Recipe Test: Sally Lunn Bread from Smitten Kitchen

I recently tried the Sally Lunn Bread recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  So far my bread baking has been limited to quick no yeast breads and stuff thrown together in my bread machine.  This recipe seemed like a good and easy way to try out a yeast bread recipe that required no kneading.

The recipe itself is pretty simple and the results were alright.  I thought the bread had a nice flavor, but the crumb could have been better.  My loaf also didn't rise very much. 

I didn't make the Salted and Honeyed Brown Butter Spread that came with the recipe.  I instead whipped up some caramelized honey and salted butter.

This bread was lovely toasted the next day with a thick spread of the whipped butter and a cup of tea.

Chocolate Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts

Preheat Oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan or muffin cups.

Ingredients: 1 can pumpkin puree or one roasted baking pumpkin, 1/2 stick room temperature butter, 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar, 3 eggs, 3-4 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons baking powder, a few dashes of cinnamon, clove & nutmeg, 1 teaspoon vanilla paste, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of walnuts.

Baked Pumpkin Directions:  Cut in half, scoop out innards and play cut side down on a lined baking sheet.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 90 minutes.

Pulse 3 cups of flour, salt baking soda & spices in the food processor.  Pour dry ingredients into a large bowl and set aside.   If using a baking pumpkin scoop out the baked  flesh and add to the food processor.  Pulse until well pureed.  Add in the sugar, butter, vanilla paste and eggs.  Pulse to combine.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry.  Mix to combine.  Add in chocolate chips and nuts.  Mix.  If the batter is too thin add in flour about 1/4 cup at a time until nice and thick.  You want a spoon to be able to stand up right in the batter.

Pour into a loaf pan or muffin tins and bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center.  This will take about 50 minutes in a loaf pan.

The Bread Machine

This weekend I picked up a used Oster 5821 bread machine.  In order to test it out I made a very simple white bread.

Ingredients: 8 oz. warm milk (2%), 1 tsp salt, 1 large egg, 4 cups of white flour, 1 1/2 Tbsp butter, 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar, & 2 tsp (1 little packet) active dry yeast

I placed the ingredients in the order listed above in the bread machine and set it to a medium crust.  The whole process took under 3 hours and all I had to do was sit on the couch and smell wonderful bread baking.

This bread turned out pretty dense.  It tasted pretty good with a little butter and honey.  I'm thinking my first loaf will get turned into either bread pudding or french toast.   My goal is to get a nice light loaf.