Sunshine loaf

When I first started baking bread, just baking a normal bread, working with yeast, looking at them rise was really fascinating and as days passed  I started getting interest in different types of bread like vegetable bread, breads from different countries and now breads with different shapes. Whenever I go through a recipe blog or turn the pages of my recipe book, one thing which attract me a lot is breads with different shapes.
 This particular bread Sunshine loaf is also from my all time favourite book The Bread , the actual recipe suggested a sourdough style bread, but I just made a normal bread with a tiny bit of pumpkin puree. Just the look of the bread will attract your guests in the table. Actually it was given as Sunshine loaf in the book, by looking at this my husband said you might also name this as spider bread, which I was not actually interested. The choice is yours :-)

Makes 1 loaf, serves 4


Ingredients:
White bread flour- 400 g
Pumpkin puree- 3 tbsp
Warm water- 170 ml( adjust accordingly )
Dried yeast- 1 1/2 tsp
Salt- 1 tsp
Honey- 3 tsp
Egg wash- beat 1 egg with 1/2 tbsp of milk.
Caraway seeds for sprinkling on top( about 1 tsp)
Method:
Prepare the pumpkin puree by chopping the pumpkin without any seeds and puree it by adding very little amount of water.
Sift the flour in a large bowl, add the yeast and salt and mix it together. Make a well in the center, add honey, pumpkin puree and add the water little by little to make the dough. Knead the dough with hands or with a electric mixer fitted with a dough tool.

Place the dough in a clean and oiled bowl and cover it with a cling film. Leave it in a warm place to rise for 1 to 2 hours or until doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen, punch the air back and divide the dough into half. Divide 1 half of the dough into 6 equal balls.

Roll the 1 large half of the dough into a 50 cm sausage and make it like a spiral shape and place it in a baking sheet. Roll the remainig dough into small sausage and place it around the spiral, curl it at the ends. Cover with a lightly oiled cling film and leave it in a warm place for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius. Brush it with egg wash. Sprinkle the bread with caraway seeds and bake it in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until lightly brown on top. Take it out from the oven and leave it in a wire rack to cool.
Serve the bread warm with soup.

This bread goes to Colour your palate: A visual treat by Creative Sanyukta, Champa's Bake- Off, Yeastspotting and to Hearth and Soul.