https://westgold.com/
Recipe
Difficulty
Medium
Prep time
2 hours proving
Cook time
20 minutes
Serves
12
Ingredients
Dough:
3½c high grade flour
½c lukewarm milk
½ tsp sugar
2 tsp dried yeast
50g Westgold Unsalted Butter, soft
2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1c cooked pumpkin, pureed
1 ¼ tsp salt
Filling:
60g full fat cream cheese
1 egg yolk to glaze
1 Tbsp water
Cotton string to tie up
2 tsp oil
6 pecans as stalks
Method
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm milk and leave to bubble.
Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the yeast mixture, pumpkin, salt, rosemary and Westgold Butter. It will depend on how wet the pumpkin puree is, to whether you may need a little warm water to make a soft dough.
Mix the dough with your hands so you can feel the texture and whether it needs the extra warm water to help it all come together. You want the dough to be able to be kneaded with none - minimal flour on the bench. Knead for 5-10 minutes until you have a smooth dough.
Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to prove until double in size. Preheat oven to 180°C.
Gently tip out the dough onto the bench. Cut it in half and shape each half into a short log. Cut each log into 6 to give you 12 equal sized buns in total.
Gently make a small hole in the dough by poking your fingers in and stretching an opening big enough to fit 2t cream cheese inside. Enclose the dough around the cream cheese and roll into a ball.
Cut 12 x 1 metre pieces of string and coat them in the oil.
Mix the egg yolk with the water to thin. Brush the bun with egg-wash and place top down onto the string and loosely wrap the string around the bun to create the pumpkin pattern, finishing with the string tied in a bow on the top.
Place on baking paper and gently press the bun down slightly to make a pumpkin shape.
Rest in a warm place for 30 minutes until the string looks like it is starting to sink into the dough a little.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden and cooked through. Remove the string if desired and add the half pecan as the stalk. Serve while still warm with Westgold Butter.
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