Apple and Squash Bread

This is a recipe I made around a week ago and now I finally copied the photos to the pc, so here it is. The recipe might sound a bit strange, but the result is a very juicy bread with a delicious crust on top.

Ingredients:

2-3 cups of grated squash or pumpkin
1 grated apple
1 finely chopped red chili
1 tsp of chopped ginger
1 tsp of vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar, but I'm sure a cheaper one will do fine)
1 1/2 tsp of whole cumin
1 tbsp of "arab pepper", garam masala, gingerbread spice or any comparable spice mix.
2 tbsp of grated panela / jaggery (whole cane or palm sugar)
1 tsp salt
4 cups of flour
2-2 1/2 cups of milk
3 tsp of fresh yeast
Sesame and flax seeds and some more grated panela for the crust

Preparation:

Mix the grated squash and apple with the vinegar, spices and panela and then loosely stir in the flour. Create a hollow space in the middle of the mixture and crumble yeast into it. Slowly pour milk over the yeast while stirring. When the yeast dissolved, start mixing everything together while adding more milk until the right consistency is reached. The dough shall not be in a kneading consistency, but less liquid than your average cake dough, I would say.




Cover the bowl with a kitchen cloth and leave it to rest in a warm, draft free zone of your house for an hour. (Note: where I live it’s hot all year, everyday, if you are located in a colder region you may consider a longer dough resting period, even though it isn’t strictly necessary.)When the hour passed the dough should have grown considerably, if that didn’t happen, probably your yeast was dead already. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (Note: our oven does not have temperature markings, so this is just the temperature that I think it might have had + not all ovens are the same, for example ours is with gas and only gives heat from below, while the one of my mother back in Austria is electric and has diverse settings like hot air, heat from only below or above or both, etc. What I am trying to say is that you might have to experiment a bit, but go for a generally rather high temperature.) Grease a baking form or ovenproof pot (I used a heavy aluminum pot without plastic handles), and pour the dough into it. Sprinkle flax seeds, sesame and panela on top, cover the pot with the cloth and give it another 5-10 minutes. Uncover and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until it becomes nicely browned and crunchy on the outside, then remove from the pot, loosening the sides with a knife and flipping the pot over on a big plate.




Let it cool out at least a bit before cutting it into slices. Because of the squash and apple it is a very soft and juicy bread, if you like it more dry maybe reduce the amount of those ingredients. I ate it with butter and orange jam and later with cheese and salad and both tasted very good.