABC - Velvety Pumpkin Tart

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I missed Turkey Day this year because I was overseas on a nice long (and well-deserved) vacation :o) When I get a chance, I'll try to post a few pictures of my trip.

A slice of pumpkin-y heavy!

This ABC post is waaaaay too late, but I just couldn't get myself to skip it all together, especially after the rave reviews from the other ABC bakers. The November recipe for the ABC bakers was the Velvety Pumpkin Tart. This recipe couldn't be easier and it comes together in a flash, especially if you have all the ingredients at home (which to me are all staple items). As you know, this recipe can be found in The Weekend Baker. I also found it posted online by a Bay Area newspaper here. Note: they adapted the recipe by adding crystallized ginger to the crust.

Announcement: the ABC bakers will be baking from www.KingArthurFlour.com in 2013. If you'd like to join us, please email me at HanaasKitchen [at] live [dot] com.

A virtual Thanksgiving

A bunch of us were invited to a virtual Thanksgiving Dinner Party by Phyl. The idea behind this plan is for everyone to make a dish. The virtual Thanksgiving dinner would comprise of all the dishes put together. Neat idea, huh? Phyl will be doing a round-up soon and post a link to everyone's recipe(s). Thanks Phyl!

Who says "healthy" can't be delicious?

My contributions to the Thanksgiving table are: Mediterranean-style Oven-Roasted Vegetables and a Moist and Spicy Layered Pumpkin Cake with Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting. I hope you give these recipes a try. They're always a big hit at our house.

Bon appetit!

BOM: Pumpkin Knotted Dinner Rolls

Light-as-air pumpkin dinner rolls

It's that time again. The Artisan Bread Bakers on Facebook are baking this month's BOM (Bread of the Month): Pumpkin Dinner Rolls. Our host, Phyl, could not have chosen a more appropriate Fall recipe for us to bake. I love anything pumpkin and couldn't wait to make these. The thought of cutting the recipe in half didn't even cross my mind, even though I had never used pumpkin and yeast together in a recipe. Several group members had already baked it and everyone raved about it. The recipe can be found here, although I used a slightly modified version which included weight measurements.

Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger-Almond Crust

I made Tish Boyle's Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger Pecan Almond Crust twice this month already so it's only fair that I share this gem of a dessert with all of you. The recipe can be found in Tish's book The Cake Book, as well as her blog (yes, I'm a big fan!) :o) One of the first things that stood out for me was the crust. Instead of the traditional graham cracker crust, Tish offers a shortbread crust made with toasted nuts and finely chopped crystallized ginger. The only change I made was substitute almonds for the pecans. The other aspect about this recipe that caught my attention was the use of spices in the filling. Last year, I made my first pumpkin cheesecake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, which didn't have any spices, yet, it tasted heavenly and pumpkin-y.

For a little extra oomph (and to hide a few craters from accidentally dropping the cheesecake - oops), I decorated the cheesecake with Pumpkin Mousse