Butternut Squash & Cinnamon Bread Twists - Soft & Nutritious! (Original Recipe)

With a growing boy to feed my I'm constantly thinking of new and interesting recipes to keep his body healthy and his taste-buds happy!  

He really enjoyed that carrot bread I made recently, so I played a variation of that today and turned out these delicious sweet-but-not-too-sweet bread twists.  Also different shapes keep things exciting for little hands and eyes... sometimes we press out shapes with pastry cutters, sometimes we roll into balls, and sometimes we twist!  

After all, if we can make healthy snacks as appealing as all those unhealthy commercial varieties, we don't need to worry about what our beloved children are eating!  

Not only does the squash in this bread provide extra nutrition, but it helps keep the crumb beautifully soft and the moisture balance just right.  They make wonderful little snacks both for home or when we go out - I simply bag them up into portions and freeze, keeping us in good supply of healthy snacks that we can grab whenever we need them.  Perfect!

Ingredients (organic recommended):

Half a butternut squash

500g wholewheat flour 

5 tblsp olive oil 

1 tsp baking soda 

1 sachet yeast  

1 tsp black pepper 

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

 
Directions:

In a large bowl rub the olive oil into the flour using your fingertips.

Add the yeast, baking soda, black pepper, ground cinnamon, and stir in.

Chop the butternut squash roughly into chunks and throw into a food processor/blender, with a little water, and puree.

Add the pureed squash to the bowl and mix thoroughly (I use my hands to 'squelch' the mixture together).  Knead on a lightly floured surface until you have a lovely smooth dough.

Break off small pieces of dough and roll out with your palm to form long 'snakes'.  Bend in half to form a U shape, and then twist.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes until golden and firm to touch.

If you have any healthy suggestions or recipes that would make great snacks, please tag your post with  #makeithealthy and they will feature in the new curation series "Make It Healthy LUNCHBOX".  Let's get our children eating healthy NOW so they don't have to learn how to heal later on in life!

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