Halloween Bread

Here's how:

• 1

  Heat the milk to about 25 °C. Stir in the yeast and dissolve it.

• 2

  Add the remaining ingredients, except for the pumpkin seeds and food coloring, and mix them together to form a dough; mix thoroughly.

• 3

  Take a piece of dough about the size of a ping-pong ball and color it green. Let it rest under plastic wrap. Color the remaining dough with red and yellow food coloring until you get a nice orange shade. Then add the pumpkin seeds. Knead the dough on a floured baking surface and let it rest under plastic wrap for about 20 minutes.

• 4

  Start by shaping the orange dough into a round loaf. Poke a hole in the top, place the green “bud” there, and shape it like a twig.

• 5

  Let it rise for about 60–90 minutes.

  Preheat the oven to 270 °C and place a clean baking sheet on the bottom rack.

• 6

  Score the bread with lines like a pumpkin, then sift a little flour over it.

• 7

  Place the bread in the oven at 270 °C, lower the temperature to 220 °C, and pour ½ dl of water onto the hot baking sheet. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the bread’s internal temperature reaches 96 °C.

   

• 8

  Let the bread cool on a wire rack.