Pumpkin and Cheddar Cheese Scone Bread.

I am quite sad...you see being the organised fiend that I am, I in fact made that delicious cheesy bread you see before you some time ago. I made it and photographed it and uploaded the photies all in advance of what I knew would be a very busy week with little cooking time, so I would have something to talk to you about.

The organised thing isn't the sad part...no, that would be my grazed knee. I was running you see, and some fooool told us to turn all our clocks back an hour which meant that was was darkydarkdark because I live in the countryside and I didn't have a candle on me and I’m not sure whether I can justify buying a head-torch when there a trillion other things I need to buy to get me winter ready including shoes that don’t leak...and the long and short of it is that I took a tumble.

So here I am, missing a sizable chunk of my knee and I reeeeeeally would love some of this bread and the pumpkin and sweetcorn soup that goes with it so well (the recipe for which you can find here), to cheer me up and warm my cockles (winter running tights is also on my list).

My suggestion to you is make this now, and make lots, so that when you get home on those days that leave you needing steaming bowl food and a carbohydrate hug, this tasty, spongy bread will be on hand. Oh...and don’t run in the dark, it hurts. With Love and Cake.

Pumpkin and Cheddar Cheese Scone Bread.

Adapted from Delia Smith's Vegetarian Collection

A few notes:

• To all intents and purposes, this is really a giant scone; it's made with raising agent rather than yeast. That, in my book, is a very good thing.
• If you have pumpkin puree, or fancy making your own (find my recipe here) feel free to replace the weight of fresh pumpkin in the recipe with puree...you will need to adjust the amount of flour you use to 250g though, to stop the dough being too wet to handle.
• You could replace the pumpkin with butternut squash, or indeed any other type of edible squash.

Makes 1 loaf

You will need 

a greased baking sheet

225g self raising flour

large pinch salt

175g pumpkin

25g pumpkin seeds

50g cheddar cheese, cubed

2 eggs

1 tbsp milk

for the topping

extra pumpkin seeds

extra cheese, cubed

• Preheat the oven to 190°c.
• Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl.
• Coarsely grate the pumpkin into the bowl and mix it all around so each strand it covered in flour.
• Add the pumpkin seeds and cheese and toss around again.
• Lightly beat the eggs with the milk and add to the flour mixture a little at a time while mixing with your fingertips.
• You will end up with a fairly sticky dough, but don't worry, all you need to do is form into a round, transfer to your baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden and firm.
• Serve warm, with butter and a hug.