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

Pumpkin Yeast Bread

(heavily adapted from King Arthur Baking Company)
Yields: two 8" x 4" loaves (or 24-32 dinner rolls)

Wet ingredients:

• 113 gr almond milk (instead of cow's milk)
• 30-60 gr extra water (needed due to the whole wheat flour addition)
• 340 gr canned pumpkin puree
• 25 gr extra-virgin extra oil
• 2 large eggs
• 60 gr organic raw honey (used less sweetener than the original recipe)

Dry ingredients:

• 390 gr whole wheat flour (General Mills brand)
• 390 gr all purpose flour (King Arthur Flour brand)
• 50 gr dark flax seeds, ground in spice grinder (I love flax seeds; they're good for you too)
• 6 gr sea salt (compared to 15 gr in the original recipe)
• 6 gr instant yeast (about a third of the original recipe)

Extras (optional):

• 100 gr walnuts, toasted, cooled and rubbed to take some of the skin off
• Ground cinnamon

Instructions:

• Place all the wet ingredients in the bowl of your bread machine. Add all the dry ingredients.
• Run the Dough Cycle on your bread machine (on mine, this takes 90 min).
• On a lightly oiled work surface, divide the dough into two. Roll out each risen dough into a large square.
• If using, sprinkle toasted walnuts on one square. If making a cinnamon swirl, sprinkle cinnamon on the square.
• Roll up the dough into a log (similar to making cinnamon rolls) and pinch the ends.
• Place the rolled up dough in the buttered/floured baking pan(s), seam-side down.
• Covered with oiled plastic wrap (or shower cap) until doubled in volume. This can take up to one hour, depending on the room's temperature.
• Roughly 30 min into the second rise, preheat the oven to 400 F.
• Spray the dough with water.
• Bake the risen dough in the preheated oven for 5 min. Reduce the temperature to 350 F and bake for another 30 min.
• Remove the baked bread from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
• Slice both loaves, bag them and freeze for future use.
• Bon Appetit!