HBinFive Pumpkin Pie Brioche!!

I am taking part in a blogging bread braid organized by Michelle at http://www.bigblackdogs.net/!

Not sure what the roots of the group name are but I am here with bells on my toes ready to bake my way through Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

You can find the authors, Dr. Jeff and Chef Zoe at their blog, http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/. Their story is an interesting one but I will leave it for them to tell!

The HBinFive Bread Braid doesn't officially start until January but we are cooking up a dough in November and one in December to get us revved up! November's is one from Dr. Jeff and Chef Zoe's new book called Pumpkin Pie Brioche! I made it today and had three slices for dinner!!!!

Wow... I was in slow motion when I pulled this together today! I stopped baking a few years ago when my children grew and had their own lives. I retired my stand mixer to the overhead in the garage and started eating out a lot. I put on 25 lbs from this silly behavior!

Today I pulled down my mixer and gave it a good cleaning! Then I gathered my ingredients and whipped up my first batch of dough!

Here's the dough after rising for about an hour and a half. Almost ready to put in the fridge!

While the dough was resting in the fridge I got busy getting some other things done around the house... Truth is I don't know what to make with it yet.

Many of the other group members have been so creative. They did this dough up with honors! So I had to put my thinking cap on to figure out my path!

After much brain straining I decided to keep it simple! A loaf was all I wanted to attempt for my return debut. I froze two pounds of the dough for Thanksgiving week and I have another pound of it in the fridge for later this week! Maybe by then I will do a special roll with the remaining dough.

This is the dough right after I fought with it fresh from the fridge! All I can say is flour your hands and then flour them again! And then throw flour at the dough!!!!

Here is the tamed beast in all its beautiful glory! It is ready for the egg wash and sugar...

Well I don't have any eggs because I only eat Eggbeaters! I made the dough with Eggbeaters so I gave it a wash with the Eggbeaters too! And piled the sugar on top!

And here is the beautiful loaf fresh from the oven. Though I don't think the Eggbeaters made a good wash it sure does smell good.

I knew when I started this dough I wouldn't be able to wait until it had cooled to cut it open! And sure enough I was hungry and hadn't eaten dinner so my dinner was three slices of warm Pumpkin Pie Brioche spread with a bit of Smart Beat! After all this bread has protein, vegetable, and grain! Just about a perfect food! My snack later will be some of my homemade yogurt so how's that for a balanced meal!

And... I stayed within my Weight Watcher's Points today even with this wonderful treat!

PS
I followed the recipe as written with a couple of exceptions. I didn't have white whole wheat flour so I used King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour and I used Eggbeaters instead of eggs!

Update 18 November 2009- Weight Watcher Points

I calculated the number of points in the entire recipe using Egg Beaters. The dough made 76 ounces of dough for me and that was equal to 125 points. That would make the two-pound loaf I made 52.5 points. I estimated 16 slices in that loaf. Each slice would be 3 points. I will refine this on the next one by weighing the cooked loaf. Then I can adjust my points based on the size of my slice!!!

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