Fall is here. Changing colors in our yard delivered the news this week. The leaves are turning red. The cardinals that frequented our bird feeder are mostly gone. On my drive to office in the mornings, I notice that some of our neighbors already have their Halloween decorations up; pumpkins of various sizes lined up, fake spider webs on the bushes. Fall is here and it is beautiful. The first recipe for TWD this month, Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaves, is a natural fit for the season.
I have some experience baking with pumpkin since David loves pumpkin pie. We also both enjoy pumpkin flavored cakes and muffins. So, I was excited to give this recipe a shot. The recipe mostly calls for simple ingredients; cranberries, pumpkin puree, raisins, flour, yeast, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and some butter. To my surprise though, I could not find fresh cranberries at the supermarket and had to substitute with dried ones. The challenge with this recipe is that there are a lot of steps which require hours of waiting for the dough to rise. Overall though, it is not a difficult recipe at all.
Here is what the process was like:
I baked a medium-sized fresh pumpkin and scooped out the cooked pumpkin. I mixed butter and egg in a mixer and gradually added the pumpkin, spices, and the dry ingredients. After I kneaded the dough for 10 minutes, I let it rise in a large bowl for two hours. The dough rested in the fridge overnight, came out in the morning, got shaped and waited for another couple of hours before finally hitting the oven. Like I said, a ton of waiting.
The loaves smelled and looked wonderful when they came out of the oven.
Pumpkin Cranberry Loaves
We definitely loved this recipe. The loaves taste like pumpkin flavored challah bread. The texture is very soft and delicate. The pumpkin flavor is very prominent. And the dried fruits and nuts give the loaves just the right amount of sweetness it needs.
Pumpkin Cranberry Loaves
Looks delicious!
This really is fall! We loved it, it has all my favorite flavors wrapped up in a tasty loaf. Perfect I think.
çok güzel olmuş…fotograflar da;)
I love your cute loaves and those bread pans!
Your loaves look beautiful!! I am envious of your fall…yesterday it was 100 degrees here!
Looks great! We really liked this one too!
They look totally cute!
I’ve used dried cranberries, too but the next time I’ll reduce the raisins as I had too much fruits in the bread.
I’m thinking your house smelled incredible when these were baking! Looks like a good Thanksgiving recipe.
Nice looking loaf. I always buy an extra bag or two of cranberries when they become available and freeze them! The cranberries gave the bread a nice twang. My bread did not have much of a pumpkin flavor – hmmmm..
Oh! I just love your baking dishes. Are they glass? Your bread looks great too :) Blessings, Catherine http://www.praycookblog.com
Thank you. They are actually ceramic.
Cok guzel gozukuyor.. Sen bu kadar begenince bir daha deneyesim geldi benim, belki bir cilginlik yaparim :)
Yes, good description. This was like pumpkin-flavored challah bread. I used the fresh (well, frozen) cranberries, but wish I had used dried. I found the fresh ones way too tart. Nice loaves!