One Dough, Two Breads: Pumpkin and Cheese & Almond and Lavender Marmalade

Another bank holiday, another bread. Well, in this case, two breads. We go through about two loaves of bread each week and sometimes it gets a bit boring eating the same flavour bread day after day so I thought I'd try something a little different this week and bake two different flavours.

Rest assured, two different breads does not mean double the amount of work as my nifty tip here is to start from the same base dough and after the first fermentation split the dough in half and add nuts, dried fruit etc of your choice.

I've chosen to make a Pumpkin Seed and Cheese Bread and an Almond and Lavender Marmalade Bread. The lavender marmalade was a nice find at a farmer's market in a nearby town but early next year, when the Seville oranges are in season, I will try making my own. As for the cheese, I used Machego cheese which is a hard cheese made from Ewe's milk and has a nice tangy flavour.

Pumpkin and Cheese Bread

Almond and Lavender Marmalade

Ingredients (makes two loaves)
700g white bread flour
300g rye flour
14g dried yeast
10g salt
10g sugar
30g butter
600ml warm water

Other Ingredients
100g grated Machego cheese
a handful of pumpkin seeds

2tsp lavender marmalade
a handful of flaked almonds

Method

1. Rub the butter into the white bread and rye flour. Add the rest of the dried ingredients making sure that the salt and yeast are at the opposite sides of the bowl - this is to prevent the salt from killing off the yeast.
2. Add the water and mix until a dough is formed.
3. Tip onto a flat surface and knead until smooth and elastic.
4. Leave to rise until double in size.
5. After the first fermentation, divide the dough in half. I like to weigh the dough so I can get similar sized breads but I'm a bit pedantic. Doing it by eye works just as well.
6. For the cheese bread, knead the cheese into the dough. Form the dough into a ball and wet the surface. Take your pumpkin seeds and press them into the surface of the dough. They to pressed in firmly otherwise they will fall off when you come to slice the bread. Leave to rise until doubled in size.
7. For the marmalade bread, flatten the dough out into a rectangular shape about 1cm thick. Spread the marmalade over the dough leaving about 1cm around the edge of the dough so that you can seal it later. Sprinkle the flaked almonds all over the marmalade. Next fold the dough in half, and then in half again making sure to seal the edges as you don't want marmalade seeping out and burning during baking. You should end up with a square dough. I baked this in a square tin to help preserve the shape. Leave the dough to rise until doubled in size.
8. Preheat your oven to the highest setting and bake for about 10 min, lower the temperature to about 200C/180C fan for a further 30mins or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the underside.

The method of setting the temperature high at the start of baking is to give the dough an extra rise and to develop a nice crust. Keep an eye on the pumpkin bread especially if you have a hotpot in your oven as the pumpkin seeds can burn easily.

Please have a go and let me know what weird and wonderful combinations you come up with!

-Aubergine