Tomorrow is Halloween and I have pumpkins on my mind. It is really rainy in the burgh so I thought I’d bake some beer bread to go with supper. I checked out the refrigerator and low and behold we had pumpkin hard cider on hand. 

I think this will make for a tasty fall bread. The bonus with this bread is you don’t have to let it rise. It is a quick bread. The only waiting period is allowing the Dutch-oven to heat up. 

This bread pairs well with butternut squash soup.

Prep Time:5 minutes 

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

4 cups of Bread Flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 

12 of pumpkin hard cider (Ace is what I used)

3 tablespoons of honey

4 Tablespoons puréed pumpkin
Pre-work: Preheat oven to 500 degrees with large dutch-oven in oven. Allow to heat for 1 hour. 

Directions:

1. In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, & baking powder l. Set aside.

2. Pour the hard cider, honey and pumpkin into the dry ingredients. Mix with wooden spoon just until all ingredients are moist. Knead on lightly floured surface for one or two times just enough to form a ball. If you sill have time for the oven to heat up, spray the bowl with cooking spray and wrap with saran wrap. 

3. Once an hour has elapsed carefully (with oven mitts) remove the Dutch-oven from oven. Continuing to use oven mitts remove lid and carefully place the dough in the center of the Dutch-oven. Scoring the dough with a knife make a “X”. Using the oven mitts place the lid back on the Dutch-oven and return the vessel back into the oven. Decrease the temperature to 400 degrees and allow the bread to bake for 45 minutes.