When I woke up today, first of all, I was disappointed – I heard the raindrops on the roof window and knew how the day will look like – another cold, grey autumn one… It is my day off, “wohou“, thought I.

I changed my plans for training because the last thing I wanted to do was running – I took my indoor shoes instead and left for the gym. I was thinking about my workout, while I was passing a grocery store – and there I saw her, a pumpkin Hokkaido!

I finished my training and on my way back home, while still sweaty, I run to the grocery store. I bought the beautiful fat hokkaido pumpkin friend, some seeds, spices, cream, chilli paste and other necessities and couldn’t wait to be back home and to enjoy this beautiful, cosy autumn cooking and baking day!!!

I knew immediately I would cook a pumpkin soup with chilli paste for lunch (the recipe comes soon too!). But baking… I wasn’t that sure what to prepare…

For a long time, I had been thinking about baking babka – braided cake with a sweet filling (chocolate, cinnamon, jam, fruit,…), a traditionally Polish and Ukrainian Jewish bread which name comes from “babcia“, the Slavic word for grandmother.

Babka was originally filled only with cinnamon, but now, we can find fillings with chocolate, raisins, sweet cheese and many, many other ingredients!

Me, I decided to try an autumn version of babka – with rye flour, pumpkin and cinnamon.

I used pumpkin puree for both the dough and for filling. Be aware that pumpkin is mild in flavour and therefore you’ll need to use a lot of cinnamon!

And how do I get the pumpkin puree? Well, that’s super simple! See the instructions here https://barasbaking.com/basic-pumpkin-puree/

Basic Pumpkin Puree

PUMPKIN & RYE BABKA BREAD

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE DOUGH

85g full fat milk

7g dried yeast

130g hokkaido pumpkin puree

1 large egg

30g butter, room temperature

1 tsp cinnamon

50g sukrin (or 30g sugar)

120g fine rye flour

140g fine whole wheat flour (plus more to be added during kneading)

lemon zest

pinch of salt

FOR THE FILLING

100g butter, room temperature

100g pumpkin puree

20g ground cinnamon

150g sukrin (or 100g sugar)

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the dough

In a small bowl or a sauce pan, warm up the milk (just to body temperature, not warmer, since that could kill the yeast) and add the dried yeast. Sprinkle the mixture with some flour and let it stand for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour a 25x13cm loaf pan.

In a bowl of kneader , mix all dried ingredients.

Stir in pumpkin puree, egg, butter and milk with yeast.

Knead for 10 minutes – during that time, slowly add more flour until the dough is not sticking to the sides of the bowl. But add it little by little, do not add more than needed!

Let the dough rest at a warm place, covered with a cloth or plastic foil, for an hour – or until it doubles.

While waiting, make the filling.

Stir in butter, cinnamon, Sukrin and puree.

Assembling and baking

On a floured surface, roll the dough out into a large rectangle, approximately 3mm thick.

Spread the filling all over the dough – evenly and till the edges, you don’t want to get dried ends of the cake! The more evenly you spread the filling, the more defined will the babka’s layers be.

Roll the dough into a tight log and then cut it lengthwise in half – one end remaining uncut!

With the cut sides facing up and the uncut end further from you, lift the right half and place it over the left half. Repeat this step two more times and then slightly press the ends of the halfs together to close the braid.

Gently move the braid into the loaf pan and lightly brush the loaf with egg wash.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown.

After removing babka from the oven, let it cool completely before slicing.

This babka is best right the day when you bake it, but you can also store it in an airtight container for up to two days.