Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

For Christmas gifts this year I am giving out quick breads. Quick breads are easy and lend themselves to endless varieties. Unlike most ‘breads’ quick breads use baking powder or baking
soda as a leavening agent rather than using yeast. They also require little to no kneading.

Today I am giving you a recipe for Pumpkin Bread. The addition of chopped candied ginger and chocolate chips give this bread an interesting texture and help it stay moist. Find candied ginger in an Asian food store or the ethnic aisle of your grocery store.

The secret to making quick breads moist is to keep the dry and wet ingredients separate until it is absolutely necessary. After you combine the wet and dry ingredients, don’t over stir. If there are a few streaks of flour, it doesn’t matter, they will cook out.

 

If you wait to cool this completely and wrap it up very tightly in plastic wrap, it will stay good for a week.

I cooked ALLLL day today. Writing up these recipes (and photographing them) is a great deal of work, so I am doling them out throughout the week. I am going to share a Lemon Blueberry Bread, an Onion Cheddar Bread and an Orange Cranberry Bread with you, one per day, starting on Tuesday.

Servings:  2 loaves
Time:  Prep: 10 minutes, cooking: 55-60 minutes, cooling time one hour
Hardware:  Measuring cups and spoons, 2 mixing bowls, a mixer, a large wooden spoon, a silicone spatula, a can opener and 2- 9x 5 loaf pans, a wire cooling rack

 Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 3 cups sugar
• ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¼ cup chopped candied ginger
• 1½  teaspoons cinnamon
• ¾  teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼  teaspoon nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 ½  teaspoons salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup apple juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Butter and or Crisco and flour for the pans

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour the loaf pans. It is always better to over grease and flour than under.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, chocolate chips, chopped candied ginger, spices, baking soda and salt in one of the mixing bowls. Set aside.
3. Beat the eggs in the other mixing bowl. Add in the pumpkin, oil, apple juice and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
4. With the wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture. Only stir until just moistened.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
6. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 20 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

This bread is delicious butter and toasted a little in the oven. My husband is pretty picky, and he loved it.

Leftover Mashed Potato Bread

You can use leftover mashed potatoes to make bread the day after Thanksgiving. The bread is soft and lighter than regular bread. And if you have to eat all those leftover sandwiches, it might as well be on this yummy bread.

Making bread is tricky. Everything has to be the correct temperature, or your yeast will not cooperate. Also, you can substitute all-purpose flour for bread flour, but the dough will be different. Bread flour has more gluten which makes the bread dough more elastic and absorbs more moisture.

•  Servings: 2 loaves of bread
• Time:  Prep:  15 minutes; Cooking: 35 minutes; Rise time  60 minutes; Bread in about 2 hours
  Hardware:  Measuring spoons and cups, a stand mixer, a silicone spatula, a microwave proof bowl, a thermometer, a large mixing bowl, a clean tea towel, 2 9x5 bread pans

 

 Ingredients

• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup milk
• 1 package instant yeast 
•  ¼  cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½  cup leftover mashed potatoes
• ¼  cup butter melted
• 4 cups bread flour
• A little oil
• Cooking spray

1. Turn your oven onto the lowest setting and place the hopper, the paddle and the bread hook into the oven. You do not want them to be hot, but warm when you use them.
2. Melt the butter and set aside.
3. Mix the milk, water and sugar together and warm to between 110˚ and 115˚f. Any cooler and the yeast won’t rise, any warmer and you will kill it.
4. Sprinkle the yeast over the liquid and set in a warm place until it gets frothy, about 5 or 10 minutes.
5. Place the egg, salt, potatoes, butter and flour into the warm (NOT HOT) hopper of the stand mixer. Add the yeast mixture, making sure to scrape in everything.
6. Use the paddle attachment to mix the ingredients until they are just combined. Over mixing makes the bread tough.
7. Switch to the bread hook and knead on medium-high for 5-7 minutes. The dough should be a little sticky.
8. Pour a tiny bit of oil into the bottom warm (not hot) mixing bowl. Add the dough ball and flip it over so that the whole ball is covered in oil. Cover it in a tea towel and place it in a warm spot until it doubles in size. I find it easiest to turn my oven onto the lowest setting for 2 minutes

Leftover Stuffing Waffles

This can hardly be called a recipe. It is more like a really good idea. But it is a really good idea and I had it. We always have too much stuffing/ dressing. This is an excellent way to use it up.

• Servings:  2 waffles
• Time:  Prep: 5 minutes, cooking: 5-7 minutes per waffle
• Hardware:  A bowl, a spatula, tongs, a waffle iron

 

Leftover Stuffing Waffles

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 2 cups of leftover stuffing
• Cooking spray
• Gravy or heated cranberry sauce for serving

1.  You will need one egg for every 2 cups of stuffing. Just mix the egg into the stuffing, spray the waffle iron generously with cooking spray and cook the stuffing as if it were a waffle.
2. You can top the waffle with warm gravy, an egg or heated up cranberry sauce.