Not only can you use pumpkins to make ghoulish lanterns at Halloween but you can also use them to make this delicious pumpkin bread.
You will need:
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425 grams canned or homemade pumpkin puree |
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600 grams caster sugar |
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235 ml vegetable oil |
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4 eggs |
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160 ml water |
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435 grams plain flour |
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2 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda |
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2 1/2 teaspoons salt |
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1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon |
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1/2 teaspoon nutmeg |
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1/4 teaspoon ground cloves |
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1 pinch ground ginger |
You will need:
2 "sugar" or "cheese" pumpkins – these are smaller and a browny orange not the large orange ones that you use to make Halloween lanterns.
1.
Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees C.
2.
Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape out the stringy bits and the seeds.
3.
Place on a baking tray and bake for 45 minutes to an hour – depending on your oven.
4.
Remove the skin and puree the pumpkin with a blender.
Making pumpkin breas
You will need:
5.
Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees C and grease and line three 18 x 7.5 cm loaf tins
6.
Beat the eggs slightly in a large bowl and add the pumpkin puree, caster sugar, vegetable oil and water and beat well for 3 to 5 minutes.
7.
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger into another bowl and mix well, then fold the contents of this bowl gradually into pumpkin mixture until just mixed.
8.
Immediately divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 50 minutes until a knife comes out clean when stuck in the centre of a loaf.
What’s happening?
Normally when you bake bread you add yeast which ferments and makes the bread rise. However, this pumpkin bread still rises even though there is no yeast in the ingredients. The bread rises because the bicarbonate of soda in the ingredients reacts with the acidic pumpkin puree.
Pumpkin is a weakly acidic vegetable with a pH of between 4.8 – 5.5. When you add bicarbonate of soda to an acid it reacts giving off carbon dioxide bubbles, salt and water. One of the problems of using bicarbonate of soda to make your bread rise is that it releases all the gas at once.
You might have seen this if you’ve ever added vinegar to baking soda. So you need to make sure that you get your pumpkin mixture into the oven pretty quickly or you will end up with rather flat pumpkin loaves.
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