Basic Easy Pumpkin Bread Recipe
A High Fiber Yeast Loaf with a Chewy Crumb
Frankie waits…
Developing new bread recipes here at The Imsomniac Workshop starts with a whim usually. What would happen if…
I’ve been trying using various canned pie fillings as dough bases (a basis?) for quite a while with interesting results. The Key Lime pie filling was insane. When I returned to the laboratory to check the first rise, it was a huge foaming, green, sticky mass that had tripled the size of the dough ball! Punch Down Alert! Better living through chemistry, I always say. But the resulting loaf was pound cake texture. Chuleta!
This time — just canned pure pumpkin was my whim. Not the pie filling; I want a comfort food loaf this time, not a confection or protein- laden fitness workout-and-recovery-food loaf. Pumpkin is bland so I decided to pair it with brown sugar to tone down the sweetness and give it that smoky thing instead.
Ingredients
23 oz pure pumpkin (This is about 3/4 of a large 29 oz. can. You don’t have to get it perfect; it all works out when you knead it.)
1/2 C Kellogg’s All-Bud Bran
2 large eggs
1/2 C water
1 packet of yeast
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
4 - 5 C King Arthur Bread Flour
The dough ball rose to touch the towel and push it up in about 55 minutes (the air temperature in my kitchen is 79 degrees). No false bravado there!
Preparation
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the pumpkin and eggs.
Stir the yeast into the water (room temperature or luke warm) in a cup or bowl.
Whisk it into the mixing bowl.
Whisk in the brown sugar, allspice, and salt.
Use your favorite, sturdy wooden spoon or culinary implement of your choice to begin stiring in the flour. You know the drill; add and mix until you have a dough ball that you can work with.
Dump it out onto your floured silicone mat. Knead the dough ball until it’s a smooth, elastic consistency. Pumpkin dough has a wonderful rebound feel to it when it’s right.
Flour a large mixing bowl and the outside of the dough ball and place the ball in the bowl. Cover the top of the bowl with a clean towel and let it rise until it has doubled in size.
Butter up your loaf pan.
Punch down the dough ball, fold the edges into, the cavity, roughly shape it into a loaf, dump it unceremoniously into the loaf pan, and gently flatten the loaf with your palms. Cover it with the (still clean, haven’t wiped my hands with it) towel.
Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.
When the rising loaf crests nicely, make a couple vents with your bread lame, and put the loaf in the oven.
Check the loaf with the toothpick test after an hour. Remove it when it’s right; an hour and 10 minutes worked perfectly for me last night.
Half a slice of toast this morning with unsweetened apple butter. A close inspection of the bread reveals the bits of the bran pellets. Buen provecho, pela’o!
Conclusion
This easy pumpkin bread made a big loaf with just the chewy crumb and crunchy crust that I like. SWMBO gives it a hearty 2-thumbs up. Last night we had it warm from the oven and this morning some slab toast. I’ll make this one again.
Nutrition is a big part of all my experiments and this one is no exception. There’s a lot of fiber going on in this recipe between the flour, Kellogg’s All-Bud Bran, and the pumpkin itself. Regularity is a good thing. The vitamin A from the pumpkin is RDA-off-the-charts.
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Also…
Homemade Probiotic Yogurt Refrigerator Oatmeal Recipe/fermentation how-to
Practice Mindfulness Podcast
Drifting at Dusk Vignette