Pumpkin Cornmeal Bread Rolls

It’s bread again and this time around I’m sharing some Pumpkin Cornmeal Bread Rolls. October is the beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere, and Judy of Judy’s Gross Eats picked a seasonal recipe for the Bread Baking Babes to make. The recipe for Pumpkin Cornmeal Bread comes from Bread for All Seasons by Beth Hensperger.

I really haven’t been a very regular baking babe as seems to be my style these days. I did really want to get back to baking the monthly bread and better late than never. Also, I do have a copy of Bread For All Seasons and I had marked this bread to make. We use pumpkin a lot in our traditional cooking. I quite like how the sweetness of pumpkin gives the savoury dishes I cook a very interesting flavour.

You need pumpkin purée to make this bread. We don’t get canned purée here probably because we get fresh pumpkin the year round. You can make your own purée at home though and it is quite easy. Peel and remove the seeds and core of your pumpkin and cut into chunks. Lightly toss the pieces in a little oil. Place them on a baking sheet and bake at 200C (400F) for about an hour until very soft. Once it is cool, blend till smooth.

Otherwise do as I did. Instead of baking the pumpkin, I steam cooked it and then puréed it. Baking gives you a purée that is less moist and of a different flavour. Otherwise there’s not much difference. Left over pumpkin purée can be frozen for using later.

So baking bread, especially with pumpkin appeals to me. I also happen to really like the texture, colour and taste from using cornmeal in bakes. Unlike most pumpkin breads, this is not a quick bread but a yeasted bread. So this is softer, moist and mildly sweet bread with a slight crunch in the crust that comes from the cornmeal. Beth Henspergers’s recipe makes 2 to 3 loaves or 24 bread rolls, which is way too much for us.

So I scaled the recipe down by 1/4^th and made a few changes to accommodate our tastes and the ingredients I had on hand. I chose to make bread rolls and shaped them into spirals as suggested in the recipe. So I reduced the amount of yeast because it seemed too much to me. I substituted the rye flour with more cornmeal and honey for molasses. I decided to use pumpkin seeds to decorate the top of my bread rolls. I don’t use egg wash so I used a milk + corn-starch mixture to make the seeds stick.

The recipe below is my adapted version of the original and makes 6 rolls. You can serve these Pumpkin Cornmeal Bread Rolls as dinner rolls. They have just a hint of sweet and are not very strong on pumpkin flavour but that doesn’t mean they’re not good. So you can even use them as small sandwich rolls. Otherwise, just split them in half, like I did, slather on some butter and enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.

Pumpkin Cornmeal Bread Rolls

Soft, moist and mildly sweet pumpkin and cornmeal bread rolls that are perfect as dinner rolls, for sandwiches or eaten as they are, slathered with butter.

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Course breads

Cuisine American

Servings 6 Rolls

Ingredients

  

• 1 1/2 tsp active dried yeast
• 1/8 tsp sugar a large pinch
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup warm buttermilk
• 20 gm butter melted
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/8 cup pumpkin purée
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup cornmeal gritty like fine sand
• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/8 cup milk optional
• 1 tsp corn starch optional
• pumpkin seeds optional

Instructions

 

• Activate the dried yeast by mixing together with sugar and warm water in a small bowl. Keep aside for about 5 to 10 minutes till frothy. In a large bowl, or the bowl of your kneading machine, mix together salt, cornmeal, and flour.
• Add the frothy yeast mixture and all the other ingredients except the milk, corn-strach and pumpkin seeds.
• Knead until smooth and slightly tacky, either by hand or with a dough hook. Shape the dough into a round and place in a greased bowl. Turn once to coat the top and loosely cover. Let rise at room temperature until double, about 1 ½ to 2 hours, depending on how warm it is.
  
• Turn the dough onto work surface and flatten slightly. Divide into six equal portions and shape into rolls. To make spiral shaped rolls, roll each portion into a smooth rope approx. 6” long. Roll it into a spiral shape tucking the end under the roll.
  
• Place on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and cover loosely. Let them rise till almost double, for about 45 minutes. Mix together the milk and corn-starch and brush over the rolls. Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds and bake at 190C (375F) for about 20 to 25 minutes until they’re golden brown. They should sound hollow when tapped. Cool on a rack.
• These are best eaten the same day.

The Bread Baking Babes are –

Bake My Day – Karen

Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire – Katie

Blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth

Feeding my enthusiasms – Elle

Girlichef – Heather

Life’s A Feast – Jamie

A Messy Kitchen – Kelly

Lucullian Delights – Ilva

My Kitchen In Half Cups – Tanna

Notitie Van Lien – Lien

Bread Experience – Cathy

Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen

Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy

Though the Bread Baking Babes (BBB) are a closed group, you’re most welcome to bake with us as a Bread Baking Buddy. Here’s how it works.

Judy is this month’s Kitchen of the Month and the recipe for this month’s bread is on her blog. Bake the Pumpkin and Cornmeal Bread and post it on your blog before the 28th of this month. Make sure you mention the Bread Baking Babes and link to her BBB post in your own post.

Then e-mail Judy with your name and the link to the post, or leave a comment on her blog post with this information. She will do a Buddy round-up for this month on her blog and send you a BBB badge to add to your post on your blog.