Pumpkin & Sun Dried Tomatoes Pain D'epi/Pumpkin Wheat Stalk Bread with Sun-dried Tomatoes

Pain d'épi is known as the wheat stalk bread which calls for an impressive twist on the classic French baguette. Epi de Blé is the name given to the bread which looks like wheat stalk or the ears of wheat. This bread is often baked during special holidays and celebrations, this bread calls for an easy preparation and sounds almost like French baguette. Apart from cutting the dough to resemble as much as like wheat stalk, this bread calls for easy ingredients. Since its fall season here, pumpkins are showing their head in farmer's market. Obviously i want to try this famous French bread with those fall fruit.Pain d'epi is definitely a piece of art to shape and bake at home.

During our last year trip to Sicile, i grabbed a super huge packet of sun dried cherry tomatoes, back home i soaked them in olive oil and flavored it with rosemary and oregano. And this soaked sun dried cherry tomatoes are ready to dish out any sort of delicious dishes with them. Though i use this sun dried tomatoes mostly in my pasta dishes, they makes some flavourful breads too. When i gathered all the ingredients to bake this wheat stalk bread i didnt forget to add some chopped sun dried tomatoes to bring some subtle flavor to this fantastic bread.

2+1/2cups All purpose flour
1tsp Salt
1+1/2tsp Instant yeast
3tbsp Olive Oil
1/2cup Pumpkin Puree
1/4cup Sun dried tomatoes (chopped)
1/2cup Warm water
1tsp Oil (for coating the vessel)

Take the flour, salt, instant yeast,olive oil,pumpkin puree, chopped sun dried tomatoes, water in a large bowl.

Knead everything as a smooth,soft dough.

Shape as a ball and place in a greased bowl, cover it loosely and let it sit in a warm place for an hour.

Dust your working surface lightly with flour. Divide the dough as two (as my baking tray was small i divided the dough into two),then press out the dough into a rough rectangle.

Fold the long edge away from you towards the center. Fold the long edge near you towards the centre. Now fold over in half, like a letter fold and pinch the seam together neatly and tightly.

Now sprinkle the flour generously over the baguette, hold the scissor parallel to the bread then cut the dough about three inches apart, tilt them so that they are at 45 degree angle.

Make the cuts in the dough and take the piece and move it to the left, keep doing this until you reach the end of the bread.

Arrange the pain d'épi in a baking tray and let it rise again for 15minutes.

Preheat the oven to 420F,  with a baking tray upside down on the rack and an empty pan at the bottom of the oven.

Place the epi in the oven, pour a cup of water to the pan . Bake it about 15to 20 minutes till the crust turns golden brown.

Let it cool completely before cutting the bread.

This is part of the Bake-a-thon 2017

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