Peppery Pumpkin Bread from HBin5 (almost)

Peppery Pumpkin Bread from HBin5

I gave this recipe my own special touch: I added far less water than the recipe called for. 

As usual, this was by mistake rather than by intention.  The liquid measuring cup that I used is only 2 cups big, and so I measured out the first 2 cups and set it in a bowl; then I measured out the 1 1/2 cups (to make the full measure of 3 1/2 cups that the recipe called for) -- and when mixing up the ingredients, I forgot to add the bowl of water.  Mis en place?  It was right there, I couldn't have missed it.  But I did.

The result was a dough that required kneading, a lot of kneading, to get the ingredients incorporated.  By the time I had it kneaded, I saw the bowl of water, and I could still have incorporated it, but I figured, what the heck, let's see what I get.

I was using a jack-o-lantern pumpkin that I had roasted and pureed a day earlier.  These are a good bit wetter than the usual baking pumpkins, I think.

The dough was left out for 2 hours and did see some rise.

 Then it was refrigerated for 24 hours.  There was even more evidence of fermentation.

At that point, I tore off about half of it and punched it down while cold.  I shaped it into a tight boule and set it in a floured basket to see if it would rise some more when it warmed to room temperature.

It didn't really look like it expanded much.  It is only later, when I look at these pictures, that I see that it did indeed have some swelling. 

But I decided to score it and bake it anyway.  I preheated the stone to 450 degrees F and decorated my loaf.  You can't really see it in the end result, since I used pumpkin spice, and that turns out to be the same colour as the baked bread.  Next time I'll use white flour or rice flour, I guess.

Results

The bread is surprisingly light.  I suppose it is the extra gluten that was added.  This bread is like a sandwich loaf, with a crunchy crust that is not too brittle.  The taste is good, but I could have used a bit more pepper.

Notes to Myself

• Try some other recipes from HBin5 this way: i.e., less hydration, shaped when cold. The shape of the boule seems to hold together far better, you get a lot less sag.
• In terms of decoration: try keeping the cookie cutter on the loaf as it bakes. Try white flour, try glaze everywhere on the bread. Try embedding parsley or other herbs with colour.
• What other vegetables could be added to bread?