Pumpkin bread project for kindergarten

[Fat Guy]

We have been charged with baking pumpkin bread with our son's kindergarten class.

They have been to the farmers' market and purchased several pumpkins -- both the bland kind used for Halloween and the more flavorful "butter" kind.

Equipment consists of a small convection oven and some loaf pans. So it needs to be a recipe that can be mixed in a bowl with a spoon. Ingredients mostly need to be pre-measured and brought in.

24 kids, so two normal size loaves should be enough for everyone to have a small slice.

I've heard two schools of thought on how to process the pumpkin:

1. Cut in chunks (how the heck do you get the skin off without killing yourself?), steam or boil, puree in blender -- this gives you something like unsweetened canned pumpkin puree. This would have to be done at home then brought back to the school.

2. Grate and use the shredded/grated raw product directly in the batter, like you would use carrots in carrot cake/bread. Does the pumpkin really bake sufficiently if you do it this way?

This will be a two-visit project no matter what: Once to cut pumpkins and remove and count seeds (which we'll take home to toast), and another time for the cooking part.

Any ideas, suggestions, recipes, experiences to share?

[TeakettleSlim]

This recipe from epicurious is my longtime favorite. I've subbed whole wheat for half of the flour and reduced the sugar to 1/2 c. when I make it for my daughter, and it's still darn good (and less like cake).

I don't know if your pumpkins are big enough to justify this, but it's fun so I'll recommend it: I usually use Hubbards, and they're tough to get open! So I toss 'em off the stoop onto the sidewalk, sometimes more than once, then gather up the bits. Surely a gaggle of kindergarteners would enjoy that spectacle.

I usually roast the pumpkin covered in foil at 400 for about an hour, scoop out the flesh, then puree. Strain it through cheesecloth for up to 24 hours if it's very watery (if you save and reduce this liquid, you get a nice sorghum-like syrup if the pumpkin was a sweet one).

[Genkinaonna]

Do you have a food mill? I cut up and roasted a pumpkin and then brought in the chunks to the preschool where I'm the director and had the kids take turns putting it through the food mill. They had a blast and we ended up making mini pumpkin pies out of it. I'd imagine you'd have equally good luck using a pumpkin bread recipe with the puree...

The last time I did it I used a Long Island Cheese pumpkin which was a little more squash-y tasting but the kids still loved it, just used the Libby's pumpkin pie recipe subbing brown sugar for the white.

Cooking with the kiddos is one the my favorite parts of my day!

[weinoo]

Since you have to do the part where you cook the pumpkin at home, why not just use canned pumpkin? It's an excellent product and who will be the wiser?

Perhaps this is why I don't have any kids.

[onrushpam]

I always do pumpkins in the microwave...

Just stab them a few times with a big knife, then nuke until it starts to collapse. Whack open, scoops out the guts, then scrape out the flesh and puree. I usually let it drain in a seive for quite awhile before refrigertaing or freezing.

Or, if I really want some roasted taste, nuke just until it's easier to cut in half, scoop out the guts and roast in the oven.

Or, you can do the whole deal in the oven.

The main thing is to leave it whole until it softens enough to be manageable.

[scott123]

Since you have to do the part where you cook the pumpkin at home, why not just use canned pumpkin? It's an excellent product and who will be the wiser?

+1

Even though canned pumpkin is a bit of a crap shoot, it's far less of a gamble than processing a whole pumpkin yourself. With fresh pumpkins, you really have to know your stuff AND you have to get lucky or you're talking serious flavor deprivation. With canned pumpkin, the flavor is usually there.

As far as the recipe goes, don't be stingy with the fat. There's lots of variations on pumpkin bread, but, the best, by far is when it's treated like pound cake. In other words, if a recipe doesn't have a pound of butter (or at least a half a cup), find another.

Edited October 24, 2010 by scott123 (log)

[heidih]

Since you are definitely using real pumpkins and cutting at least the tops off to scrape out the seeds for that portion of the project, I would suggest going the microwave route for an initial softening and taste when you get home. If it is watery or stringy you may have to roast to concentrate flavor and then get the strings out. Mash the results with potato masher or food processor and take that back for the baking portion. Our family used a recipe with vegetable oil as the fat and it has always been well received. That would be easier than butter to deal with. I can post the recipe if you have not settled on one yet. Sounds like a fun project. As I am sure you are aware, when they make it themselves the kids will eat just about anything!

[Fat Guy]

why not just use canned pumpkin?

That was the first thing I thought of, but it felt wrong. We may end up there, though. We'll see.

[cookingofjoy]

I don't know what level of kid participation you're hoping for or how much time you've been given, but could you bring the roasted halves for the second trip so the kids could scoop out the roasted pumpkin. I can imagine my kids getting a kick out of that. And then it could be processed there (if that's ok by the school). It could make the whole process of transforming the pumpkin more clear for them, too (it seems like the goal is seeing food from farm to table?). Is it one pumpkin? Are the kids going to be in groups with each group going through the whole process?

[Fat Guy]

There are several pumpkins. I imagine groups of 4-6, each with a pumpkin. I think just the nature of kids' attention spans and the limited time we'll have, not to mention the equipment and space restrictions, means there's no way to do every step with the group.

[nakji]

I carve pumpkins each year for Halloween with my high school kids. (Favourite question: "Teacher - should we bring our own knives?") You're expecting the kids to watch while an adult chops them open, right? An old sharp knife and a rubber mallet to split the skin work a treat, if you can't manage nuking them whole. Use the mallet to get the knife all the way in, then use it as a lever to crack the shell. Then roast, if you're stuck with the convection oven, or take it home and microwave it until the flesh becomes soft.

[djyee100]

1. Cut in chunks (how the heck do you get the skin off without killing yourself?), steam or boil, puree in blender -- this gives you something like unsweetened canned pumpkin puree. This would have to be done at home then brought back to the school.

Roasting or microwaving the pumpkins is the way to go, if the resulting puree would be satisfactory and you have limits as to how much you will fool around with these pumpkins. But if you feel like giving a knife skills show to these kids, you can try the technique below. Also, this method is handy if you have to steam or boil chunks of pumpkin for a recipe.

I originally wrote this blurb for my CSA newsletter. It's about squash, but the same cutting technique applies to pumpkin.

How to trim fresh squash: Cut the squash in half lengthwise, top to bottom. Tap your knife lightly with a wooden mallet if your knife is not going through. Scoop out the seeds with a melon baller. Lay each half of the squash cut side down on your board, and slice into half moons. Then lay each half moon flat on your board, and slice off the peel with your chef's knife. (This goes faster than you think.) Alternatively, peel each half moon slice with a vegetable peeler. Then cut each slice into cubes or pieces for cooking.

[JeanneCake]

if you microwave the pumpkin, take the stem off first. I've heard that it can really be smelly or messy (can't remember which).

Canned pumpkin would be easier to work with, with kids. Just demo the roasted/microwaved pumpkin if you can.....

[Fat Guy]

We used canned pumpkin.

The schedule and sequence of events allowed no other option. We had only one block of time to cut the pumpkins and make the batter, so after cutting we switched to canned. We didn't actually say it was canned (didn't say it wasn't either) -- just said "This is what pumpkin looks like after you cook it and mash it."

While the class was still working on something else, I cut the tops out of each of five pumpkins, and I cut one really big pumpkin in half. I left the tops in place for the time being. Meanwhile, Ellen was setting up the baking station.

The kids gathered around tables in groups of four or five to a pumpkin. They scooped out seeds and pulp with their hands and put the seeds on pieces of foil. They counted their seeds and filled out data sheets for their teacher. We also looked at seeds from different size pumpkins -- the seeds were pretty much the same size.

Ellen had the kids come up to the baking station in groups of four. Each kid got to measure one ingredient into the bowl (e.g., a cup of the flour, a teaspoon of a spice). Once all the ingredients were in, each kid took a turn stirring.

We took the batter and the seeds home. We baked the batter into pumpkin breads and roasted the seeds. We'll be bringing those in for morning meeting tomorrow.

[Fat Guy]

A few photos:

Most of our supplies (except refrigerated items), ready to go:

The tables set for seed extraction:

Most of the photos we captured aren't appropriate for posting on a public website, because they contain images of other people's kids, but this one only shows backs of kids' heads. This is their teacher reviewing the recipe:

And the finished loaves: