Kabocha Squash Bread

After many weeks of intense heat, the temperature finally drops and nowadays it feels a bit like fall.

And speaking of fall, pumpkin is pretty much a common fixture. For Asians though, kabocha is more familiar in our dishes instead of the kind you use for Halloween decoration :)

You can totally use regular pumpkin if you wish, but if you can buy some kabocha, you need to give this kabocha squash bread a try.

How to prep your kabocha

Kabocha is a pretty large squash, and most of the time supermarkets cut them into sections and you can buy just a quarter section or a half section.

You only need 150 gram of kabocha meat, so most likely you will need at most a quarter of kabocha.

To prep your kabocha, cut away the skin, and remove the seeds and fibers, then cut into large chunks and washed.

Place kabocha chunks in a microwavable bowl and microwave until tender enough to be mashed with a fork.

The cooking time in my microwave is 3 minutes, but yours may differ, so adjust as needed.

The rest of the kabocha squash bread ingredients

The ingredients for this bread is pretty standard for a yeast bread. So you will need bread flour (or all purpose flour), sugar, salt, egg, unsalted butter, milk, and active dry yeast.

I always start by preparing my yeast solution. Simple heat milk to 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit), then add in active dry yeast and a bit of sugar, mix and let it sit until foamy, usually about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, measure flour, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Finally, measure the butter.

Knead until window pane stage

Once the yeast is ready, make a well in the flour mixture, add in yeast solution, mashed kabocha, and egg, knead until non-sticky (about 10-15 minutes by hand).

Then, add butter, and knead again until non-oily (another 10-15 minutes by hand).

You will know your dough is fully kneaded when it is smooth, elastic, non-sticky, and non-oily.

Also, try to stretch your dough. If you can stretch it thin enough without tearing and light can pass through the stretched part, the dough has successfully reached the so called window pane stage.

Double rise if your friend

Once the dough reaches window pane stage, you can place it in a mixing bowl, cover with a wrap, and let it rise until double (about 45 minutes in a warm kitchen).

Punch the risen dough to remove air bubbles, knead again for 5 minutes, and divide into 3 equal portions.

In a floured working surface, roll each portion into an oblong (rectangular) shape, fold the two long sides to the center. It is okay if the two folds overlap each other slightly. Then roll the dough like a towel.

Place the rolled dough into a greased and floured loaf pan. Repeat for the other 2 portions.

Cover the loaf pan, and let the dough rise for a second time.

Baking and Tenting

Preheat your oven to 200 Celsius (400 Fahrenheit).

Sprinkle the top with some bread flour (or all purpose flour), and lightly score the top of the dough (about 5mm or 1/16 inch deep) through the center of the dough. The scoring is optional, but it helps a bit to get an even baking result.

Bake the bread for 20 minutes. Then tent the pan with aluminum foil and continue baking for another 15 minutes.

Once out from the oven, you can throw away the aluminum foil, and gently remove the bread from the pan and place it on a wire rack to cool completely.

When it is warm enough to handle, you can enjoy your home baked kabocha squash bread.