Tear-and-share pumpkin cinnamon bread

Pumpkin bakes to welcome autumn! First up – a tear-and-share pumpkin cinnamon bread. Your kitchen will be filled with the warm aroma of cinnamon and homemade sweet yeasted bread. It is hard to resist pulling pieces off this sweet bread, but that is exactly what you should do – this is one of those “tear & share” bakes :). The pumpkin yeasted dough is soft, fluffy and wonderfully delicate… highly recommended!

Which pumpkin do I use for baking? In Poland, a good variety for baking is Hokkaido pumpkin, known in the UK as Red Kuri squash. It has a delicate flavour, a floury texture and an intense orange colour, and is very versatile in the kitchen.

Ingredients for the yeasted dough:

• 375 g strong white bread flour
• 20 g fresh yeast or 10 g dried yeast
• 125 ml milk
• 190 g pumpkin purée
• 55 g caster sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 30 g butter, melted

Mix the flour with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, first prepare a yeast starter). Add the remaining ingredients and knead, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead for long enough to make a soft and elastic dough. Place in a lightly floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1½ hours).

Line a loaf tin measuring 10 x 20 cm at the base and 14 x 24 cm at the top with baking paper. Transfer the risen dough to the work surface and roll it out into a rectangle measuring 50 x 30 cm. Brush with the melted butter from the cinnamon filling (ingredients below) and sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar. Cut the dough into 5 crosswise strips (30 x 10 cm). Then cut each strip across into 6 equal pieces (10 x 5 cm), creating smaller rectangles. Arrange the pieces upright in the loaf tin. There should be a little space left at the sides. Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise again, until doubled in size, for about 45–60 minutes.

Place the tear-and-share pumpkin cinnamon bread in an oven preheated to 180°C and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly.

Ingredients for the cinnamon filling:

• 130 g caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 30 g butter, melted

Mix the sugar with the spices and set aside.

Method for bread machine users:

Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.

Enjoy!

Recipe source: WillowBirdBaking