Pumpkin Spice Swirl Bread

Let’s start with the bad.

This week has been a doozy.

Saturday night, I hit a deer. It was not fun and very scary and I’m really happy we were in the truck and not our car. I’m sure it was even more fun for Nick, who was asleep in the passenger seat – he woke up to me screaming “Oh God, oh no!”, crying, hyperventilating, plus a little bit of dry heaving. Blech.

And remember how my computer is worthless? Okay, so, we ordered a new one for me, but it’s not here yet.

Monday, while I was working on Nick’s computer, it crashed. Enter more hyperventilating and dry heaving.

Am I just bad luck? Or a computer curse?

I currently have 4 different computers at home, but only 2 work. And those 2 don’t even belong to me.

Also, I hate not having LiveWriter. This posting directly into WordPress is killing me. It seriously took 45 minutes this morning just to upload these pictures.

But moving on – the good! Good always outweighs the bad.

Like, the truck definitely has some damage from the deer that decided to run head first into the bumper, but thank goodness it was the truck. It was a big deer and probably would have totaled our car.

And, thankfully, we have some amazing friends who are computer magicians and they fixed Nick’s computer! Not everything is up and running yet, but there is no black screen of death.

LiveWriter or no LiveWriter, I’m blogging! So that means a computer is working enough for me to tell you about this pumpkin swirl bread.

 

After finally perfecting my farmhouse bread recipe, I’ve decided that any loaf of bread I make needs to be made from that dough.

It really is fool proof.

I made this bread a week ago on a cold and rainy day when our house wasn’t very warm, and the dough still rose beautifully.

 

I wanted to try making a cinnamon swirl bread with pumpkin added for more flavor and color.

Instead of making pumpkin bread with a cinnamon swirl (which definitely may still happen), I kept the dough basic and put all the flavor into the swirl itself.

I couldn’t stay out of this bread when it came out of the oven, but the true test is always Nick. I didn’t tell him there was pumpkin in the filling until after he tried it – he’s always skeptical of anything with pumpkin, which I don’t get, because he’s loved everything lately. You’d think by now he would admit that he likes pumpkin.

I’m still working on that one.

Want a weekend project? Make this bread, thank me later, and make sure to save a few pieces for french toast. That recipe is coming, and man, is it good.

 

Pumpkin Spice Swirl Bread

Makes: 2  loaves, 12-16 slices each

Ingredients:

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 4 and 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 and 1/4 cups warm water
• 3 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer or other large bowl, mix the bread flour, honey/agave, oil, salt, and yeast.
2. Add warm water to flour mixture and mix together until the water is incorporated.
3. Stir in the all purpose flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is mixed together and is easy to handle.
4. Knead dough (with dough hook or by hand) until it is smooth and springs back when you touch it (about 5 minutes).
5. Place the dough in a large bowl that has been coated with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and sit in a warm place to rise for 40-60 minutes or until dough has doubled.
6. Punch dough down and divide into 2 equal pieces.
7. Roll each piece into a rectangle (the width of your loaf pans). In a small bowl, mix the pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.
8. Divide the pumpkin filling between the two loaves and spread on each piece of dough. Roll up the dough and place them seam-side down in greased loaf pans.
9. Cover the loaf pans with plastic wrap or a towel and let the dough rise, again, in a warm place 40-60 minutes, or until doubled.
10. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place rack in the middle of the oven.
11. Bake bread for 40-45 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and they sound hollow when tapped.
12. Remove from the oven and let them cool 5 minutes before removing from the pans.

 

PS: Want more pumpkin? Check out my guest post over at Chocolate and Carrots today – it’s one of my favorites.