Pumpkin Bread

I always have a lot of leftover pumpkin which I don't know what to do with it as every time I cook porridge for Baby FAN, I only need very little. So, search the web and find this recipe from Happy Home Baking's blog.

The pumpkin bread turns out a little dense in the middle and was rather hard the next day, so I made it into a bread crisp and served it with tomatoes for lunch instead. I will probably make it again next time if I have left over pumpkin but this time, I might add in some cake flour to make it softer.

Pumpkin Bread
original recipe here

Ingredients

500g pumpkin, after peeled, seeded and cut into pieces
you are left with about 300g(alternatively, use 300g canned pumpkin puree)
60ml cooking liquid reserved from cooking the pumpkin or use water if using canned pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons of runny honey
500g bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
egg glaze (beat together 1 egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of milk)
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds, to decorate

Method:

1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the pumpkin flesh and simmer until soft and cooked through, about 20 mins. Drain the pumpkin and reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Mash the pumpkin thoroughly, and sieve, or puree in a food processor or blender, about 2 mins. (I mash the pumpkin with a fork instead as it was already very soft and fine.) Leave the pumpkin puree and the reserved cooking liquid to cool.
3. Add honey to 60ml of the cooking liquid and stir to dissolve.
4. Mix flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add in the instant yeast and mix well. Make a well in the centre and add in the honey liquid, followed by the pumpkin puree.
5. Mix in the flour to form a firm, coarse, sticky dough. If the mixture is too dry, gradually add one or two tablespoons of the pumpkin liquid (or water). (I added extra two tablespoons of liquid).
6. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface. Knead until very smooth, silky and elastic, about 10 mins. (I stop after 10 min, very tire already!)
7. Place dough in large clean bowl and cover with a tea towel or cling wrap. Leave to rise until double in size, about 1 to 1.5hrs. Knock back the dough to release the air, then leave it to rest for 10mins, covered.
8. Shape dough into a round loaf. Place on an oiled baking sheet and cover with a tea towel. Prove until double in size, about 1 hour.
9. Brush the dough with egg glaze and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.
10. Bake in pre-heated oven at 220 deg C (I set mine to 200 deg C, should I keep it at 220 deg C instead as my mum said that the bread was so dense in the middle, one of the reason could be that the heat is not strong enough) and bake for 40mins until golden-coloured and hollow-sounding when tapped underneath. Leave to cool completely before slicing.

Milk Pretzel

I love the taste of the milk loaf and the crispy skin of the pretzel in my earlier blog. So decided to combine this 2 recipes together. The pretzel turns out really soft and yummy and crispy outside, I ate 2 immediately it came out of the oven.

Here's the modified recipe:

• 80g fresh milk
• 35g egg (I use 1 egg yolk)
• 25g sugar
• 5g salt
• 250g bread flour
• 38g butter
  

Yeast Mixture

• 4g Instant yeast (I put about 1 teaspoon)
• 60g of warm water
• 1 tsp sugar

Baking Soda Solution

• 1/2 cup of hot water
• 1 tsp baking soda

Decoration

• Kosher salt or sugar
  

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the yeast mixture, egg yolk and milk. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of milk. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth. Then knead the butter into the dough.
3. Knead the dough for about 20 minutes until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
   
4. Let the dough proof in room temperature in a mixing bowl, covered with cling wrap. Let proof for 1 to 2 hours.
5. Remove dough and punch out the gas. Divide dough into 10 equal portion. Roll and shape into balls. Let the doughs rest and relax for 15 mins. (this 'relaxing' time is needed so that the dough will be easier to roll out and shaped).
6. In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
7. On a lightly floured surface, flatten one dough and roll out into a longish shape. Roll up the dough swiss-roll style. Do the same for the remaining doughs.
8. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt or sugar. Let the doughs proof for the second time, until it about double the size.
9. Bake in preheated oven of 450 degrees F or 230 degrees C for 8 minutes, until browned.

Homemade Baby Food: Steam Egg

Steam Egg (or Egg Custard)

• 1 egg yolk
• 100ml prepared formula/breast milk

1. Mix the egg yolk with the formula/breast milk. Beat with a fork for about 1 to 2 mins.
2. Steam the egg mixture over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
3. Let it cool and served.

Variations: you can add in 1 tsp of sugar and a few drops of vanilla essence and baked it for 15 to 20 minutes with a preheated oven (180 degree celsius) and make it into vanilla custard. Or add in 1 tsp of cocoa powder and make it into Chocolate Pots.