Autumn is the season for romantics: the trees that blush before undressing, the leaves crunching happily under the shoes during walks in the park, the bitter cold that drives us to seek the warmth of home … and the scents of good food season.

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Fortunately, there are ingredients that keep us company not only in autumn but also in the first cold winters, such as pumpkin! After using it for many preparations, such as tasty lasagna or creamy velvety, we thought of a homemade leavened with love: a soft and fragrant pumpkin bread! Simple and delicate, with a neutral flavor that goes well with both sweet and savory, this bread will be the king of your table.

Place it in the center, surrounded by meats, cheeses and jams: everyone can choose their own combination, and stuff their own clove as they prefer! But bread lovers, just like us, will enjoy it on its own, because pumpkin bread is so good it doesn’t need anything else!

Please note that this recipe is little different from the original Pioneer Woman’s recipe.

Ingredients for pumpkin bread

Dry yeast 4 g

Flour 500 g

Raw cleaned pumpkin 400 g

Malt 5 g

Extra virgin olive oil 20 g

Salt up to 10 g

Pumpkin seeds 15 g

Water at room temperature 100 g

Rosemary 2 sprigs

How to make pumpkin bread

To prepare the pumpkin bread, start by cleaning the latter: remove the seeds and internal filaments and cut it into wedges, and also remove the peel.

Place a pot of water on the stove and perfume with rosemary. Place the pumpkin wedges in the steamer basket, cover with the lid.

Cook the pumpkin: it will take about 30 minutes, it should be soft and firm, you can check its consistency with the tines of a fork. Pass the cooked pulp with a potato masher in order to obtain a puree.

In a planetary mixer, sift the flour then add the pumpkin puree, the yeast and the malt. Insert the hook and operate the planetary mixer at low speed, and add the water slowly, it is important that this is at room temperature.

Continue to knead, increasing the speed, for at least 10 minutes. When the dough is strung, you can add the salt: do not add it before, because if inserted too soon it would inhibit the dough from rising.

Let the salt absorb, continuing to knead for 2 minutes, then add the oil slowly and let it absorb too: it will take about 3 minutes.

Transfer the dough to the work surface, stretch it out slightly and proceed with the folds: fold the side flaps and then the upper and lower ones, as if to make a bundle. Seal to form a ball and put it to rise in a large bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for at least 3 hours in a warm place (for example the oven turned off with the light on), until it doubles in volume.

Lightly flour the work surface and pour the leavened dough into it. Perform the 4 force folds again, form a well sealed ball as before and place it on the baking sheet that should be covered with baking paper.

Let it rise for another 1 hour then, with a sharp knife or a utility knife, make 8 cuts on the surface of the dough, to make it look like a real pumpkin.

You can spray some water on the surface of the bread to make it moist, and distribute the pumpkin seeds inside the grooves you have carved.

Now bake the bread in a static oven preheated to 200 °, on the bottom of which you will have placed a pan with water, for the first twenty minutes: the water will form the necessary humidity inside the oven for correct leavening.

Remove the pan of water after first 20 minutes, lower the temperature to 190 ° and bake the bread for another 35 minutes. Let your pumpkin bread cool before tasting it!

How to store pumpkin bread

Bread, as we know, is good fresh: if possible, eat it within the day. However, you can keep it in a paper bag for about 3 days. You can also freeze pumpkin bread, whole or already cut into convenient wedges, if you have used only fresh and not defrosted ingredients.

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