‘Tis the season for pumpkin!  And squash of all varieties…

We’ve been enjoying acorn squash from our garden, as well as the cans of pumpkin on sale at the store!

We were heading to a community Thanksgiving potluck last night and I knew I wanted to take something pumpkin-y, but not anything that someone else would bring.  In the end, I decided to make pumpkin garlic knots a la never(home)maker!  They were a big hit.

I didn’t alter the recipe much at all, but I did tweak it to use whole wheat flour, honey, and marjoram from my garden.  I also doubled it due to taking them to a potluck.  You should check out their original recipe as this is mostly theirs anyway, but I wanted to just type it up here so a.) I have record of what I did and b.) you can clearly see the additions/changes.

Pumpkin Garlic Knots:

• 2 cups warm water
• 5 tsp. yeast
• 4 tbsp. honey
• 1 cup pureed pumpkin (1/2 of a can)
• 4 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 tsp. sea salt
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 5 cups whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 6-8 cloves of minced garlic
• Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper to taste
• Herb to taste (marjoram, basil, etc)

Mix together the warm water and yeast in a medium-sized bowl and let it sit for about 10 minutes until it’s frothy.  Add in the honey, pumpkin puree and olive oil and mix.  In a large bowl, mix together the flours and salt.  Make a “bowl” in the flour and pour in the liquid mixture.  Knead together until it forms a ball.  Cover with a damp towel and let it rest in a warm place for 2 hours.  Once it has risen (after the 2 hours), take small amounts (about 1/4 cup of dough) and roll into a “snake.”  Tie into knots and set them on your baking tray.  Bake on a pizza stone 425F for 10-15 mins.  Meanwhile, mix together the olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and herb(s) in a bowl.  Once you remove the knots from the oven, let them cool for a minute or two, and then roll them in the olive oil/herb mixture and cool them on a cooling rack.  Repeat this process until all your knots are made.  Makes 2 dozen knots.

There were some lovely fall flowers on the food table at the potluck:

And centrepieces which I helped prepare (I collected the leaves from our neighbourhood, and made up table descriptions of the history of Canadian thanksgiving on one side and thanksgiving quotes on the other!):

If you’re Canadian, how did you celebrate Thanksgiving?

If you’re not Canadian, what are you thankful for today?