Fall Comfort Baking

We have had our first couple of chilly, dark, blustery days. Fall is here without a doubt, but I am over of my end of summer denial and remembering that I do love this season too. The leaves are changing, the geese are on the wing, and my thoughts and tastes are turning to pumpkins and apples, and anything fragrant and warm and hearty.

Yesterday was just rainy enough to keep me indoors (lately I have been working doggedly on some exterior maintenance & improvement type things around the old homestead, trying to get finished before it gets too cold), and I baked up a storm. The fruits of my labours turned out so darn well -so gratifyingly homely and delicious, that I just had to share.

I made pumpkin bread!

Oh man, this stuff is good! So soft and light, and just gorgeous. The boys and I had some for breakfast this morning with sunbutter -yum! I didn't use a recipe. I just added pumpkin and spices to my usual white bread  and adjusted accordingly. Here's about what I did:

Pumpkin Yeast Bread

2c. warm water

4.5 tsp active dry yeast

2 tbsp granulated sugar

200ml pumpkin puree

½ c brown sugar

2 tbsp oil

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp each allspice & ginger

¼ tsp each ground cloves & nutmeg

5-7 c all purpose flour

Proof the yeast with the 2 tbsp white sugar in the warm water. Add pumpkin, brown sugar, oil, salt & spices and 2 c of flour, and mix well. Continue adding enough white flour to make bread dough (approx 5-7 cups total), and knead.

Let rise twice in a large bowl, then shape as desired and rise again in well oiled loaf pans or other. Bake 375F for approx. 30 minutes for loaves. Makes a very light springy, soft bread. 

Pumpkin buns rolled in brown sugar & cinnamon before baking, for the boys' Wednesday night DnD crew.

Note: I used canned pumpkin. If I was using fresh pumpkin (roasted/steamed and pureed) I would be tempted to reduce the water to 1 or 1 1/2 cups and to add more pumpkin accordingly.

Also produced in yesterday's bake-a-thon -Pumpkin Pasties and Apple Cheese Hand-pies (pictured below). I tried this pastry recipe from a blog called Completely Delicious. I am no great hand at pastry, which is OK, because my mom is excellent at it, so she gets pie duty for family gatherings. But this recipe was non-annoying and the results were pretty good. I think I may have to start mucking about with more pies in the near future.