Fall is almost upon us, which means this Spiced Pumpkin Braided Bread is a must bake. First because it’s pumpkin spice flavored and that is mandatory for the season, whether you like it or not 😀 and secondly because who doesn’t like braiding bread? It’s so much fun and it’s always great when you can unite something beautiful that you can also eat and it’s delicious. Plus it has such a vibrant yellow color from the pumpkin purée, it’s definitely eye-catching!
I gave this bread a few attempts over the past few weeks, altering a few things each time. My biggest problem in the beginning was that I thought it was a bit dry, I wanted it to be a little softer. To go around that problem I switched out the sugar in the recipe for honey, and added a bit of milk as part of the moisture, as well as the pumpkin purée, which gives it this awesome vibrant yellow color. I also adjusted the sweetness of it, since I wanted it to be a sweet bread but not so sweet that it felt like you were having dessert.
To finish the bread I brushed a little bit of warmed up apricot jam to give it a shine and also adds a bit of sweetness. It is so useful to always have apricot jam in the fridge by the way, you can use it to brush over fruits, tarts (I use it on my berry frangipane tart, it looks beautiful!), sweet breads and pastries, it adds some shine and it has a lovely bright yellow color that also adds to the look.
Spiced Pumpkin Braided Bread
Ingredients
For the bread:
- 250 g all-purpose flour (2 cups)
- 7.5 g instant yeast (2 tsp)
- 5 g salt (3/4 tsp)
- 50 g honey (2 heaping Tbsp)
- 35 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 56 g egg (one large egg, room temperature)
- 75 g pumpkin purée
- 30 g milk (2 Tbsp)
For the filling:
- 1 Tbsp butter softened
- 3 Tbsp pumpkin purée
- 5 Tbsp light brown sugar (packed Tbsp)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch 1/16 tsp clove
- Pinch 1/16 tsp ginger
Instructions
Make the dough:
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Place the flour in the bowl of your stand mixer, or a large bowl in case you’re going to knead by hand. Place the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other.
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Add the wet ingredients: the honey, the butter, the egg, the pumpkin purée and the milk, and mix until it comes together into a ball. Knead this for about 6 minutes in a stand mixture with the dough hook attachment or about 10-12 minutes by hand, depending on how you do it.
First proof:
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Shape the dough into a ball and place it into a greased bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and allow it to rise at room temperature, in a draft-free location (like a closed, turned off, oven) for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until it’s doubled it size.
Filling and shaping:
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Roll out the dough on a floured surface, lifting it and lightly flouring the bottom of the dough often, to make sure it’s not sticking to the counter. If it starts to pull back, cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for 10 minutes, and then continue rolling out. You want it to be thin, about 3/8 inch, in a rectangular shape, with the long side measuring about 18 inches.
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Spread the butter all over the surface, then the pumpkin purée, spread it evenly. Whisk together the brown sugar, the cinnamon, the cloves and the ginger, then sprinkle it all over the pumpkin purée, spread it with the back of a spoon, or an offset spatula.
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Start rolling it tightly from the long edge, forming a long log. Pinch it to seal and roll it gently back and forth with your hands, then pull it gently trying to make it longer. You want it to be about 24 inches long.
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Cut it in the middle the long way, then cut it in half the other way, so that you’ll have 4 half-logs about 12 inches long each. Braid the bread following this video I posted on my IGTV on Instagram.
Second proof:
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Cover your braided loaf loosely with plastic wrap and place it in a draft-free location to rise a second time for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until it feels puffy to the touch and your finger leaves a slight indentation where you poked it. About 15 minutes before it’s done proofing, preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C).
Bake:
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Brush the eggwash over it, double up the baking sheets you’ll bake it on and bake it for 40 minutes at 375 F (190 C), taking it out and placing a piece of foil to cover it after it’s been baking for about 17 minutes, to prevent overly browning it.
Recipe Notes
It’s not good to let the salt come into direct contact with the yeast because it can kill it.
Make the dough: Always do the window pane test to check the development of the gluten in the bread dough you’re kneading. You grab a small piece of dough and start gently pulling it and stretching it between your fingers, pressing in the middle of where you’re stretching too, carefully trying to make it as thin as possible without ripping, almost as if you could see through it. When it finally tears, the shape of the hole will be circular.
Filling and shaping: You can stretch it a bit, let it sit for 10 minutes to relax, then stretch it some more and allow it to rest again, so that it doesn’t shrink right back when you cut it!
Second proof: Take the bread out of the oven before you turn it on, if that’s where it’s been proofing! haha Yup I forgot once, but I remembered after a couple minutes so all was well.
Bake: DO NOT forget to double the baking sheets under the bread, so that it doesn’t burn on the bottom. After baking, allow it to cool on a wire rack for a couple hours before you cut into it, so that it has time to set.
Now please enjoy some more photos 🙂