Hey ho it’s that time of the year when pumpkins are coming into the shops for sale. In Finland pumpkin is not that well-known in cooking.Only in last few years you have started to find good quality Hokkaido or Butternut pumpkins in the shops.

Austria is another thing..Austrians use pumpking a lot.One of my favourite things to cook is pumpkin soup or risotto. And of course for the Halloween I need them to carve scary faces out of them.

I have made pumpkin pie previously and I liked it, so I thought of trying something else.Bit different..Mixture of Finnish “pulla” and pumpkin. Two tries later,this has become one of our family favourites and guests have loved it!

First thing what you need to make is pumpkin pie spice. I cannot get it in the shops in Austria. After little surfing in internet I found this recipe:

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-pumpkin-pie-spice-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-69245

Much better than any shop bought mixture.Mace was something that I could not find; so I replaced it with cardamom.

Ingredients

Dough:

10 dl whole milk
1 cube (30g) yeast (1 envelope active dry yeast)
1 dl brown sugar
2 dl pumpkin puree (I used Hokkaido pumpkin.It has such a intensive colour)
3 tbsp.  butter
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
7 dl all-purpose flour

Filling:
2,5dl apple puree
4 tsp. cinnamon (I love cinnamon,if it feels too much reduce the amount)

Glaze:
1 Philadelphia cream cheese, room temperature
1dl  butter, room temperature
1dl powdered sugar
½ tsp. vanilla (or extract)
1-2 tbsp. whole milk (depending on how thick or thin you like it)

Instructions

To make the dough, combine the whole milk and butter. Heat it up in microwave or in kettle until butter has melted,do not boil!Allow the mixture to return to hand temperature. Sprinkle in the yeast and ½ tbsp. of the brown sugar. Let the mixture sit for 5-7 minutes or until bubbly.Mix on low while gradually adding the liquid ingredients and the remaining flour.Add rest of the flour, the remaining sugar, the pumpkin puree, salt and pumpkin pie spice into the mixture. Once a soft dough forms switch to the dough hook and knead for 6-8 minutes. Place the ball of dough into a well buttered bowl covered with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until doubled.

Note:dough should not be too hard.Actually it is better when it feels little runny or soft.

Once dough has doubled in size, punch it down and flop out onto a clean floured surface. Knead with hands for 1-2 minutes. Roll dough into a rectangle. Brush dough with apple puree. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Cut the rectangle into 6 even strips. Lay strips on top of each other and cut each strip into 6 even pieces.

Stack strips vertically into the loaf pan.I like using baking paper inside of the pan.Makes the removing operation hell of an easier, when you do not need to scrape or cut the bread out of the pan.

Cover the pan with a clean towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes.
While rising, preheat oven to 180°c. After rising in pan, bake for 30-40 minutes or until top is a very deep golden brown. Let it cool little and remove from the pan.

For the glaze:heat the butter, milk, and  sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to boil then immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the powdered sugar. Pour glazing over the bread.