butternut squash bread

How To Make butternut squash bread

• 1

  Combine yeast and warm water in large mixing bowl. This is where I use the KitchenAid to avoid having to knead things. Let sit until creamy, a few minutes. Meanwhile, prepare step 2.
• 2

  Heat milk and butter together until the butter is mostly melted and milk is warm, around 120 degrees. I do this in the microwave.
• 3

  Add milk/butter mixture to the yeast. Add the squash, egg, brown sugar and salt. Add 3 cups of flour.
• 4

  Turn on the mixer and let it combine all the ingredients. If the dough is very sticky add more flour. The original recipe says 3 cups, but I found it took 4 to make it barely handleable. Maybe my squash was just more moist than usual. Knead or run the mixer, stopping periodically to stop dough from climbing the hook, about 8 minutes or until dough is nice and smooth.
• 5

  Transfer to a greased bowl, turning dough to grease top, cover and let rise about an hour. Don’t worry too much if the rise is sluggish – it’ll catch up in the oven.
• 6

  Deflate the dough and shape it then place in lightly greased pans. At this point you can make loaves, braid it, or do what I did – I made half into 9 rolls to bake in a 9×9 square pan, and half I patted into a large rectangle for this treat. To make the coffee cake ring pictured, make half a batch of dough into a large rectangle, then combine about 2 tbsp additional butter with enough brown sugar to make a spreadable paste and about 2 tbsp pumpkin butter. Spread this all over one side of the dough and roll up from a long side, like you’re making cinnamon rolls. Pinch seams to seal. Shape into a big hoop and pinch tips together. This one baked in a pie pan.
• 7

  Let the dough rise again 30-60 minutes or until you get bored and decide it’s had long enough. This dough doesn’t seem to care how long you let it rise as long as it gets a bit puffier before baking. Bake at 350 around 30 minutes.
• 8

  Try not to eat it all until it’s cooled enough not to singe your mouth. That’s the hardest part. Especially if you’ve opted for the coffee cake ring and some of the sugary goodness inside got caramelized on the outside. Totally worth the effort.
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