FoodPumpkin bread: The autumn twist your kitchen needs

Pumpkin bread: The autumn twist your kitchen needs

This bread tastes delicious even with just butter.
This bread tastes delicious even with just butter.
Images source: © Adobe Stock

14 September 2024 20:00

Will pumpkin become the new courgette? All indications suggest it will! During the summer, courgette recipes ruled, but now it's pumpkin's time. This versatile and healthy vegetable tastes great in sweet and savoury dishes, and this bread balances those flavours.

Homemade bread is delicious, but it requires a good deal of practice. Vegetable breads are a cross between bread and cake. They are much simpler, always turn out well, and are a great way to start your adventure with homemade bread. So don't delay—make pumpkin bread as soon as possible.

You can even bake it in the morning

The dough for this pumpkin bread can be prepared in less than half an hour. The main ingredient is purée from roasted pumpkin. It's good to make this purée and store it ahead of time for various autumn dishes. You can keep it in the fridge for several days. If you need to store it longer, preserving or freezing it is best.

How to make pumpkin purée?

Remove all seeds from the pumpkin and cut it into smaller pieces. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and drizzle with olive oil. Put it in a preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes at 175°C. The pumpkin should be perfectly soft. Then, remove the skin and blend. The pumpkin purée is ready. It's the key ingredient of the bread. The other ingredients are likely already in your kitchen. The list is short for natural yoghurt, plain flour, water, olive oil, and instant yeast. However, they are so well chosen that the bread turns out soft and fluffy and stays fresh for a long time.

Pumpkin bread recipe

Ingredients:

                  
  • 450 grams of plain flour,
  • 115 grams of natural or Greek yoghurt,
  • 140 grams of pumpkin purée,
  • 55 millilitres of olive oil,
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar,
  • 1.5 teaspoons of salt,
  • 7 grams of instant yeast,
  • Optional: cinnamon, ginger, finely chopped dried fruit.

Instructions:

                
  1. Combine the pumpkin purée with water and yoghurt. Mix until ingredients are well combined.
  2. Sift the flour into a stand mixer bowl, add yeast, sugar, and salt (not directly on the yeast). Make a well in the flour and pour in the pumpkin yoghurt mixture and 200 millilitres of lukewarm water.
  3. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, gradually adding olive oil.
  4. Cover the kneaded dough with a cloth and let it rise for 45 minutes.
  5. Transfer the risen dough to a dough board and knead again.
  6. Shape the dough into a loaf. Place it on a baking sheet, cover with a cloth, and let it rise again for 20 minutes.
  7. Place it in a preheated oven at 200°C. Bake for about 45 minutes.