Pull-Apart Pumpkin Bread with Butter Rum Glaze

Baking time...yet again! I know, most of you would find the name of this recipe very fascinating....true. I was dragged to this  recipe by its sheer name and the moment I read it and saw it in pics....my next stop was the grocery store and the liquor shop...ha ha ha...believe it or not...but thats what I did! And the wine & liquor shop here had such beautiful miniature collections of all liquors and i flicked over one cute little Rum boy:-)

I bookmarked this recipe the moment I saw the pics and wanted to bake and upload the recipe earlier this week. However, too many errands kept me from doing both.But finally, its here and for my baby steps in baking...I should say, they turned out pretty close to the bookmarks I followed.

I was totally inspired by Jessica of Sunny Side Up to try the recipe and followed the recipe from Willow Bird Baking to the T with very minor changes though. Though I had made Braided Bread a few weeks back, I still wanted to play low on my second attempt at baking...So, I altered the proportions a little bit and made just about a loaf...around 12 slices of bread!

And that meant a lot of re-calculation of measurements....the Math I learnt in school...finally was put to use in the kitchen:-) In some of the pics you will find my hand written calculations;-) Let me get straight into the details of baking the bread because just as any other bread this one too involves a lengthy process...Also, I have added a load of pics...pls bear with me for that too!

Bread Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp unsalted butter
1 tsp + 1/4 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt

Filling Ingredients:

1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp butter + 1/2 tsp unsalted butter

Butter Rum Glaze Ingredients:

1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tsp milk
1 tsp Rum ( willow bird suggests 1/4 tsp but I used 1 tsp...having bought it I wanted to use a decent bit..;-))

Prep time: Overnight or 4-5 hours

Preparation:

Making the dough

- In a small saucepan brown the butter. It needs to get to clarified butter consistency(ghee). Let it boil and foam and once you see the bottom browning remove it over to a wide bowl.
- In the same pan bring the milk to a boil and pour it into the same bowl with the melted butter.

 - When the heat of the above is warm add the sugar and yeast and let it sit for a few minutes.

- Later add the pumpkin puree, salt and flour and knead them all together into an elastic dough. At this stage I had to add 4 more tbsp of flour to bring the dough to a non sticky elastic consistency.

- Cover the dough with a damp cloth or paper towel and allow to rise. Allow it to rise for 60 to 90 minutes or until it doubles. You can work on it at this stage or leave it covered in the fridge overnight.

- I put it in the fridge overnight and felt it was so much easier to handle in the morning. If you refrigerate the dough, let it sit out for half hour in the morning, before you start working on it.

Making the filling:

- When the dough is all set and you are ready to start working on it brown the butter as given above and allow it to cool

- Mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a separate bowl and set aside.

Making the bread:-)!

- Punch the risen dough and knead it with a sprinkling of 1 tbsp of flour. Set it aside for 5 minutes.
- In the meantime, clear a large work surface and sprinkle about 1 or 2 tbsp of flour.
- Place the dough on this and roll this into a rectangular shape. As I used less flour I rolled out the rectangle based on my gut feel. Did not follow the size in the original recipe very strictly.

- But I would say, do not roll it too thick as you let the dough rise again after slicing them.
- Spread the browned butter over the surface of the rolled out dough using a pastry brush.
- Sprinkle the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg mix all over the dough and press it into the dough using the back of a spoon. I felt the sugar was lot and left behind about a couple of tsp. But you can use it completely too...your choice:-)

I was too excited abt slicing...sliced one length before spreading the butter & sugar;-)

Now to the slicing part....my fav:-)!

- Grease a loaf pan and dust it with flour and set aside.
- Using a pizza cutter, slice the rolled out dough by the length into 3 long strips. Pizza cutter is by far the best to use. Makes it so easy to slice!
- Pile on the 3 long strips one on top of the other. Now, cut this into 4 equal squares. So, now there are 12 slices!

- Place these 4 portions one after the other into the loaf pan. Cover with a damp cloth or paper towel and allow to rise for 45 mins. Ohhhh...this was the most difficult wait....I could'nt wait to have them baked...:-))
- In the meantime heat the oven to 350 deg F or 325 deg F for glass loaf pan.

- When the dough has risen, place the loaf pan in the top rack of the oven and bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Am giving this window because the baking time varies with different ovens. I baked the last 5 minutes in the lower rack.
- The bread has to be a tone of dark golden brown on top. Cool for 20 to 30 minutes and prepare the rum glaze mean while.

Out of the oven!

Rum Glaze...Yummm

- In the sauce pan, bring the butter, milk and brown sugar to a boil. Remove to a bowl and whisk in the sugar and rum. I used the left over white sugar mixed with cinnamon and nutmeg too in the glaze.

Serve the bread

- Using a soft knife, loosen the bread from all sides of the loaf pan and invert it on to a plate. Flip over the bread to the top side and drizzle the glaze over the slices.

Bottoms Up..when I flipped it over from the loaf pan!

- Warm the bread slices for a few seconds in the microwave and serve with a drizzle of glaze if you have any left over:-)

Flipped over to top!

Foot note: For those who want to avoid Rum glaze...you can do a vanilla flavour or any other essence of your choice.

Linking this to Vardhini's Halloween Fiesta at Zesty Palette

Linking to Global Food Festival hosted by Kalyani of Sizzling Tastebuds