A New Bread for Fall

I combined a couple of recipe to create this lovely pumpkin cranberry bread for a potluck my husband was having today at work. The theme was "healthy eating" and one of the categories was gluten free. So, I decided to make this bread since I had some pureed fresh pumpkin and fresh cranberries from the farmer's market on hand.

And....I won a $20 cash prize for this bread in the gluten free category! It was fun and exciting to win!

This wonderfully moist gluten free, dairy free, soy free bread is so delicious it is more like cake! You could never tell it is gluten free or made in any other way than the traditional way of baking.

I know that this will become one of the favorite fall treats in our household.

I learned a lot about gluten free baking when we had Farmer's Tea- selling our baked goods at a farmer's market. There were many customers who came to appreciate our growing selection of gluten free treats. So, I love to combine recipes and create many new gluten free baked goods to try. Also, since we have a couple of friends who need to eat gluten and dairy free- having these types of things on hand is always great!

Enjoy this lovely bread!

First of all- before baking you need to create a special flour mix. If you live locally (in Oregon) I have found all three of the flours available at New Seasons- or if you go to Bob's Red Mill in Milwaukie, Oregon you can buy these flours in bulk which saves a lot of money.

The flour mixture is as follows (I usually mix up a large batch and store it in a zip lock bag or a storage container) I got this mixture idea from "Gluten Free Baking Classics" by Annalise G. Roberts. It is a wonderful book and a great one for coming up with baking ideas.

Small Batch of Gluten Free Flour:

2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca flour

Large Batch of Gluten Free Flour:

6 cups brown rice flour
2 cups potato starch
1 cup tapioca flour

The only other ingredient that is essential to gluten free baking is xanthan gum which helps hold the flours together and helps prevent baked goods from being too crumbly. It can be found in most stores. It is expensive but only a bit is used in each recipe and it lasts a long time. Below you can see a photo of all of the ingredients laid out:


Gluten Free Pumpkin Cranberry Bread:

Makes three 8x4 loaves- they freeze wonderfully!

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

• 3 cups brown rice flour mix (if you don't need to make this gluten free substitute all-purpose flour)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 3 cups granulated sugar
  
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree (or use fresh pumpkin that you have baked and pureed yourself- be sure to use a pie pumpkin or other sweet pumpkin for this
  
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries-chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 8x4-inch loaf pans.
2. Combine flour, spices, xanthan gum, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Set aside.
   
3. Stir together sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice in bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.
4. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy a lovely slice of fall!!

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Cranberry Bagels

Even though it's been a busy week I couldn't go without making bread! So, since I had some success with making whole wheat bagels in the past I decided to make them again and try some new techniques and change the recipe a bit. I had run out of raisins so I decided to use some dried cranberries instead.

The new techniques I tried were giving the bagels a longer initial rising time, a longer second rising or "floor time" and also adding some vital wheat gluten to the dough.

My son Adam had such fun "sifting" the flour while I made the dough and of course eating the dough after it was kneaded. That is his preferred way to eat bread!


I'm not sure if it was due to my changes or not, but the bagels turned out really well and it was amazing to eat one hot out of the oven! That's a good way to start off your morning!!

Here's the recipe with my notes:

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Cranberry Bagels:

2 cups warm water (110 degrees) - I usually use the hottest tap water I can get
2 (1/4 ounce) packages active dry yeast or 1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup sugar mixed with 2 to 3 tablespoons cinnamon (save some of this mixture for sprinkling on top)
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 21/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten (optional)
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

cornmeal for dusting baking sheets
1 egg + 1 tablespoon water for glaze

1. Mix together sugar, yeast and water in your mixer bowl. Let it rest for 5 minutes or until it's foamy.

2. Mix in salt and cinnamon sugar mixture.

3. Add in the 3 cups of whole wheat flour and mix for about 5 minutes or so on medium speed. Then, add in the unbleached all purpose flour a 1/2 cup at a time until you achieve a stiff dough ball.

4. Switch to the dough hook attachment and knead for 5 minutes or knead for 5-10 minutes on a lightly floured board by hand.

5. Put the dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover. Allow it to rise in a warm place until double in bulk. I allowed my dough to rise for 2 hours.


6. Take dough out of bowl after rising time and punch down the dough. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll each piece into a log and pinch it together to form a bagel shape. Put the bagels on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise or have "floor time" for 2 hours. I decided to lengthen this step to see if it would rise the bagels more or create more flavor.

7. After the bagels have risen put them into the refrigerator overnight to rest.

8. The following morning boil 2 quarts water and 1 tablespoon of honey or sugar in a large pot (about a 5 quart soup pot). Boil 3-4 bagels at a time for 15-20 seconds per side. Then, let them drain on a cooling rack that has been greased with cooking spray and has a kitchen towel underneath it.

9. Mix the egg and water. Brush the mixture on each bagel and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

10. Preheat the oven to 400F.

11. Put the bagels on back onto the baking sheets and bake them for a total of 30 minutes or until golden brown. Rotate the baking sheets from top to bottom after 15 minutes of baking time.

12. Remove from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack. Don't forget to slice one and try it with butter straight from the oven! They are great toasted after that but the first one is the BEST!
Enjoy!

Happy baking, gardening & living!