Pumpkin bread

It's been a while since I've made anything new.  I had to work last weekend, so no time for experiments.  Today I'm attempting to make pumpkin bread, which is completely my own recipe, so if it fails I have no-one to blame but myself.

I am interested in additions to bread, such as rice, potato - and today, pumpkin.  Pumpkin scones are a traditional Queensland snack, and although I have seen some recipes for pumpkin bread, they are for sweeter and more cake-like products.  Pumpkin used to make me dry-retch when I was a child (along with peas), and I still find it hard to deal with a large amount of steamed, boiled or mashed pumpkin on a plate.  Yuk.  The flavour and colour is very pleasant when used sparingly, but too intense for me in large amounts.  I quite like roasted pumpkin, but on the whole I think I'd rather eat sweet potato as a vegetable.  Only a small amount of pumpkin is needed for this recipe so I'm using the rest to put in a lamb tagine.

Ingredients


450g strong white flour
100g wholemeal flour
120g steamed or boiled pumpkin, mashed and cooled
150ml water
150ml milk
1 dessertspoon dried yeast
1 dessertspoon salt
Pumpkin seeds for the top

Mix everything except the seeds together and knead for 10 minutes.  Let rise until doubled in size, an hour or more if needed.  Knock down and shape into a round loaf.  Let this rise on a tray scattered with polenta, cover and leave for 30-45 minutes.  Scatter the top with pumpkin seeds.  Pre-heat oven to 230 C and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

I'm going to cook mine under cover, 30 minutes with the lid on and then 20 with the lid off.

It spread out more than I expected, but it looks good and hopefully will taste good too.  Perhaps I would have been better cooking it in a bread tin.