When Life Gives You Winter Squash…

Last summer Toby’s brother in Ohio grew a bumper crop of butternut squash. We are talking hundreds of awesome squashes, piled in the basement to cure. When his Dad drove out to visit in January he delivered a giant sack of them, like he was the Santa Claus of squash. I’d read that winter squash could be substituted for sweet potatoes in any recipe…squash fries, squash rolls, you name it. They do taste similar, maybe a tad bit watery.
Butternut fries are good but they do dissolve into nothing if you aren’t careful. They are great pureed, and rumor has it much of our traditional ‘pumpkin pie’ filling is really winter squash. Where squash really shines is in breads though!

When we lived in Hawai’i we went to a restaurant that had killer pork sliders on sweet potato rolls. I’ve thought about them a lot since 2010, but I’ve never had much luck with rolls. Enter the squash. I had baked and pureed two small squashes, and I told a friend I would bring the rolls for a BBQ. The recipe I was using called for a double rise, and I was running late. I had added a cup of the puree and some extra yeast and flour. It WOULDN’T rise. It was just a lump. The house was a little chilly, but I had the bowl next to the wood stove! After 45 minutes I panicked at the dense dough, and put it in a warmed oven. Once it got hotter than it should’ve, it started to rise beautifully. Unfortunately I didn’t have time for this, and punched it down and rolled out dense dough balls into a 13×9 pan. I brushed the tops with egg white. I told my friend to ready the oven. If these rolls turned out awful everyone else would find out at the same time as me.

The drive over was full of potholes, it seemed. I cursed the City of McCall for ruining my rolls even more than they already were, knocking all the air out of them with every bump.

20 minutes later the rolls were not ruined. In fact, they were fluffy, moist, and perfect. The dish was empty by the end of dinner. That’s a lot of rolls.

The next day I made butternut squash pizza crust. It made the pizza crust do all the things I struggle to make pizza crust do with my home oven. It was easier to stretch out, it was delicious, it didn’t get too hard or too soft.

By the time I made Amish white bread and 2 loaves of cinnamon raisin bread (all with a crazy bright yellow color, I should warn you), I knew butternut squash would forever be my secret flour additive. I used it carelessly, subbing it in for sugar, oil and water. The texture is perfect as long as you give it a little extra time and heat to rise. I can’t wait to make bright yellow butternut cinnamon rolls! I’ll be adding these recipes to the recipe section soon!