Cranberry Oatmeal Pumpkin Seed Bread

This week in the bread-baking blog, we’re making Oatmeal Pumpkin Seed Bread using the remaining Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread dough from last week.  The dough has been fermenting in the refrigerator for the past week and has a wonderful aroma.  For additional flavor and texture, we’ll add some roasted pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries. The cranberries give the bread a wonderfully tart flavor. 

Cranberry Oatmeal Pumpkin Seed Bread

This bread is made with the Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread dough.  The ingredients and step-by-step instructions for making the dough can be found here.

Directions:

Lightly grease a 9 x 4 x 3-inch nonstick loaf pan.  Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour.  I had weighed the dough when I made the loaves last week so I just used the remaining dough in the container.

Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides.  Rotate the ball a quarter-turn as you stretch.

Flatten the dough with your hands.

Roll it into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle.  Use enough flour to prevent it from sticking to the work surface but don’t use too much or the dough will be dry.

Sprinkle the seeds and cranberries (I used craisins) over the dough.

Roll the dough up to encase them.

Fold the dough over again to work the seeds into the dough.

Form the dough into a loaf shape using only a small amount of flour and place it in the prepared pan.  The dough was so wet, I just patted it in the pan with a spatula sprayed with cooking spray.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let the dough rest and rise 2 hours.  I let it rise for several hours but it never really reached the top of the pan so I decided to go ahead and bake it.

Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place an empty broiler tray on the bottom shelf.  We won’t need a baking stone this time since we’re baking the bread in a loaf pan.

Right before baking the loaf, brush it with an egg wash and place it on the middle rack of the oven.

Pour a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door.   Bake the loaf for 45 to 50 minutes, until deeply browned and firm. Allow to cool before slicing or serving.  The bread is chewy on the outside and flavorful and crunchy on the inside.  It tastes really good toasted with butter.  Enjoy!