Monday, October 1, 2012

TWD -- My favorite recipe so far

I loved, loved, loved the Pumpkin Cranberry Nut Yeast Bread, this week's Tuesdays with Dorie assignment! I can't say enough good things about it. I had pumpkin in the freezer left over from last year's crop of pie pumpkins, and I thawed it enabling me to use the real McCoy, rather than the canned, processed variety.

After reading the recipe, I decided to skip the refrigeration step. I know, I know, I cheated, but time was of the essence and I needed to be up and gone today and lacked the luxury of waiting around for refrigerated dough to warm and then rise. Plus, I have baked with refrigerated dough before and don't think the extra step adds enough to the final product to make it all worthwhile. It may pay off when making a baguette, but when making a vegetable, fruit bread, I couldn't see the advantage.
I made no changes to the recipe except for substituting dried cranberries (Craisins) for fresh ones. I love Craisins, and I reasoned that fresh cranberries could give the bread too tart a taste.

Baked in 71.2- by 4-inch pans
I opted to bake my loaves in 71/2- by 4-inch pans rather than the three smaller ones. First of all, I don't own those minuscule pans (what's the point?) and I wanted a sizable loaf to take to a Debate Party on Wednesday night (go Obama).


Second rise, 2 hours
Sliced when still warm
My dough did need a bit more water, perhaps an ounce or so, but otherwise the it acted as it should, slapping the sides of the Kitchen Aid bowl like a good loaf of bread should. The dough took a while to rise, due I think to the sugar and the cinnamon in the mixture, but it was well worth the wait. The first rise took 90 minutes, the second rise 120. I couldn't wait to carve into the loaf, and I was ecstatic over its taste, its crumb, its texture. I will definitely make this bread again!

7 comments:

  1. Nice! Good to know the refrigerator step can be skipped

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  2. oh really...you can skip the overnight refrigeration... thats huge.. the cake can then be made in a much lesser time.. this just took ages!!!

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  3. Good call on the craisins. I've been pulling the whole cranberries out of my loaf as they are way too tart. Your loaves are very pretty.

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  4. i had the time to wait for the long rises but in the end, i got impatient. if i make this again, i will eliminate that overnight in the fridge step. it is persimmon season and i used fresh persimmon puree rather than the canned pumpkin, definitely worth the trouble of making the puree! your breads look lovely!

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  5. Fortunatley, the overnight rise fit into my schedule - but I like that people had success skipping it as well

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  6. I agree, the sit in the refrigerator really didn't add much. But we loved the bread. It really was fall all wrapped up in a loaf of bread.
    Have a great week.

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  7. Very glad to know that I can skip the refrigeration step. Now I will certainly be making this more often! Thanks for the tip.

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