Braided Holiday Pumpkin Wreath

This week in the bread-baking blog, we're featuring two Holiday Pumpkin Breads made with the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes Pumpkin Pie Brioche dough. The first bread is a Braided Holiday Pumpkin Wreath and the second is Cinnamon Pumpkin Crescent Rolls.  This post focuses on the braided wreath.

You might also enjoy the Holiday Pumpkin Bread we featured in the bread-baking blog last November. It's a little bit different than the bread we're featuring today in that it utilizes a kneaded rather than a no knead dough.

Braided Holiday Pumpkin Wreath

The recipe for the dough can be found here.

My first batch of no knead pumpkin pie brioche dough was so soft, I couldn't shape it into anything except regular loaves.  I decided to give it another try.  The second time around, the consistency of the dough turned out much better (click here for details) so, I thought it would be fun to try a different shape. I've already made and posted about a braided pumpkin bread this season, so I wanted to take it a step further and shape the braid into a wreath.


Let's get started ...


For the Braided Holiday Pumpkin Wreath, we'll roll the dough out into 3 logs, braid the logs, shape the braid into a wreath and place it in the pan to rise. Then it's into the oven to bake.


Shaping the Loaf

Take the dough out of the refrigerator, dust with flour and cut off a one-pound piece.  Divide the dough into three equal pieces.

Roll each piece into a log about 18 inches long.  Make a braid with the three logs and pinch the ends together.

Coil the braid into a lightly greased 8" or 9" cake pan, shaping it into a wreath-like circle and pressing the ends together where they meet. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let the wreath rise for about 90 minutes.

Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 30 minutes, until lightly browned. I brushed the wreath with an egg wash part way through the baking cycle so the bread would brown nicely. 

Remove the wreaths from the oven, and allow them to cool on a rack. 

 

Enjoy your beautiful wreath plain with butter or drizzle a powder sugar glaze over it and sprinkle with nuts.  I decided to keep my wreath plain so I could serve it as a savory bread.  You could also make French toast or bread pudding with this bread.

Happy Baking!
Cathy 

Pumpkin Cranberry Braid

This week, we're continuing our series on pumpkin breads. The bread of the week is a beautiful Pumpkin Cranberry Braid. The wonderful blend of spices gives the bread a delicious burst of flavor! I saw this bread on Sugarcrafter a couple of weeks ago and I just had to try it.

Some friends invited us to dinner last night so I thought this was a good opportunity to make some special bread and share it with our new friends. I brought one of the pumpkin cranberry loaves to dinner and everyone loved it -- especially my taste tester.  I put the other loaf in the freezer to save for another special occasion or maybe for some Bread Pudding.

Editor's note: I like what Sandy (At the Baker's Bench), the very gracious hostess of the BYOB, had to say about this bread, "Those of you dining at others' homes this Thanksgiving take note: this bread looks like the perfect hostess gift (but be advised that it may steal the show ~ so practice your humble face in advance)."   Very wise words indeed!

I submitted this beautiful bread to BYOB for the November 1st roundup. Be sure to check out all of the wonderful breads in the Nov 1st BYOB Roundup.

Pumpkin Cranberry Braid

Makes: Two 10-inch braided loaves
From: The  kitchen of Sugarcrafter

 

The addition of dried cranberries gives these loaves a wonderful Autumn flavor. 

 

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp instant yeast
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 1 3/4 cups pumpkin (I used about 2 cups of roasted pumpkin puree.)

 

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, sugar, salt, and yeast. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, butter, and pumpkin. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until well-combined.  Knead the dough with a stand mixer for 2 minutes (3 minutes by hand).

Let the dough rest for 15 minutes, then continue kneading for about 5 more minutes until smooth (8-10 minutes by hand).

 

My pumpkin puree was more liquid than canned pumpkin and I had added 2 cups rather than 1 3/4 so I added more flour as I was kneading the dough.  I switched to kneading the dough by hand at this point so I could get a better feel for the consistency of the dough.

 

Then knead in the dried cranberries. Spray a bowl with cooking spray and place the dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in volume.

Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface. Divide it in half. Then divide each half into three pieces.

Roll each piece out to about 10-inch log.

For each loaf, braid the pieces together as shown below, then pinch the ends together and tuck them underneath.

 

 

Place the loaves on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Cover them with plastic wrap and allow to rise for another hour. The loaves should look puffy, though not necessarily doubled in bulk.  Mine doubled in bulk.

Bake the bread in a preheated 375°F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly browned and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the braids from oven, and allow them to cool on a wire rack.

I brushed them with melted butter first, then let them cool on the wire rack.

Serve the loaves warm or at room temperature.  I wrapped the loaves in plastic wrap because they were too big to fit in a bread bag.

If any bread is left over after a few days, use it to make bread pudding. Try this Bread Pudding Recipe.

You might enjoy some of these other Pumpkin Bread Recipes.  Or, this Ginger Pumpkin Braid Recipe.

Happy Baking!
Cathy 

Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread: World Bread Day

"Bread is an object of unparalleled worship and decorum.  It embodies the full cycle of life and seasons, from the death of the wheat kernel in the earth to the resurrection as a stalk, from its ordeal in the mill to its journey through the oven and its offering at the table.  Bread is a part of all major events in many lives, to betrothal and marriage, to death and ressurection."

-- Bernard Dupaigne, The History of Bread.




Today is World Bread Day!  To commemorate this special day, we're making Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread using the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes method and submitting it as our entry in the World Bread Day event.

When I was baking the pumpkin bread, my youngest son came in and asked "Is it bready?"  He smelled the bread baking in the oven.  There's just something about the smell of homemade bread.  I never get tired of it.  It fills the house with a wonderful aroma and makes the world right.  I think it's very appropriate to have a world bread day.

My taste tester came by this morning on his way to work to try some of this bread. It's definitely a winner!  It looks like a simple loaf of bread, but the taste is extraordinary! It's made using the delayed fermentation method which gives it a burst of flavor you wouldn't normally find in a regular loaf of bread.  It's deceptively delicious!  I highly recommend it!

Here is a photo of the oatmeal pumpkin bread with one of the flower arrangements my oldest son created in the background.  He's taking floral design as an elective in college and I get to reap the benefits.  This arrangement is so pretty, I had to show it off!  You can't really tell from this photo, but the flowers are in a mug shaped like a flower pot.  So cute!

Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread
Makes: Three 1 1/2 pound loaves
You can easily double of halve this recipe.  I should've doubled it.  I made two large loaves and they were gone in no time.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh or canned pumpkin puree
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
• 1 tablespoon Kosher salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup rye flour
• 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• Neutral-tasting oil for greasing the pan

Mixing and Storing the Dough

Mix the yeast and salt with the water, melted butter, and honey in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded food container. Normally, I would mix the dough in a lidded container to make it easy to store and clean up; however I wanted to make two loaves so I just mixed the dough in a bowl.  zmix in the oatmeal, pumpkin, and flours (whole wheat, all-purpose, rye) without kneading, using a spoon.

Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 2 hours or until the dough rises and collapses.  This is the dough after resting on the counter for 2 hours.

You can use the dough immediately after the initial rise, however, it is easier to work with when cold.  I refrigerated the dough overnight.  You can leave it in the refrigerator for up to 9 days, but you'll want to bake this one right away.

This is the dough after resting in the refrigerator overnight.

 

Shaping and Proofing the Loaves

The next day (or on baking day), grease 9x5x3-inch nonstick loaf pan(s).

Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1 1/2-pound piece. Rather than follow this part of the process, I cut the dough into 3 pieces and weighed them so the loaves would be equal in size. I'll be making  the other loaf next time.

Then I cut two pieces of dough in half to make 4 pieces.

 

Dust the pieces with more flour and quickly shape them into balls by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

Place the dough in the prepared pan(s). I decided to divide the dough  so that I could freeze one part and eat the other part.  Instead of placing one big ball in each pan as the recipe instructs, I put two smaller balls in each pan.  However, after the loaves were baked, I realized they wouldn't last long enough to freeze any. I think that's a good problem to have.

Cover the pans with plastic wrap and let them rest and rise for 2 hours.

Here are the loaves after two hours.  I probably should've let them rise a little bit longer until they reached the top of the pans.  The dough was really cold when I put it in the pan and the house was a little chilly so the loaves didn't rise as quickly as they normally would.

Baking the Loaves

Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and place an empty broiler tray for hot water on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising bread.  I placed the broiler tray on the bottom rack so that I could bake the bread on the middle rack.

Place the loaves on the center rack of the oven.  Pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until deeply browned and firm.

Allow to cool before slicing or eating.  This was the hard part.  My teenagers were waiting with baited breath to eat some.

Finally!  The loaves are cooled and ready to eat.  I pulled apart one loaf.  I could've eaten the whole thing, but I didn't!  I sliced it and took a photo instead.  Then, we devoured it!  We've almost finished a whole loaf.  Thank goodness I made two loaves.

Click here to learn more about World Bread Day

Check out all of these great bread in the World Bread Day 2009 Roundup.

Thanks for visiting The Bread Experience Bread-Baking Blog. We hope you'll join us next time.

 
Happy Baking!
Cathy

Pumpkin Gingerbread

I love Fall!  It's such a beautiful time of year and a great time to be baking.  To celebrate the beginning of Autumn, we're baking pumpkin bread in the bread-baking blog.  And wouldn't you know it, the Artisan Bread Baker's Group on Facebook decided to make Pumpkin Gingerbread this month for the Bread of the Month.  This pumpkin gingerbread is easy and delicious ... a good one to include in this series.

The Bread of the Month is a virtual bread-baking party hosted by Phyl at Of Cabbages & King Cakes. The party started on October 1st and ends on October 31st. You have a whole month to bake. That gives you plenty of time to join in the fun. Click here to learn more about the Artisan Bread Bakers.

 

Pumpkin Gingerbread Revisited 9/29/2012:

I revisited this Pumpkin Bread today and made a couple of changes to the recipe listed below. First, I reduced the amount of sugar to 2 1/2 cups instead of 3 and used 3/4 cup of olive oil instead of 1 cup of vegetable oil. I used 2 cups of pumpkin that I had roasted last year and froze so it was more liquid than pumpkin puree from a can. I also added 2 teaspoons of flax meal. 

I mixed the batter using a wire whisk and a Danish Dough Whisk rather than messing up my stand mixer.  It’s a very easy bread batter so you don’t really need a mixer.  I baked these loaves in 8 1/2” x 4 1/2 “ glass loaf pans rather than 9” x 5” non-stick pans. The photos have been updated as well.

The revised version has a pronounced ginger flavor which I like a lot. I also liked the height and texture of the loaves baked in the 8” x 4” pans rather than the 9” x 5” pans.

 

You might enjoy some of these other Pumpkin Bread Recipes.

Pumpkin Gingerbread

Makes: 2 large loaves

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree (I used 2 cups of pumpkin puree that I roasted last Fall)
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions (with updated photos):

Make sure you have all of your ingredients in place (mis en place). Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  Lightly grease two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended.

Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice, cinnamon and cloves.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, baking powder, and flax meal.

 

Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until all ingredients are mixed.

 

Divide batter between prepared pans.

 

Bake in preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour. Remove the pans from the oven and let the loaves cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

 

 

Then place the loaves on a cooling rack to finish cooling before slicing or serving.

 

 

 

 

 

Once the loaves have cooled a bit, you can slice the bread and eat it.  That's the best part!  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

 

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

I decided to do a test bread today. I made whole wheat pumpkin bread by adapting one of my favorite white flour pumpkin bread recipes - Spiced Pumpkin Nut Bread. It is a very moist loaf with a delicate spice flavor.



The process actually began in November. I had several big pumpkins for fall decorations and I couldn't bring myself to throw them away especially given the current economic times. I would've kept the pumpkins out as decorations but I decided it would look funny to have pumpkins mixed in with the snowman display on my hearth.

So after Thanksgiving, I cut the pumpkins into big chunks and roasted them on a baking sheet until the meaty part was soft and the outside just peeled off. Then I pureed the pieces in the blender and added spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger) and sweetened the pumpkin to taste. I froze most of the pumpkin mixture but kept enough for a couple of batches of bread. Now that the busy Holiday season is over, I actually had time to make the bread.

I created my whole wheat pumpkin bread recipe by adapting the Nestle Spiced Pumpkin Nut Bread recipe. The original recipe calls for a can of pumpkin and 4 cups of all-purpose flour. I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour (that I ground in my grain mill from hard red spring wheat) and 2 cups of all-purpose. I also used 2 cups of pumpkin that I had roasted and pureed. I must say that I really like the end result. My taste tester liked it as well.



Spiced Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread
Makes: 2 loaves

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour (I used freshly milled whole wheat flour)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups pumpkin roasted, pureed and spiced (or 1 can (15 oz.) pure pumpkin)*
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup apple juice
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped nuts, divided (optional)

Note: I use roasted pumpkin puree and added additional spices to the roasted pumpkin mixture before mixing it with the rest of the ingredients to give it a burst of flavor. I've tried making the bread without adding additional spices and sugar to the roasted pumpkin mixture and just using the spices called for in the recipe but the bread tasted rather flat. It didn't taste bad, but it wasn't great.


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans. Sift flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Combine pumpkin, sugar, juice, eggs, oil and vanilla extract in large bowl; stir well. Stir in flour mixture and 3/4 cup nuts just until moistened. (I left the nuts out this time since this was a test. I didn't want to waste them if the bread didn't turn out good.)





Spoon into prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle remaining nuts over top of loaves. Eventhough I omitted the nuts, it still tasted really good.





Bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Then remove to wire racks to cool completely.





I was very pleased with the results. Next time, I'll probably add even more spices to give it more flavor, but I liked this version.


Happy Baking!
Cathy

Holiday Pumpkin Bread

This festive Holiday Pumpkin Bread recipe makes two wreaths so keep one wreath for yourself and give one away; or serve one, and make the other into Pumpkin Bread Pudding.

These wreaths also make beautiful centerpieces for your Holiday dinner. I've got company coming for Thanksgiving Dinner so I plan to use one for a centerpiece and the other for bread pudding.

Holiday Pumpkin Bread
The recipe for this moist and tasty golden wreath is courtesy of King Arthur Flour.

Yield: Makes two 8-inch wreaths



Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups (11 1/2 ounces) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour*
• 2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) White Wheat Flour*
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/3 cup (2 1/2 ounces) brown sugar
• 1/3 cup (1 5/8 ounces) diced crystallized ginger, optional
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• 15-ounce can pumpkin
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) melted butter or canola oil (1 3/4 ounces)

* You can make this bread completely with all-purpose flour if you prefer.

Directions:
Combine all of the dough ingredients, and mix and knead them—by hand, electric mixer, or bread machine—until you’ve made a smooth, somewhat sticky dough. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl,

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set it aside to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. It should have expanded somewhat, but won’t be real puffy.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased surface and divide it in half.  Then divide each half into three pieces.

 

 

 

Roll each piece into an 18" log.

 

Working with three logs at a time, make a braid, pinching the ends together.

 

 

Coil the braid into a lightly greased 8" or 9" cake pan, shaping it into a wreath-like circle and pressing the ends together where they meet.

 

 

Repeat with the remaining logs. Cover both pans with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let the wreaths rise for about 90 minutes, until they look puffy, though not doubled in bulk.

Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 30 minutes, until lightly browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads 190"F.

 

Remove the wreaths from the oven, and allow them to cool on a rack.

These wreaths taste great and make beautiful centerpieces.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

 

 

Here are some additional festive bread recipes and resources:

• Festive Recipes
• Roll Recipes
• Pumpkin Bread Recipes