Density versus fluffiness of pumpkin bread

[jaybee65]

I made my very first ever attempt at baking something last night: pumpkin walnut bread. In the process, I discovered many things: Flour is messy! Walnuts work better in bread when you remember to crush them, rather than dumping them into the mix whole! Drinking alcohol as you struggle to measure ingredients precisely is probably not a good idea, but *does* make it less aggravating!

I followed the recipe (found online here) as carefully as I could, and the bread turned out pretty well for a first attempt. However, the texture is a lot fluffier and less dense than I was expecting -- it's rather cake-like, in fact. Is this likely to be due to the kind of flour I used? (The recipe called for All-Purpose flour.) Is there another type of flour that might produce something denser? Or is it something other than the flour that influences this? Any suggestions gratefully received!

Comments

[redsnake05]

Baking soda breads are quite cake-like - it's pretty much a cake recipe with no sugar. But if you don't like the lightness, you could make it with wholemeal flour, which tends to make anything denser, chewier (and higher in fibre). Or substitute in some rye flour for the same effect. Ooooh, and I like whole walnuts in baking. What about some sunflower seeds too?

Flour is messy - and, yeah... alcohol and measuring. But I can't talk, since I don't ever actually measure anything while baking.

[matgb]

all purpose flour will have a lower gluten content than bread flour. It's the gluten that glues the bread together, so the stronger the flour, the more gluten it's got, the less fluffy the bread should, theoretically, be.

If it's yeast cooking, the amount of rises and kneading you do makes a difference as well, but try a stronger flour first.

[aedifica]

I *think* I have also found that using butter in place of oil makes a denser cake, so it might work for your bread too. I haven't tested it, though, so the density I noticed might have been caused by some other factor.