Roasted pumpkin brings a really nice softness to our bread. It creates a super smooth and silky dough with a beautiful yellow tinge, and helps the final bread to retain moisture too. A little bit goes a long way!

Have fun with this one!

You will need

425g      Strong White Bread Flour

7g           Dry Yeast Sachet

7g           Salt

220g      Room Temperature Water

100g      Roasted and Mashed Pumpkin (see method)

1 tsp       Chopped rosemary leaves

For the pumpkin

Cut your pumpkin into wedges. You’ll need about half of a medium one. Scoop out the seeds. Score the flesh and rub with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven at 200°C for 40 minutes, until soft and golden. Scoop out the soft flesh from the skin with a spoon, and mash. Leave to cool

For the bread

Weigh your flour into a large bowl, add the salt, rosemary, pumpkin and yeast

Measure your room temperature water into a jug and pour it into the bowl too

Mix the dry ingredients together, and add the water

Now, give everything a good mix until it all has come together. Give it some welly to get everything together, mixing and cutting in with a dough scraper is really handy at this point

Tip your dough out of the bowl onto an un-floured surface. Clean out your bowl with your scraper, and knead your dough well for 10-12 minutes
 

Make your dough into a ball, and place it back into your bowl with a cloth on the top. Rest it at room temperature for 60-90 minutes.

When the dough has risen nicely, it out of the bowl and press very slightly to flatten. Cut it into three pieces, and shape each piece into a very loose ball. Allow 20 minutes for the dough balls to relax.

Now, your balls are ready to shape into a pumpkin fougasse…

Place your pumpkins on parchment lined trays, cover with a cloth and rest for 10-15 minutes, meanwhile preheat the oven to 220°C fan/Gas mark 7

Bake your fougasses for 15 - 20 minutes until golden and crusty, allow to cool on a wire rack.