Allegra Benitah's mini pumpkin bread
We’ve got the perfect Halloween treat for you today. Vanessa’s daughter Allegra is back with us in the kitchen to give us a spooky baking masterclass and whip up some delicious breads.
Ingredients
1 kilos of plain flour (approx.)
236ml of lukewarm water
3 tablespoons of caster sugar (plus one more teaspoon to mix in with the yeast)
40g portion of fresh yeast (or 1 tablespoon of active dried yeast)
3 eggs (1 for more egg washing)
1 teaspoon of salt
60ml of sunflower oil
225g canned pumpkin purée
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Tip teaspoon ground ginger
Cooking twine
Handful of toasted pecans (halved lengthways).
Hot melted butter to serve
Method
To make the pumpkin challah dough, pour the water into a large mixing bowl, add the teaspoon of caster sugar and carefully dissolve the yeast into the water. Once bubbles start to appear, add about a quarter of the flour, the two eggs, the rest of the caster sugar, the salt and the oil. Add the pumpkin purée and the spices before combining the mixture by hand, adding flour little by little, until a big ball of dough forms. The dough should be ready to knead when it comes apart from the bowl and doesn’t stick to your hands.
Knead the dough on a clean work surface which has been sprinkled with flour for 5- 10 minutes. Drizzle any leftover sunflower oil around the bowl, place the dough back inside and cover with cling film. Leave the dough to rise somewhere warm for about an hour and a half or until it has doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen, punch the air out of it and divide into equal portions weighing 100 grams each. Shape each portion into a ball with your hands before giving it a gentle push down on top to flatten it slightly. Place the centre point of a long piece of cooking twine on-to the top of a portion of flattened dough and flip the dough and twine over. Pull each end of the twine together and cross over to make a cross on the bottom of the dough. Flip the dough and twine over again and cross over again until the dough is divided into 8 equal pieces in a pumpkin shape. Knot the twine at the top loosely and trim being careful not to tie the twine too tightly as the dough will rise and grow during the bake. Repeat for the other portions of dough. Cover with a clean tea towel or cling film and leave to rise again for 45 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c and egg wash the dough with the remaining egg.
Bake the challah bread pumpkins for 20-25 minutes at the bottom of the oven.
Once cooled, cut the twine and remove it from the challah pumpkins and place a halved pecan in the top of each challah pumpkin. Serve with hot melted butter.
If you can’t find canned pumpkin puree then you can make it at home.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c and chop one medium sized sweet culinary pumpkin into small pieces and remove all the seeds and strings (seeds can be roasted separately and enjoyed lightly salted). Season and roast the pumpkin pieces for 40 minutes until tender. Separate the flesh from the rind and mash or blitz in a food processor to make a purée.