The dough for this bread is lovely, soft and fluffy and can be used to make small individual pies, make one long roll and join into a ring or as I did here, cut the roll vertically, twist and join to form a type of Russian braid ring.
Start by cooking the pumpkin. Butternut squash may also be used. Cut it, remove the seeds and scrape its strands to clean it. Cut wedges and rub them with a little olive oil. Place on a baking tray and cook in a preheated oven at 180 C fan for 45 minutes. When cool peel to use. Any pumpkin that you don’t use in this recipe you can use to make soup or freeze to use another day.
For the dough:
- 7g dry yeast
- 75ml lukewarm water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp sugar
- 75ml olive oil
- 100g yogurt
- 1 egg
- Lemon zest
- 300g plain flour plus extra for dusting
In a bowl mix the yeast in the lukewarm water with the sugar and two tablespoons of the flour. Stir to mix well, cover with clingfilm, then a towel and place somewhere warm for an hour or so till the mix bubbles and rises.
When the yeast has risen, in another bowl, whisk the olive oil, salt, yogurt, egg and lemon zest till fluffy. To this, add the yeast mixture and then the flour in stages incorporating it till you have a ball of dough. Place the dough in a clean bowl dusted with flour, cover with clingfilm and a towel and leave somewhere warm till it doubles in size.
For the pumpkin filling:
- 200g roasted pumpkin chopped in small dice
- 100g feta, crumbled
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- A pinch of allspice
- A pinch of pepper
- A pinch of salt (taste as feta is salty)
- A few fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 egg for brushing
- 1 tbsp sesame and sunflower seeds for sprinkling
Bring a large frying pan to medium heat. Add the olive oil and when that is hot, add the shallot and cook stirring continuously for a 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so. Add all the other ingredients and give the mixture a good stir, mashing it with a fork to make it spreadable. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
On a floured surface roll out the dough into a large rectangle measuring approx. 50cm x 35cm. If you feel that the dough is a little too soft to handle, dust it with a bit more flour.
Spread the pumpkin mix to go everywhere but leave 1cm clean border all around. Roll the pastry carefully lengthways till you have a long roll with the seam on the underside. With sharp knife cut the roll in half across its length. Turn each half to face upwards so you can see all the layers of dough and filling and place one half over the other in the shape of the letter ‘X’. Twist the two halves ensuring that they are facing upwards and join the edges to the shape of a ring.
Transfer carefully to an oiled loose bottom cake tin, cover with a towel and leave somewhere warm for the bread to rise again to double the size.
Preheat the oven to 200 C.
Beat the egg with a tbsp of water to make a wash. Brush the bread ring with the egg and sprinkle with the sesame and sunflower seeds. Bake the bread for 10 minutes, reduce the heat to 180 C and cook for a further 20 minutes till golden brown. A thin blade knife inserted into the bread should come clean. Allow the bread to cool a little before removing from the tin.