Bread Baking Babes bake seasonal bread (or rolls)

This month our lovely Judy ("Judy's gross eats") is this months Kitchen of the month for the Bread Baking Babes challenge. And I love her delicious choice that is perfect for this autumn: Pumpkin cornmeal bread. You can make the bread the shape you like, or divide the dough in rolls. I used half the amount of the original recipe and turned the dough into 12 rolls. And that was the only bad thing about it... I should have made double that amount! They are delicious and have a little sort of bite from the cornmeal. I used honey instead of molasses. We all loved them here.

And you will love them too, bake along with us and become our Bread Baking Buddy. Bake and make some pictures, then send your baking story to Judy (jahunt22 dot gmail dot com) and she'll add you to the round-up. Deadline the 29th of this month. So get baking!!

Pumpkin Cornmeal Bread

Yield:  1 loaf or 12 dinner rolls

(PRINT recipe)

1 tsp active dry yeast

pinch of sugar

124 g lukewarm water

124 g lukewarm buttermilk

45 g  melted butter or oil

40 g honey

70 g pumpkin purée (either canned or homemade)

1 tsp salt

70 g fine- or medium-grind yellow cornmeal

60 g medium rye flour

About 360 g bread flour

In a large bowl, combine yeast, sugar, salt, cornmeal, and rye flour. Whisk to mix well.

Add warm water, buttermilk, melted butter/oil, honey, and pumpkin purée.  Beat until smooth (1 to 2 minutes) using either a whisk or the paddle attachment on a mixer.

Add the unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour, 70 g at a time, until it becomes a soft dough. Knead until smooth and slightly tacky, either by hand or with a dough hook.

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the top; cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise at room temperature until double, about 1 ½ to 2 hours, depending on how warm it is.

Turn onto work surface and divide the dough into 12 equal round portions for the rolls or 1 large round for the loaf.  Place on parchment-lined baking pan, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Place on parchment-lined baking pan, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 20 minutes, or place in refrigerator for 2 hours to overnight.

Twenty minutes before baking, heat the oven to 180ºC, using a baking stone, if you wish.  While the oven is heating, brush the tops with melted butter.

Bake in the center of the preheated oven until golden brown:  40-45 minutes for loaves or 15 to 18 minutes for rolls.  Remove from oven, let cool on rack until completely cool.

(adapted from Bread for All Seasons by Beth Hensperger)