Malt Beer Molasses Bread with Pumpkin Seeds

Malt beer bread, inspired by this recipe, is always a good idea in mega lock-down. Original recipe calls for root beer, but there was some leftover malt beer that needs to be used up. Hence the tweak of the recipe. Dark stout would be great for the recipe too. Malt beer and dark rye enhance the nutrition, flavour, texture and colour to this simple loaf while the molasses adds some mild pleasant sweetness. I have also topped the bread with some sweetened pepita for the extra crunchiness, but this is completely optional. You can also use sunflower seeds instead.

Dough	Topping
1 package / 7 g Active dry yeast 270 ml Malt beer (38C/110F) 100 g Dark rye flour 50 g Molasses 1 tsp Salt 300 - 320 g Bread flour, divided 30 g Unsalted butter, softened	1/2 Egg white 2 tbsp Pumpkin seeds 1 tbsp Sugar

In bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, dissolve yeast in malt beer. Wait 5 - 10 minutes for mixture to foam.
Stir in rye flour, molasses, salt, and half of the bread flour. Stir until everything is combined and smooth.
Add in butter and enough remaining flour to form a soft, pliable dough. Knead 8 - 10 minutes.
Place in a greased bowl, turn to grease top. Cover; let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Press two fingers into dough. It will leave indentation when dough is doubled.
Deflate dough and divide into 3 even portions. Cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let rest 10 minutes. Roll one portion of dough into an oval. Fold one side of dough over to halfway across the remaining dough then fold the other side on top so you have three layers. Roll it out to about 30cm long and roll into a cylinder. Repeat with another two portions of dough. Place them, seam up down, into a greased 9” x 5” loaf pan.
Cover and let rise until sides of dough almost reach the top of pan. Brush the top with egg white. Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds over, top with sugar.
Preheat the oven to 190C/375F. Bake the bread in the middle of the hot oven for 35-40 minutes until nicely brown and crunchy. Immediately remove bread from pan and cool on rack.