Cinnamon & Nutmeg Pumpkin Pull-Apart

PUMPKIN! PUMPKIN! PUMPKIN! I love saying that word and I love everything that its associated with. Fall has officially arrived and with that comes wonderful spiced goodies.

This morning practically begged for a warm fresh-baked loaf of bread. The wind outside was battering the windows and the sun was nowhere in sight. The neighbouring farmer's fields have almost all been tilled and harvested for the season and our home needed some warming up.

I had made my weekly grocery rounds yesterday and grabbed some pureed pumpkin, not knowing where I would use it but that using it was a must. With that in mind, I stumbled across a Pumpkin ( yay... there it is again!) Cinnamon Loaf that I needed to have, yes it was an absolute need!

Cinnamon & Nutmeg Spiced Pumpkin Bread

adapted from WillowBirdBaking

Ingredients

2 Tbs unsalted Butter

1/2 cup Milk - warm or room temp

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry Yeast

3/4 cup Pure Pumpkin Puree

1/4 cup White Sugar

1 tsp Salt

2 1/2 cups ap Flour

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp fresh Nutmeg

3-4 Tbsp unsalted Butter

Directions

In a small saucepan brown 2 tablespoons of butter, letting it bubble up and turn a dark golden brown... Oh how I love browned butter!

Once browned, remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the milk (there will be a little bit of sizzle so be sure you are away from heat)  return to stove and mix until thoroughly combined.

Pour the milk and butter mixture into your stand mixer fitted with dough hook and allow to cool until warm.  Once it has reached a warm temp add the yeast and 1/4 cup of sugar and allow to proof.

Then add the the pumpkin, salt, and 1 cup of flour. Knead until combined then add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time and knead for 6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and stretchy.

Right before it was covered

Move dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean towel. Allow to rise in a warm place for 60-90 minutes or until it doubles in size.

While waiting for the dough, grease a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside. You can also mix the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl and set aside.

When the dough is ready, place it on a clean and floured surface. Roll dough into a 20x12 inch rectangle. Let the dough rest.

While its resting, melt 3-4 tbs of butter in your small saucepan and set aside.

Head back to your resting rectangular piece of dough and cut it into 6 long strips. Grab the melted butter and bowl of sugar and spices, brush each strip with the melted butter and then heavily sprinkle with sugar spice combination. Flip each strip over and repeat with melted butter and sugar spice combination. It seems like a lot of sugar and butter, but who's complaining really? 

Smothered in butter, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg

Once coated, cut each strip into 6 even squares and stack them strips horizontally into the loaf pan. **oops...I tend to not read recipes correctly sometimes and apparently I was supposed to cover the pan with a clean towel and let rise again for 30-45 minutes... but I didn't and they still turned out beautifully. I also didn't want any of the sugar spice combination to go to waste and I still had some extra melted butter left over, so I combined them and re-brushed the loaf while in the pan.

Layered and ready to go

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake for 30-35 mins or until top is a very deep golden brown.

I can't even begin to describe how wonderfully warm our kitchen was with the cinnamon-nutmeg combination wafting through the air from the oven. 

The loaf is now almost gone between hubby and I. The pull-apart pieces are just too easy and good to resist. 


Next week is Canadian Thanksgiving and I definitely foresee more pumpkin goodies to come.