Pumpkin Bread French Toast

Today was one of my favourite types of days as it was spent completely in the kitchen. I had a huge list of recipes to catch up on and only managed to get through half of them, limited by missing ingredients, not enough stock pots and, most importantly, insufficient time. If only I hadn't lazed around so long this morning. But after a breakfast like we had, it takes a little while to get moving.

Yesterday I managed to tackle one kitchen project: pumpkin muffins. I still had a lot of pumpkin puree leftover after the pumpkin creme brulee at Christmas, so decided to make some muffins out of it. Maybe soup would have been an easier option, because I had so much puree I had to make a triple batch of muffins. My arms were aching trying to stir all of the batter!

After all of the rich food we consumed over the last month, we're trying to make things a little healthier than we normally would. I found this delicious recipe from Cooking Light for pumpkin muffins, using sour cream in place of some of the oil. The triple batch made 3 pans of muffins with a lot of batter leftover, so I made a loaf with it. I sprinkled white and brown sugar on top of the muffins before baking, which lends the top a delightfully sweet crunch when you bite into it. 

Inspiration hit this morning when I was trying to decide what to make for brunch: pumpkin bread french toast. I added a bit of cinnamon and vanilla to the eggs before dipping the bread, but otherwise kept the mix pretty simple. The french toast came out moist and dense, with just the perfect amount of spice. A lot denser than your average french toast, though.

Among other ventures for the day was turkey stock so we could use up the leftover turkey bones from Christmas. I've never made stock before and I found a recipe from Michael Smith that is ridiculously simple. Just put the turkey bones and chopped carrot, onion and celery into a stock pot, add thyme and 2 bay leaves, and cover with water. Simmer it for 2 hours and you get an amazing stock at the end of it. If I had known how simple it was to make, I would have started doing this years ago. The only issue I have with it is dealing with the turkey carcass as I found myself getting a little squeamish while I was hacking away. Reminds me of my reasons for going into pastry instead of cuisine.

Next on the list was rye bread. I've made it once before in school but today I decided to use a recipe from Baking with Julia. It's half rye flour and half all purpose; the gluten content in the all purpose flour lends it a bit more structure and elasticity. Raiding my pantry revealed that I had a full bottle of flax seeds, so I tossed a bunch of them in the dough and sprinkled more on top of the loaves for a little added decor. The bread is delightfully chewy with a crispy exterior. I can't wait to have some for breakfast tomorrow! However, this experience has convinced me that I need to save up for a heavier duty stand mixer. The little one I had struggled painfully to mix this dough and I thought it was going to explode at one point.