World Bread Day - Oatmeal Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Zorra of Kochtopf is hosting World Bread Day again this year. To participate is simple - bake or buy bread and post about it on 16 Ocotber 2008.

I wanted to try something a little different to what I have made previously, so I selected Oatmeal Pumpkin Cranberry Bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Zoe writes that this bread is great to make for Thanksgiving, because it goes well with turkey and contains the flavours of the season.

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia, but the flavours of pumpkin and cranberry appealed to me, as well as the fact that this bread contained a whole lot of different flours that I have never used before. I stuffed up in that I thought that grinding buckwheat would give me whole wheat flour. When I subsequently Googled it, I found out that "whole wheat" flour is the equivalent of our wholemeal flour, and that buckwheat is actually a seed that does not contain gluten. Oh well, I already had the buckwheat, and its lack of gluten content didn't seem to affect the final product. This bread was delicious with a dab of olive oil spread.

To make it the way that I did (goofs and all), you will need:

half a small Japanese pumpkin (a US pie pumpkin)
2 cups lukewarm water
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon salt
75g melted butter
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup oats (not instant)
3/4 cup rye flour
3/4 cup buckwheat flour (or whole wheat flour in the recipe)
4 cups plain flour
1/3 cup cranberries
1/3 cup sunflower seeds (the recipe called for pepitas)
spray oil

1 beaten egg to "wash" the unbaked loaf

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place the pumpkin cut side down on a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silicone mat, and bake for 45 minutes. When the pumpkin is done, it will be soft and scoopable. Remove the pumpkin from the oven and start by scooping out the seeds, then scoop out the flesh and puree it or mash it. Keep one cup of puree for the bread, and store the remainder for another recipe.

In a stand mixer bowl, mix the yeast, salt, melted butter and honey. Add the oats, pumpkin and flours, and combine the ingredients using the dough hook attachment on your mixer.

Cover the dough, and allow to rest at room temperature for 2 hours or until the dough rises then flattens on top. Place the dough in a covered container in the fridge until baking day.

On baking day, spray a loaf pan with cooking oil. Take one third of the dough of the dough, dust it with flour and shape it into a ball. Flatten the dough nto a disc, and roll it out into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Sprinkle the seeds and canberries over the dough and roll it up, then fold it over once more to encase all of the seeds and cranberries.

Mould the dough with your hands into a small loaf shape, place it in the oiled loaf pan, and allow it to rest and rise for 2 hours. Twenty minutes prior to baking time, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and place an empty deep baking dish on the bottom shelf of the oven.

Brush the risen loaf with egg wash, and place it on a centre rack of the oven. Pour 1 cup of hot water into the empty baking dish in the bottom of the oven, close the oven door and bake the loaf for approximately 45 minutes, until brown and firm.

Remove the baked bread from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack before serving.

Makes 3 small loaves.