Kabocha ginger rolls かぼちゃ生姜ロール

 I got a whole Japanese "kabocha" squash the other day from Hmart via the Instacart. I made my usual simmered kabocha かぼちゃの煮物 and pottage かぼちゃのポタージュ. That left half a kabocha. I could have made other kabocha dishes but my wife wanted to make Kabocha ginger rolls/muffins and I gladly donated the remaining kabocha. This is a variation of pumpkin ginger rolls she made before. Instead of canned pumpkin puree, she baked the kabocha in the oven and removed the meat (actually I did most of this part). Using this, she made the roll as well as stuffing for the rolls.

Because the stuffing includes some moisture steam forms when the muffins are cooked resulting in the small space above the stuffing shown in the picture below. This doesn't adversely affect either the texture or flavor. 

I asked my wife to continue with the recipe.

Ingredients:
For bread
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs yeast
420 grams (or 15 oz.) of mashed Kobocha (all of this goes into the bread. If more is available that goes into the filling)
2 large eggs
4 Tbs. butter melted
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

For the stuffing:
Note: See below, for 20 muffins I used about 360 gm. combined weight of kobach and ricotta
remaining amount of mashed  kobacha  (this is in addition to the 420 that goes into the bread)
ricotta cheese
Finely diced candied ginger to taste (optional)
amounts discussed below

Another stuffing option:

A total of 360 g combination of mashed cooked kobacha, cream cheese and 1/2 cup finely chopped candied ginger.  

Directions:
For the cooked pumpkin (kabocha)

Cut the Kabocha in half, remove seeds and guts. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet. Cook in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes until it becomes soft. Remove the skin and mash to a puree.

For the pumpkin bread:

Put the kobocha puree and pumpkin pie spice in the bowel of stand mixer. Add the sugar, salt, eggs and melted butter. Bloom the yeast and add it to the pumpkin mixture. Using a paddle stir until completely blended. Switch to a dough hook and add the flour to the wet ingredients. Knead dough for about 2 to 3 minutes until ingredients are blended then let rest for 15 minutes. Continue kneading, adding flour until the dough reaches a workable consistency. Knead for 7 to 10 minutes. If adding raisins knead them in after kneading for 7 minutes and continue kneading the extra 3 minutes to incorporate them.

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowel. Turn the dough so it gets coated with the oil.
Cover and let rise until it doubles. Punch dough down and turn out onto a floured cutting board.

Assembly:
This gets a bit complicated. When making stuffed muffins I got tired of eye-balling the amount of filling I needed only to have it run out before I had filled all the rolls or have some left over, so I came up with a system to measure out the right amount. I do this by first measuring the total weight of the dough. In this case the dough weighed 1420 grams. I knew a muffin weighing about 71 grams is a good size so I calculated how many muffins I would get out of the dough; 1420/71 = 20 muffins. Next I calculated how much filling I would need. I knew from experimentation that an 18 gram ball would make a good ratio of filling to bread so I calculated the total amount of filling I would need; 18 x 20 = 360 grams. I took the leftover kabocha and supplemented it with ricotta cheese and about 1/2 cup of finely chopped candied ginger until the total equaled 360 grams. With this method the ratio of kabocha to other ingredients in the filling can vary but the total should be enough filling for all the muffins. The actual weights will vary each time the muffins are made depending on the combined ingredients. Only the method would be consistent.

I started by making each of the filling balls for the muffins and setting them aside. This makes assembly more efficient. Then I cut the dough into pieces, weighed them and stuffed them with the pre-measured stuffing balls. (The stuffing was just enough to fill each muffin!) I put the muffins into a heavily greased baking pan. Covered and let rise again (about 1/2 hour). Meanwhile, I preheated the oven to 375 degrees. I cooked the rolls for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan immediately after they come out of the oven.

These are great rolls. The crystalized ginger in the stuffing really makes this roll. It provides a nice burst of sharp but sweet flavor. The creamy texture of the filling really went well with the surrounding dough and the raisins added an additional burst of tender sweetness. Compared to canned pumpkin puree, kabocha really tasted better.