Pumpkin bread is popular throughout northern Italy. In this particular version, we combine two seasons: spring with elderflower syrup, which is used instead of sugar, and autumn, with pumpkin.

If you don’t have this syrup, you can still use water and sugar, as described below. The syrup, in particular, gives a nice sour note that makes you want to eat more than a few mouthfuls.

The combination, in my opinion, is very fragrant. It is reminiscent of pan brioche, which is somewhere between sweet and savoury, without having the same amount of eggs. Here it is presented in the form of a sweet Danubio bread.

With a little patience, you can also fill the balls with dried fruit cream or jam, before they rise. This way, you will have your breakfast ready.

Ingredients

• 200 g pumpkin, cooked and puréed (steamed or boiled, but always finished in the frying pan to avoid too much water accumulating)
• 50 g milk (also soya milk or milk from other cereals)
• 500 g Manitoba flour
• 5-6 g of brewer’s yeast if dry, or 10 g if dry yeast with sourdough starter
• 150 g elderflower syrup. Alternatively, use 75 g water and 75 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 20 g seed oil to help with the rounding of the balls of dough.

Decoration

• 30 g of almonds

Preparation methodology

STEP 1: first kneading of pumpkin and elderflower dough

To begin, mix the flour and pumpkin pulp with the milk and yeast. Let the dough rest for half an hour in a draught-free and fairly warm area of the house. Cover the dough with a cloth until it has doubled in size.

STEP 2: knead again

Knead again, adding the elderberry syrup and salt. The dough should crumble and then stick together. That is, leave the walls of the container where it is made clean.

PHASE 3: Resting, shaping and baking the pumpkin and elderflower bread

As soon as it comes away from the walls of the mixer, place the dough on a surface where you have previously poured some seed oil. The oil prevents the dough from sticking.

Shape the dough into pieces of 80 to 90 g each. Form rolls of pumpkin bread. Cover and leave to rise again for 45 minutes. Make a second fold and rest for another hour.

Transfer the mixture to the Ghisanativa griddle. Bake in a static oven for the first 12 minutes at around 150°C with steam (or a small bowl of water inserted into the oven) then at 170°C for a further 12 minutes and at 190°C for the last 12 minutes to brown the bread.

Roberta de Salvador

“Bellunese doc, omnivorous and publicist journalist with a passion for food and wine. She graduated in Communication Sciences and then did a 10 kg master’s degree at Gambero Rosso, kilos she lost with a healthy diet and lots of walking in the mountains. The recipes she shares with us revisit traditional Italian cuisine and are repeatable even for those who are not PRO cooks.”

The recipe was prepared on