Savory No-knead Pumpkin Bread

Savory, yet with hints of pumpkin pie, this bread will quickly find its way to your regular baking repertoire. It is so incredibly easy to bake, family members won't believe how you made it so quickly. However, advanced planning is needed due to the long rising processes. I typically start this bread the night before because it does take so long to rise. 

This recipe was in the Fall 2013 Heirloom Gardener Magazine. I was in the midst of harvesting my fall pumpkin crop that month and was obsessed with finding fun pumpkin recipes, and this caught my eye! The great thing about this recipe is you can interchange different ingredients. The first time I made this bread, I used white flour. Today, I used whole wheat flour. Don't be afraid to experiment, just make sure the ratios stay the same.

The BEST cinnamon to use for this recipe is King Arthur's Vietnamese Cinnamon. Seriously, you need to get this spice. You will never go back to the other stuff.

Pumpkin Bread

• 2 1/4 cups bread flour (white or whole wheat work well)
• 3/4 cup spelt or kamut flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup puréed pumpkin or butternut squash (I have yet to try this recipe with butternut squash)
• 3/4 cup cool water
• Pumpkin seeds

Reserve pumpkin seeds for later use.

 

Combine all dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly.

 

Take water and puréed squash, mix together in separate bowl. Add to dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula. Stir until thoroughly mixed. (The dough will not be like any other bread you've made-this will be much wetter and will not form a ball.)

 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature, out of direct sunlight for 12 to 18 hours. (I usually do this step the night before I intend to bake it.)

Before the 12 hour rising.

 

 

After 12 to 18 hours have passed, your dough should be dotted with bubbles and more than doubled in size. Dust a wooden cutting board with bread flour and, using plastic dough scrapers, scrape dough loose from sides of the bowl and turn out onto board in one piece. Dough will be loose and sticky, but do NOT add more flour. Dust top lightly with flour and cover with a clean lint-free cotton or linen tea towel. Let dough rise for another 1 to 2 hours.

After the 12 hour rising.

 

Getting the dough ready for the second rising.

 

 

About 30 min before the second rise is complete, place a cast-iron Dutch oven (a 3 to 4 quart size is best, but larger size can be used) on a rack positioned in the lower third of oven. Heat oven to 450°F.

 

Once the oven has reached 450°F, remove the pot using heavy duty potholders (be very careful, the pot and oven will be extremely not). Sprinkle coarse meal at the bottom of the pot. Or, we put aluminum foil in our pot. 

The dough in the Dutch oven before I put the pumpkin seeds on it.

 

 

Uncover the dough and, using two plastic dough scrapers, shape dough by folding over onto itself a few times. With scrapers, lift dough carefully and let it fall into preheated pot. Dust the top of the dough with pumpkin seeds. Cover the pot with lid and bake for 30 minutes.

 

After 30 minutes, remove the lid from the pot and continue baking for additional 15 min, or until loaf is nicely browned.

After baking for 30 minutes, remove the lid.

 

 

Remove the pot for oven. With a sturdy spatula, lift loaf from the pot and transfer to a cooling rack. Do NOT slice bread for a minimum of 1 hour--this cooling time completes the process and shouldn't be overlooked! 

 

This bread can be served with butter or cream cheese. I also love putting homemade apple cinnamon butter on it, so delicious!!

 

Please share your experience making this bread.  

 

Nancy Jane

Delicious Kale Chip

Before

After

 

Kale chips

• Kale
• Salt
• Olive oil
• Spices....I use dry Ranch Dressing from Penzeys  (yes another great product from this company with many uses)

Directions:

Wash kale....dry thoroughly ...
Spray or brush lightly with olive oil.
Sprinkle with salt and chosen spices.
Place in low oven or dehydrator until crispy.

Note: these are so good, but not as good as store bought. We do not use a lot of salt on our chips....the more salt the better they taste. So if salt is not a problem for you, pour it on and experiment with spices chosen. Obviously for us the spicier the better.

 

This is a great snack for travel, Nancy Jane and even KEG coveted mine when we were on a long road trip through the Mojave desert. Yes eventually I shared, and yes they enjoyed every morsel. So much so we did not make one fast food trip on this road trip. We ate healthy, had energy, a lot less annoyance and tons of laughter.

Mother Judith

Tempting Chocolate Bacon

Bacon is defined in the Urban Dictionary as, "meat candy, a lesser-known synonym for 'awesome,' and a term used for the worlds most delectable, delighted, breakfast course."

Since bacon is so amazing, why not make the man in your life a different Valentine's Day gift? How about chocolate dipped bacon on a stick? It is fairly easy to make, here are the main supplies you need:

• Chocolate (any variety you can melt)
• Bacon
• Wax paper

First you cook the bacon in a pan and drain grease. Do not make it too crispy, I found my extra crispy bacon breaking very easily under the pressure of chocolate. After cooking the bacon, engulf it in chocolate, apply the stick, add toppings, and set it on the wax paper. Let it set over night in the refrigerator.

Now the fun part of this recipe is what toppers you can put on it. Be creative! I tried cereals on mine, Cocoa Puffs looked the best. Lucky Charms would be perfect for St. Patrick's day, however, not as visually appealing. Sprinkles, pretzels, caramel candies, and salt also make good toppers. Make sure to add these before the chocolate dries.

 

Heart sprinkles for Valentine's.

 

Cocoa Puffs

Another option is to first cook the bacon, dip it in maple syrup, bake it in the oven at 450° for a minute, then cover with chocolate. Or do the same technique with brown sugar. It makes a very pretty glaze on the bacon.

Brown Sugar

 

For a fine culinary dessert, you can make your man (and yourself) happy on Valentine's Day with a Chocolate Bacon Éclair. WalMart has mini frozen Éclairs that work perfect. The inspiration for this was my dad's idea of Churros wrapped in chocolate bacon. You can always depend on him for creative sweets.

 

 

Please share your ideas, we would love to hear them!

 

Nancy Jane 

Garam Masala Sweet Potato Fries with Guacamole Dip

 

I love french fries, they are my favorite food in the world. Never offer me some of your fries, because I will eat them all (I have done that before). Sadly though they are obviously incredibly unhealthy, I wish it wasn't true.

To help stave off my cravings for the fried deliciousness the Gray family have made some alternatives. The first alternative is Garam Masala Bake Sweet Potato Fries.

The first time I ever had a sweet potato fry, it was fried and dipped in sugar. Needless to say it was scrumptious, but once again unhealthy. The baked fries are incredibly simple, the ingredients for a family of four are-

• Olive Oil
• Two Large Sweet Potatoes
• Garam Masala, Punjabi Style

Garam Masala is a combination of spices common in Asian and North Indian cooking. It can be combined with other spices or used alone. This spice works great with sweet and savory cuisine. The particular spice we used we purchased from Penzeys Spices, it contains coriander, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, charnushka, caraway, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. Garam Masala is a favorite spice in this family.

To make the fries, preheat the oven to 400°. Grab a large bowl, skin and cut the potatoes into long strips. Once all cut, take two tablespoons of oil and a teaspoon of Garam Masala and pour on potatoes. Stir together until evenly covered (you can add more or less Masala to taste).

Take a cookie sheet, put foil over sheet and spray with Pam. Spread potatoes on pan. Put in oven about 20 min, or when potato edges begin to get crispy. Yummy!

I like to dip these fries into guacamole. I just get an avocado and two cloves are garlic, mix them in my mortal and pestle, easy healthy guacamole!

 

Nancy Jane