Pumpkin Yeast Breads (Bread Machine)

If I had to choose a favorite piece of kitchen equipment,  I'd go with my bread machine.  I can make anything from bread to dough for pizza, pita, cinnamon rolls, and croissants.  It's fun to gift people with my homemade bread and see the smiles on their faces when they inhale the wonderful bready aroma of the loaf— freshly baked bread never fails to delight.

I also love that I can control the ingredients in every loaf.  Most supermarkets (not Trader Joe's, though) use lots of unneeded extra sweeteners.  If you look closely at ingredients in supermarket "bread," you'll notice about 3 different types of sweeteners, in addition to dough conditioners and stabilizers that allow bread a long shelf life.  I really enjoyed the chapter on fermentation in Michael Pollan's newest book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, which discusses the evolution of bread and includes stories of his trips to the Sara Lee bread factory and the Tartine bakery in San Francisco, two places which have completely different philosophies about the concept of bread.  

Over my break, I decided to do a pumpkin bread comparison.  The dough for the pumpkin bread above included an egg and a little orange juice. The original recipe came from Great Bread Machine Recipes by Norman Garrett. 

The dough for this bread included an egg and had a tighter, denser crumb, in contrast to the fluffier crumb of the other pumpkin bread (seen in the very top photo).

The consensus was that one bread wasn't better than the other.  Deciding which to bake really depends on your mood and purpose. I find the Compact Pumpkin better for dunking in soup and the Fluffy Pumpkin more ideal for enjoying warm with a little butter.  They both make great sandwich bread, though Compact Pumpkin is a little easier to slice. 

Nutrition Highlight: Pumpkin

Full of Fiber

Pumpkin is high in soluble fiber.  One of the effects of fiber discussed in my Metabolism class was weight management.  Soluble fiber (SF) forms a gel in the small intestine, slowing gastric emptying and increasing satiety.  SF also regulates blood glucose levels, helping to control appetite.  When blood glucose levels drop super low, people often over-eat because they are so hungry. But a high fiber diet will promote normal hunger levels, in turn helping with weight management.

Canned vs Fresh

Canned pumpkin actually has more fiber than fresh pumpkin because it's more concentrated.  The manufacturing process cooks the pumpkin down to eliminate extra water that would wreak havoc in baked goods, thus making it more fiber and nutrient dense than its fresh counterpart. 

A 1/2 c of canned pumpkin has about 3.5 g of fiber while 1/2 c of cubed, fresh pumpkin has 1.35 g.  Adult women should aim for 25 g of fiber a day, but most only get about 17 g.  Though adult men should aim for 35 g, most only consume about 13 g.  (Stats are from my Metabolism professor.)

Cooking Tip

Use your leftover pumpkin in pasta sauce!

If you make one of the breads with a 15 oz can of pumpkin, you'll have 1 c of purée left.  So, you could try. . .

Harvest Tomato Sauce: Add 1 c pumpkin purée to your next tomato based pasta sauce for a nutrition boost and flavor complexity.

  

Pure Pumpkin Sauce:  Or skip the tomatoes and mix 1 c pumpkin purée  with sauteed garlic, onions, and sage, and dilute with pasta water.

Fluffy Pumpkin Yeast Bread

Printable Recipe

This is a fluffy, high riser.  It's wonderful piping hot, but will be much easier to cut evenly if you let it cool.  Great as is with a little butter or as the foundation for a turkey-cranberry sandwich with spinach.  

3/4 cup water 
1/2 cup pumpkin purée (4.5 oz)
1 T oil
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt 
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2/3 cup white flour
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp yeast

Add ingredients to bread pan. If machine doesn't have yeast dispenser, make a well for the yeast in the flavor so it doesn't touch the liquids, which would cause premature activation.

Fits in a 1 lb. bread machine.

Compact Pumpkin Yeast Bread

Printable Recipe

This bread has a tighter crumb, making it a little denser and thus ideal for dipping in soup.  It's also a great foundation for a grilled cheese sandwich with red cabbage. 

2 T water 
2 T orange juice (or water)

1/2 c pumpkin purée (4.5 oz)
1 T oil
1 egg
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt 
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp yeast

Add ingredients to bread pan. If machine doesn't have yeast dispenser, make a well for the yeast in the flour so it doesn't touch the liquids, which would cause premature activation.

Fits in a 1 lb. bread machine.