The Fall is a good time to enjoy pumpkin, a digestive vegetable full of beneficial properties for our body. The pumpkin plant is native to the American continent and its fruits provide us with essential vitamins and minerals without providing hardly any calories. Therefore, the WHO recommends its consumption.

There are many varieties of pumpkin. The pumpkin is very versatile and lends itself to many preparations and cooking. With it we can prepare soups, creams, purees, garnishes, flans, cakes, jams... and we can cook it in the oven, boiled, sautéed, braised, au gratin...

Now I'm going to teach you how to prepare a delicious Pumpkin Bread perfect for your Halloween decoration.

Supplies

Bread - Ingredients

250g Wholemeal flour
5g Salt
40g Sugar
5g Active dry yeast
50gr Unsalted butter
60ml Milk
6 Egg yolks
100g Roasted Pumpkin Puree

Decoration - Ingredients

1 Egg yolk
5g Sugar
Walnuts
Pumpkin seeds
Cotton thread

Step 1: Let's Harvest Our Pumpkin

We need a pumpkin, for this you can harvest your own pumpkin from your garden or buy one, just make sure it is well ripe

Step 2: Let's Prepare the Pumpkin Puree

Split the pumpkin horizontally (for more efficient cooking)
Remove and reserve the seeds (we will use them for decoration)
Put wax paper on a baking tray and place the pumpkin upside down on the baking sheet.
Bake for 1 hour and a half in a preheated oven at 180°C - 356°F with top and bottom heat (time may vary depending on the size of the pumpkin
When the pumpkin's skin is soft, turn off the oven, let it cool and separate the pulp from the skin using a spoon

Step 3: Let's Activate the Yeast

Mix the yeast with half the milk
Add 1 tablespoon of flour
Add 1 tablespoon of sugar
Mix well
Cover with a plastic sandwich bag.
Save for 15 minutes in a warm, dark place.

Step 4: Let's Make the Bread

On your work table put the flour, a part of sugar and a part of salt and mix well.
In a bowl put the pumpkin puree, the egg yolks, the rest of the sugar and salt
Mix well
Add the milk and mix well
Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour
Add the yeast and knead well
Add the butter and knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough no longer sticks to your fingers. You can add more milk or more flour to achieve this, this will depend on the degree of humidity of the flour you use.
Put a little flour on your brought table, place the dough and cover it with a little more flour, this is to prevent it from sticking.
Cover and let stand for at least 30 minutes.

Step 5: Divide and Leaven

When the dough doubled its size.

Divide the dough into equal parts (this will be the amount of bread, it can be as big or small as you want).
Let stand for an hour

Step 6: Let's Shape It

Take a portion of dough and with your hands try to make it as round as possible to start giving it a pumpkin shape.

Place the ball of dough on the cotton thread horizontally
Make a knot that is easy to untie.
Repeat the previous step to form a cross with the thread.
Repeat this two more times to achieve 8 splits.

Step 7: Let's Add Brightness and Color

In a bowl we put an egg yolk and a tablespoon of sugar (5g).
Mix it very well
Take all the ends of the thread from the top and lift them in such a way that they do not stick to the dough, this is to make it easier to remove them later.
With the help of a brush, brush the bread with the mixture.
Place the loaves on a baking tray covered with wax paper
Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C - 356°F.

Step 8: Let's Decorate

When the bread is ready, remove it from the oven and let it cool.
Untie all the knots from the top
Pull the threads one by one from the bottom
Make sure there are no threads left (you must draw 4 in total)
Decorate your bread using pumpkin seeds and walnuts to simulate the pumpkin's stem