Spiced Pumpkin Rolls for Thanksgiving | We Knead to Bake # 33

Its autumn and season of apples and pumpkins. Thanksgiving which is celebrated on 26th November every year in the US makes full use of autumn produce - pumpkins, orange sweet potatoes, apples, cranberries etc. So its only apt that we decided to bake spiced pumpkin bread rolls to ring in autumn for We Knead to Bake by Aparna. Of course though pumpkin is available year round in India but still its the season of pumpkin and Jack O lanterns.The recipe adapted from BeyondKimchee is super simple and the bread made with and shaped like a pumpkin makes it gourmet.  This makes it real special.

Ingredients:

Warm Milk: 1/3 cup

Honey : 2 tbsp

Instant Yeast: 2 tsp

Pureed pumpkin: 8 tbsp

Melted Butter: 1.5 tbsp

Egg: 1 OR Ener G egg : 1.5 pkd tsp + 3 tbsp of Water

All Purpose Flour: 1.5 cups + 4 tbsp more

Cinnamon: 1/2 tsp

Ground Dry Ginger: 1 tsp

Allspice Powdered : 1/2 tsp

Salt: 1 tsp

Preparation:

In a bowl, add in warm milk. Add honey and yeast and mix well and leave aside for 5 minutes until it froths. 

In a processor bowl, add in flour, salt and spice powders and blend well. Add in the yeast mix, pumpkin puree , melted butter and egg.

Knead well until you have asmooth elastic dough thats sticky but which pull away from the side of the bowl. You can add more flour if needed.

Turn it out onto a counter dusted with flour and knead with hand for another minute. Shape it into a big ball and place it in a greased bowl, turning around to coat well. 

Loosely cover and let the dough rise for an hour or so until double in volume.

Gently deflate the dough on a dusted counter and divide it into 8-10 small but equal sized pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball. Flatten it slightly and then using sharp scissors make 8 cuts at equal distances from each other from the edge of the ball to the centre, leaving the centre uncut to resemble a flower.

Place these flowers on a lined/greased baking sheet and let these rise or puff up a bit for about 45 minutes or so.Poke a deep hole in the centre of the flowers to insert a "stem". Brush the flowers with milk or egg wash. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. 

Take out the rolls and brush with melted butter  or honey for more shine. Cool and insert halved pecans into the hole for "stem". You can also use cloves, spring onion greens or celery stalks instead of pecans as stems.

A simple spiced healthy bread shaped like autumnal pumpkin. Firm crust and soft crumb.  A regular sandwich bread which is made gourmet. The breads turns soft the next day. You can actually make it more spicier or more sweeter by altering the spices and adding more honey or sweetness.