Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaf | Tuesdays with Dorie - Baking with Julia

This week, the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers are baking this Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin (or Butternut Squash) Loaf. This recipe is on page 108 of the book, Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

This is a yeast bread, not a quick bread, and the dough requires an overnight rest in the refrigerator to develop flavor.

The recipe also calls for baking the loaves in three 5 inch loaf pans. I just happen to have them. Yay. My bakeware collecting binge paid off. I feel so justified.

I wasn't all that excited about making this bread. I mean, I'm sure the orange color in a yeast bread can be weird for some people. Plus, it's blazing hot here in southern California right now. We're not exactly in the fall mood.

Guess what? I really liked this bread. The pumpkin/squash flavor is faint, and the bread tastes a lot like cinnamon raisin bread but with a nice added dimension. Plus, you get vitamins A and C. It's almost health food. And they're sooooo cute.

I made two changes to the recipe. Instead of fresh cranberries, I used dried cranberries, and instead of active dry yeast, I used SAF Gold. That yeast is an instant yeast that is supposed to hold up well to enriched doughs (doughs that contain eggs, butter, and sugar, all of which are in this bread). I was really pleased with how the dough performed.

This bread makes great toast for breakfast. See all those slices? Gone.

I am amazed at how happy I am with this bread..... and I got to use my mini loaf pans. Validation. Oh yeah.

To get the recipe, hop on over to Rebecca's beautiful blog, This Bountiful Backyard. Or better yet, buy the book! To find out more about Tuesdays with Dorie, click  >here<.