Pumpkin Muffins

During the fall I bought a few pie pumpkins and prepped them then froze them, so when I wanted delicious pumpkin during the winter months I would have it without having to buy canned pumpkin. Today I decided to make some pumpkin muffins and a loaf of pumpkin bread.

This bread recipe is my basic sweet bread, the recipe originally came from my Mother, I have modified it to be vegan and has a bit less fat in it than my Mothers recipe. Although the base recipe is the same I modify the fruit or vegetable content added.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 3/4 tsp baking soda

• 1 tbsp cinnamon

• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• the equivalent of 2 eggs

• 1/2 cup raisins

• 1/3 cup nuts ( I usually use walnuts but today I used almonds, and it was delicious)

• 3 cups pureed pumpkin

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix together the dry ingredients well. Add the oil and the egg replacer mix lightly, add the pumpkin and the vanilla mix well, at this point the mixture should have no lumps. Add the raisins and nuts lightly mix. If you are baking muffins it should be about 22 to 25 minutes If you are baking bread it will be about 45 minutes.

Yum and done!

The Bread Project: Cottage Loaf

This is the next installment in my voyage into bread making from the book The Bread Bible, authored by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter and I plan to bake my way through it this year. This is another english bread called the Cottage Loaf. It is not baked in shops much these days, the book sites room bring the main issue. But it can be ordred on request.

This was a simple ingredient bread consisting of bread flour salt yeast and water, but something tells me I have not perfected the fine art of knowing when needing is done. This loaf tastes good but I think the traditional cottage loaf should be more hollow on the inside and not as dense. This particular bread was proofed twice and on the second rising it was placed under glass pyrex to keep from expanding to much. Before it goes in the oven the whole in the top was pushed in by my thumb I suspect it is to kind of glue the loaves together during baking. Also this recipe does expand in the oven by a sizable amount.

here it is ready to go into the oven!

from the side

more of a top view:

Yum and done!