The pumpkin braids, made with leavened dough, are super soft and delicious with lots of dark chocolate pieces. The dough is made with cooked pumpkin puree, which also gives them this wonderful orange color, as well as making them so soft.
They are very easy to prepare and perfect for freezing as well. Indeed, we always eat some fresh out of the oven and freeze the rest, so when we have nothing ready for breakfast, or for a snack to bring to school, we defrost them in a pan in a few minutes and they seem freshly baked.
If you also like pumpkin desserts, try these recipes of mine:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Rest time: 2 Hours 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons dry yeast
- 1 1/4 cups pumpkin (baked and pureed)
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup milk (lukewarm)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 tablespoons butter (soft)
- 4 1/2 oz dark chocolate
- as needed milk (for brushing)
Steps
To prepare the pumpkin braids, place the flour, dry yeast, pumpkin puree, honey, egg, and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and start the mixer.
Then add the salt and knead everything until you obtain a homogeneous dough.
Meanwhile, coarsely chop the dark chocolate.
When the dough has formed, add the soft butter in pieces and continue to knead until the dough is smooth and detaches from the bottom and sides of the bowl and is completely twisted around the hook.
Add the chocolate pieces and knead until they are distributed throughout the dough.
Form a ball, return it to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place until doubled. It will take about 2 hours.
When the dough has doubled in volume, divide it into 12 equal pieces.
Take the first piece and on a lightly floured surface, form a snake about 12 inches long (image 1). Take the outer left tip and, forming an oval hole, place the tip about 4 inches from the right tip (image 2). Then pass the right tip over the first part of the snake and under the second (image 3).
Then twist the hole formed on itself once (image 4). Finally, take the piece of snake sticking out on the left and insert it from above into the hole at the bottom (images 5 and 6).
Place the braid on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and proceed in the same way with the remaining dough.
Cover with plastic wrap and let the braids rise for another 30 minutes or so.
While the braids are rising, preheat the oven to 340 degrees Fahrenheit (static).
After the rising time, brush the braids with milk and bake at 340 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until they are lightly golden.
Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack or enjoy warm.
You can store the pumpkin braids in an airtight container until the next day. If you don’t plan to eat them the next day, I recommend freezing them and defrosting them as needed, so they will be like freshly baked.
