587. Italian Pumpkin Bread (Pane di Zucca)#Breadbakers

 Italian Pumpkin Bread/ Pane di Zucca#Breadbakers

I love these monthly themes that we have in our Bread Bakers group. For the month of September Kylee of Kylee Cooks suggested we bake with pumpkin or pumpkin spices or both. I nearly skipped this round as I have already baked quick pumpkin breads and pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin pancakes didn’t sound that interesting. Then I came across this interesting yeast bread on Chef Bikeski’s website. Fell in love with the lovely sunshine coloured bread. Baked 2 small loaves of this bread. Gave one as a present to a family friend and the other one we enjoyed it toasted with some butter, cheese and soup. Semolina adds an extra crunch to the bread. Eating the bread without toasting makes it taste like a normal bread but toasting it makes it crunchy. I didn’t have any hazelnuts so I added walnuts instead. I love pumpkin but usually use it make soups or as a curry. Here in Kenya we tend to get pumpkin mostly whole year round. The locals make a lovely stew with pumpkin, amaranth leaves and if you’re at the coast, fresh coconut milk is added to it. We rarely see those huge pumpkins that are available in US or Canada. We get smaller ones and sometimes they will appear green with streaks of orange or yellow.
So here’s my yeast bread with pumpkin puree. Hope you like it and please do check out what other bakers have baked using pumpkin or pumpkin spice or both.

ITALIAN PUMPKIN BREAD/ PANE DI ZUCCA
Makes 1 large loaf or 2 small loaves

2½ -2¾ cups all purpose flour(plain flour)
1½ cups fine semolina
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp salt
¾ -1 cup warm water
2½ tbsp butter
2½ tsp instant active dry yeast
½ cup chopped walnuts or hazelnuts
2 tbsp raisins or currants – soak them in 1 tbsp warm water for 15 minutes
2 tbsp sugar (optional) depending on how sweet the pumpkin is
extra butter or olive oil for greasing
extra flour for dusting

1. Mix flour, semolina, salt, sugar and yeast in a big bowl.
2. Add pumpkin puree, water and butter.
3. Mix the dough. I did the whole process in a machine as the dough can be sticky.
4. Knead the dough for 7-10 minutes in a machine, 10-15 minutes by hand.
5. Add the nuts and soaked raisins(currants). Knead it into the dough.
6. Form the dough into a round ball. Grease it with some butter.
7. Place the dough in a greased bowl. Cover it with a tea towel or cling film and let the dough rise for 11/2 hrs or till its double the size.
8. Gently knead the dough. Divide into 2 for smaller loaves. Shape the dough into round shape.
9. Place the shaped dough on a greased baking tray.
10. Let the loaves rise for 35-45 minutes or till the dough is double in size.
11. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
12. Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Smaller loaves will take less time about 30 minutes.
13. Cool the loaves on a wire rack.
14. Serve the bread with soup, cheese or even toast it and enjoy with some butter, jam or marmalade.