As much as I love winter with it’s snow and ice and woolly hats and numb toes, I have never got into winter sports. D, with the patience of a saint, has tried to teach me to snowboard three times now. Each time on Cairngorm mountain I thoroughly enjoy the morning of sliding and falling and sliding and falling and falling and falling and OH MY GOODNESS, I’M TURNING! and falling. By lunch time, however, my swollen, blueberry bruised knees make it impossible to fall anymore and I inevitably slink off to the Ptarmigan Restaurant to read my book over a steaming hot chocolate whilst D hits the slopes again.
It’s his passion. He loves it. And he’s out in New Zealand indulging in this passion right now (that’s him in the photo), tearing up Treble Cone and every other ski resort in the country with enough snow to satisfy him.
Cooking is my passion. When D called yesterday morning from Wanaka he raved about the lines he has boarded in the last week. In turn, I babbled about my ricotta success, the veg in my garden and my bread making adventures. The latter of these may not sound as bold a mission as ski-ing down an off-piste gully in a raging blizzard but, for me, it was the culinary equivalent.
As previously mentioned I am not a baker. Despite this, when Deb suggested using my courgettes to make zucchini bread (I use the American term as this is something that is not typically made in the UK) I was interested. I imagined a deeply savoury loaf to toast and top with strong cheese or a thick slathering of butter. But zucchini bread, I discovered, is sweet. It’s a courgette carrot-cake and, as lovely as this sounds, I wanted something savoury.
The following recipe is adapted from an Austalian site called Taste. It was my second attempt at making bread (the first was a year ago and I don’t want to talk about it!) and it turned out pretty damned well! Delicious toasted and topped with cheddar.
Courgette and Pumpkin Seed Bread
350g wholemeal flour
175g plain flour
2 sachets dried yeast
1 tblspn salt
2 medium courgettes, grated
75g pumpkin seeds
375ml warm water
40g butter, melted
Plenty of plain flour, to dust
- In a colander, salt the grated courgette and leave to drain for an hour. Squeeze out excess moisture using a clean tea towel.
- Sieve flours, yeast and salt into a large bowl. Add the courgette and pumpkin seeds.
- Make a hole in the dried ingredients and add the water and melted butter.
- Mix well until mixture turns into a dough.
- Knead dough on a well floured surface for 15 minutes.
- Split dough into two, shape into balls and place each in a bowl covered with a damp towel. Leave for an hour.
- Knead risen dough until it reduces to its original size. Shape into a ball, split into smaller balls or place in loaf tin (depending on kind of loaf or rolls you want). Set aside for another 25 mins.
- Bake at 200oC for 40 mins or until golden brown.
A Wee Bit of Cooking 
Sorry I did not tell you that it was sweet! It does make for a wonderful breakfast treat. But your loaf looks marvelous and I am going to try it. Mike and I like a nice bread to have with some cheese while we are tasting our first bottle of wine of the evening. I have been purchasing a rosemary bread from the Farmers Market that a gal makes fresh every week. Like you, I have not made bread for some time now, except for pizza dough. So next week, I am going to give yours a shot. Do the pumpkin seeds need to be toasted before putting them into the bread?
Cheers!
Everyone has his own passion. Although D’s passion seems high in adrenaline, yours is high in taste and creativity. And it’s how I like it too.
I regularly use pumpkin seeds in my bread – untoasted!
I’m picturing Wanaka under winter conditions – I was there last February at the end of their summer. Glorious place – I’m beginning to think of a return visit. In January. 🙂
that looks excellent – I am pleased that you have made some bread to be proud of – you wont look back – homebaked bread smells and tastes so good and Scottish weather is perfect weather for baking it!
Excellent bread! Pls bake more – you are a fantastic baker and I love to see more of your bakes… 🙂
Deb – Ohhh, rosemary bread! More ideas. Maybe you are my muse! As for the seeds, I didn’t toast them. Quite like them chewy. Suspect they’ll be tastier toasted though.
Rose – Agree – each to their own. 🙂
Chris – I’ve visited Wanaka too. Amazing location. The jet lag killed me though!
Johanna – I may have the bread making bug!
Anh – You are very sweet! 🙂
I’ve not been much of a bread maker myself but this recipe has me so intrigued that I’m probably going to try making it. I just have one, very American, question: for the dry measure, should I be weighing out the grams of flour? I really don’t know what 350 grams is in cups. I know, we really should be on the metric system! Thanks!
Christine – Yes, you need to weigh the flour. Think one cup is equal to 230g though. Check that out! I’m not entirely certain!
This looks great Wendy. I will definitely try this recipe. all I need to get is the pumpkin seeds. I love courgette. The last time I baked with it, I made a cake and didn’t drain the grated courgette and the cake turned out a bit wet!But it tasted good, so it was not such a disaster. 😉
Yeah, bakin’ ain’t my thing either.
This, though, yum! Once again, I’m craving the spoils of your summer garden…
Nora B – Let me know how it goes!
Lucy – My problem is that a) I don’t get excited about cakes and b) although I love bread, I don’t like to eat a lot of it. Therefore, I don’t bake often. Plus, I love the freedom of cooking (ooh, more rosemary, more pepper, what about some coriander, let’s add…). This does not work with baking, it seems.
Wendy, you’re so right. That is precisely what does/doesn’t work for me! Baking is a science; measurements, weights, getting out the scales, realising you don’t have the butter at exactly the right temperature, cursing yourself for not reading the recipe through…I love other people’s efforts all the more because I know how exacting the process is.
I was sick and almost missed this post – what a delicious loaf of bread, it looks wonderful!
Patricia – Thank you! And I hope you are feeling better. 🙂
Hi! I found your recipe after also searching the net for a savoury courgette bread! Tried it out yesterday. I think my courgettes were a little larger than yours, so I ended up having to add quite a lot of flour during the kneading process, and then I left it to prove for more than two hours for the first prove… But it worked out absolutely brilliantly! Crumby but moist, with a gorgeous crust. I’ve got a glut of courgettes at the moment so I;ll be making this again!