Pumpkin Cranberry Walnut Bread

After missing last month's Whole Wheat Loaves, I made an extra special point to make time this past weekend to make this next recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie/ Baking With Julia group.  I knew the recipe was going to take two days to make, so I penciled in a bit of time on Saturday and then a tiny bit of time on Sunday. This recipe involved a lot of waiting and timing, somewhat reminiscent of the Pecan Sticky Buns a few months back.

So on Saturday I set about making the dough.  My son and husband are about to leave on an adventure, and Rhiannon is taking a nice nap.   I read through the ingredient list again and realize the cranberries need to be thawed.  Out come the frozen cranberries from the freezer onto the sunny table to thaw.  And the walnuts need to be toasted.  Into the oven go the walnuts.   And the butter needs to be room temperature.  All butter frozen, deeply.  No microwave, just a sunny table.   Out comes the phone.  Call my parents (they live a mile away).  Load up Rhiannon.  Nuke my butter.  Back to my house, ready.  Sift the dry ingredients, start the yeast, cream the sugar and butter.   Ready to add the room temperature egg....     Go to fridge, no eggs.   Run over to neighbor's house, no eggs.  Neighbor bikes over to store for 6 eggs (he gets one of these mini-loaves).  Get egg.  Make dough.   No mixer.  Ask friend for mixer.  Miss her text.  Knead by hand (sticky!!!).   Cover, let rise.  Fold over.  Let rise in fridge. Sleep.

Sunday goes much better.  I remember to set out the dough in the morning.  I shape the loaves around noon.  Let them rise a bit longer than 2 hours.  Put them in the oven for 30 minutes.  Let them rest for 5 minutes and cool the rest of the time on the rack.

And today we ate them.  And they were worth it.

Check out Rebecca's post for the recipe, complete with all the ingredient specifications should you choose to read them ahead of time.



And here is Rhiannon, trying to walk...