charlie brown and the great pumpkin... bread

i've finally got my stock of pumpkin in for the season, and i haven't touched it yet. so today, i got the itch to do so. i really had my eye on this pumpkin cheesecake... with gingersnap crust... and vanilla sour cream topping... but that's for a day when i don't have so much homework.

today? i picked the easy way out. i used a recipe from allrecipes, and it was so perfect. i made just a few changes to it, so i'll list it the way i made it. i think you'll enjoy it.

you'll need:
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin-- not pumpkin pie filling
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3.5 cups flour
2 t baking soda
1.5 t salt
a bunch of sprinkles of the following:
ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger.
more cinnamon and nutmeg, not as much cloves and ginger. whatever you're comfortable with.

preheat the oven to 350.

mix together the pumpkin, eggs, oil, applesauce, water, and sugar until blended. in a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, and all spices.

stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture.

mix just until well blended.

pour into two greased bread pans. add nuts if you want. i don't like nuts, so i just topped one with walnuts, and that one is for husband and for him to take to work.

bake for about an hour in preheated oven. i started at 50 minutes, then had to add 15 minutes more. take out of the pans and let cook on a wire rack. try try try not to slice it until it's cool... but i promise you, that is extremely difficult. so, maybe cut off two slices to taste, then slice the rest when it cools.

amazing. it manages to be light, and yet rich at the same time. and the loaves aren't small. husband and i had a few slices as an afternoon snack, and we packaged the rest up to take to work, and still had enough to give to our new neighbors.

busy weekend

i had a super busy weekend. starting friday, i was in "homemade" mode. i made so many baked and cooked items, and took hardly any photos. and i won't really post recipes with this post either. i'm just going to tell you of the awesomeness that i created and let you drool a little.

homemade pizza (store bought crust, for time's sake)
his: pepperoni and cheese. (yawn)
mine: summer sausage, homemade roasted red peppers, fresh parsley, black beans, mozzarella cheese.

pancakes (well, the mister made it. not me).

barbecue beef brisket in the crock pot.
giant brisket, in crock pot with beer and bbq sauce. cook on low all day, then remove and shred, and return to the crock pot. stir. serve on toasted buns with homemade potato wedges.

potato wedges.
cut potatoes into wedges. toss with olive oil, rosemary, and kosher salt. bake at 400 for 40 minutes, flipping halfway through. make extras. these go fast.

pie! i made homemade pie crust for apple pie. i still need practice in rolling out the pie crust and making it pretty, but it has to be one of the most flavorful, flaky crusts i've ever tasted. pretty good for a first try.

cake (boxed funfetti). dude. we had a birthday and i had a special request for making funfetti cake. so no, i did not make this from scratch.

bread loaves. instead of my usually boule bread, i made loaves. i just used a recipe from the kitchenaid cook book for cool-rise white bread, and demolished that recipe. i accidentally doubled the butter, and didn't use enough flour (because it was all together and didn't need any more). so i was really nervous, but it worked. the outside crust tasted a little... funny... but it was still delicious. next time i'll try reading the recipe a little better.

fresh boule bread

i love fresh bread. i love bread, period. but fresh bread is so much better. and maybe it's just me, but when i make bread, it tastes better than when you do. not saying you make bad bread, just saying that i taste my homemadeness in my bread.

the thing is, making fresh bread takes time. hours. sometimes days. so, without a breadmaker, it's not that easy to make a good loaf of fresh, artisan-style bread, especially when you think at 5pm that you'd like it with your dinner at 5:40.
BUT.
i found a way. i am amazed by this bread. it's my new favorite. and you can make so many variations that you could easily make bread to have as french toast, or cinnamon bread, or wheat bread, or sourdough.

i did not make up this recipe. it came from this site. i am, however, providing you with my version of it, including my tips and tricks that i found with working with this dough.

3 cups warm water
1.5 T salt
1.5 T yeast
6.5 cups flour

in a bowl that has a lid (it needs to be a pretty large bowl), mix the warm water (i just got hot water out of my tap) along with the salt and the yeast. it's not important to get it all dissolved.
**at this point, you can add any herbs or spices you wish. or leave it plain. up to you**(i added garlic powder and dried rosemary. i can't wait to do this with fresh herbs)

add the flour to the water mixture, and mix it with a wooden spoon just until it's all wet. don't over mix it. it ends up being a pretty soft dough that conforms to the bowl.

set it on the counter with the lid just resting on it (don't seal it tight) for a few hours. up to five, i think the recipe says. i did it for about two. then move it to the fridge, where it will rise. it's supposed to be in the fridge for a few hours before use, but the blog that reviewed this bread said they didn't wait and it turned out fine. i'd let it sit because it grew in size by about 50%.

when you're ready to make a loaf of bread, get the oven ready first. preheat to 450 degrees, and put the baking sheet in the middle of the oven, and the broiler pan on the lowest rack so they both get hot. dust the top of the dough with flour, then use a serrated knife to cut off about 1/4 of the dough. use your flour-dusted hands to curl the ends under it a few times, so it is a ball with the "loose" ends tucked under it (i did this on a piece of parchment paper so i could just move the paper into the oven on the baking sheet). dust the top of the ball with flour, and using the serrated knife, slice a few times in the top. when the oven is nice and hot, put the dough on the baking rack, and add about 1.5-2 cups of hot water to the broiler pan for steam. bake for 30 minutes.

when it came out of the oven, it was really crispy on the outside, and very chewy on the inside. to make the crust softer, i put it in a ziploc bag while still warm and it softened just enough.


warning: the bread is not light. it is dense and chewy... and DELICIOUSLY ADDICTING.