Cheesy Pumpkin Chilli Damper
It seems you guys love making bread, especially when it's as easy as mixing flour with milk and you can use any milk you like. Amen! I recently wanted to try making a new damper with a different flavour and I have had an idea humming in my mind for the past few weeks. I am obsessed with pumpkin at the moment and knew this would make a great foundation for my latest damper recipe.
To me, the delicate richness of pumpkin adds a totally new depth of flavour to a damper, which is a very humble Australian bush bread. Adding grated pumpkin makes the damper sumptuous but also light and fluffy. But I wasn't just going to add pumpkin and be done with it.
Most people would gravitate towards adding feta to damper, but I have often found that the saltiness and texture of feta gets in the way. It becomes hard and not enjoyable. Instead, for my recipe I chose to use mozzarella. To me, it's is the perfect melty cheese for damper and when you're tucking into damper the next day, it doesn't taste chewy like feta does.
I also wanted fresh greens in the damper, so I added roughly chopped fresh spinach leaves and chilli flakes for extra zing. The chilli flakes is what really takes this damper from good to great. And of course, we all know damper tastes best straight out of the oven with salty butter and the Aussie classic, golden syrup. The complexities of the basic damper, pumpkin, mozzarella, spinach and chilli flakes marries so well with salted butter and the sweetness of the golden syrup. I serve this all year round for lunch and as a side dish because it's easy, quick and delicious.
Ingredients
2 cups flour (in my humble opinion, self-raising and plain both work great!)
50g butter, roughly chopped
1 and 1/2 cup pumpkin, grated
1 cup mozzarella, grated
100g spinach leaves, roughly sliced thinly
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk, plus extra to brush. You can also use any milk you like - almond, macadamia, soy or oat.
2 tbsp natural seed mix
3 tbsp dukkah or sesame seeds
Golden syrup and/or butter, to serve
Method
Preheat oven to 200C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Combine seed mix and Australian Bush Dukkah in a small bowl, and set aside.
In a large bowl place flour and butter. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add pumpkin, mozzarella, spinach, chilli flakes and salt. Using your hands, toss the mixture around to combine.
Add milk and fold gently with your hands until a soft, sticky dough forms. If the dough feels a bit wet, add 1/4 flour.
Place the dough onto a flat, lightly floured surface and gently knead until dough comes together. Shape the dough into a ball with a diameter of approximately 20cm.
Place the dough ball onto your lined baking sheet.
Brush the top of the dough ball with a little milk.
Press the seed and Australian Bush Dukkah mix onto the surface of the dough all.
Cut a cross over the top of the dough with a sharp knife.
Bake the damper for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a lovely golden brown crust forms and when you tap it on the base, it sounds hollow. An old trick that one!
Rip the damper apart and serve straight away.
You can serve it classic Australian style with golden syrup and/or butter, or alongside a warming soup, or as a side bread to your main meal.
