PUMPKIN BREAD

I'm loving Halloween and Autumn and crunchy leaves and orange and gold and soup and snuggling in my dressing gown.  Autumn was always my mothers favourite time of year and I never really got it, but it was the colours she loved and the low sun you get now makes them look spectacular.

Soon we shall have the aroma of bonfires, I love that smell, like incense filling the air but first we have halloween and all the excitement that comes with it.  

We all enjoy carving pumpkins in our house so with 5 of us we end up with a lot of pumpkin to eat.  There is the usual pie and soup, then we have it fried with shrimps and spices and now we have bread.  

I have to admit that the flavour wasn't particularly strong but it does give it a warm yellow ochre colour.

Pumpkin has a very high water content so you need to avoid adding anymore to it.  I steam mine to cook

it before I puree it in the blender.

Wash the seeds, dry them and use them on your bread or stick them on a baking tray sprinkled with a little peri peri seasoning and roast at 180 C for 20 minutes.  Once they are cool they will be crisp and a good snack.

BREAD

600g Strong Bread Flour

30g Butter

10g Salt

15g Yeast

200g Pumpkin Puree

100g Water

100g Milk

Add the Butter to the flour and rub it in as you would with pastry, once it has disappeared into the flour stir in the salt and yeast.

Next add the wet ingredients.  You can do this by hand or in a mixer.  I tend to start it off in the mixer and once it's all combined I knead it by hand.  You should have a fairly wet but manageable dough.  To help it stop sticking when kneading, drizzle a little oil onto the surface.  Try not to add flour as this will give you a tougher dough.  The softer your dough, the softer your bread will be.

Dust your hands with flour and knead, stretching the dough, for a good ten minutes.  You will feel it become more elastic as you work.

Leave your dough to prove in a large bowl covered with a  t-towel for 1-1 1/2 hours somewhere warm and draft free.  It will double in size, I always get so excited when I go back to it and it has grown to fill the bowl.

Now knock the dough back by punching the air out or kneading it back to it's original size.  Form the dough into the shape you want your loaf on a baking sheet or stone.  I made a small loaf with half and 10 rolls in a brioche tin.  Leave it to rise again for another hour.  Use a sharp knife to score a pattern on your loaf then bake at 200 C for 30-40 minutes.

To check if it's cooked, you can tap the underneath of your bread, if it sounds hollow it is done.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN X

QUINCE JELLY

Last week I was very lucky to be the recipient of a bag of quince.  The donor was Mary-Ann Time To Cook, one of the 3 finalists from The Great British Bake Off GBBO.  We had lunch together and when I arrived Mary-Ann handed me my bounty and I left it in the boot of my car while we ate.  On returning to the car I was met with the most glorious perfume.  Quince has a sweet honey like scent like nothing else, it is neither apple nor pear but something in between and when made into a jelly is the colour of rose tinted amber.

My recipe is not very precise for this.  I did not weigh the fruit but measured the liquid it produced.  You need 500g of sugar for every 600ml of liquid.  Quince has a high pectin content so should set easily but if you have the fear of not setting you could use a jam sugar which has pectin added to be on the safe side.

Fill your largest pan with the fruit cut into chunks and add a lemon cut in half.  Next add enough water to just cover the fruit and bring it to the boil.  Once it's boiling, leave it to simmer until the fruit is soft and mushy.  This should take about an hour but don't worry if it takes longer.  Give it a stir from time to time to stop it sticking and burning on the bottom.

Now you need to strain the liquid from the mush.  If you have a jelly bag - lucky you.  I have no such thing so used a pillow case hooked on an upturned stool with the cleaned pan underneath.  Leave it to strain over night to ensure you get every last drop.

My carrier bag gave me just under 1200 ml so I used 1kg of sugar.  Add the sugar to the pan and boil till you reach setting point.  You can use either a jam thermometer for this or test a teaspoon of the jelly on a chilled saucer.  I usually put one in the freezer before I start boiling.  Leave it on the saucer for a minute then run your finger through it, if it forms a skin which then wrinkles, it's ready.

Pour your jelly into sterilised jars and feel very smug that you have just made something very tasty indeed while you listen for the pop pop popping of your lids.

I sterilise my jars by washing them in warm soapy water then put them into an oven at 100C till they're dry.  Use them straight away once they're out of the oven.  I put the lids in a pan and boil them in water for 5 minutes.

Thanks Mary-Ann Time To Cook   Now, where's the cheese?