Pumpkin sourdough bread

With autumn and Halloween right around the corner, there’s no better way to celebrate than with adorable pumpkin spice sourdough bread. These loaves are made with pumpkin puree and swirled with sweet cinnamon sugar for the perfect fall treat.

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The air is cooling, the leaves are changing color, and it’s time to fire up your oven for some delicious fall bakes. And while I believe Starbucks may have beaten the concept of pumpkin spice to death, I was VERY excited to do some pumpkin sourdough experimentation. Forget buying decorative pumpkins for $5.99 each – make your own miniature decorative pumpkins out of sourdough and enjoy them with a generous smear of cream cheese. 

This recipe builds off my favorite no-knead sourdough process which I have been loving for its simplicity and dependably good results. Like other sourdough recipes, there is a lot of waiting involved, but the result is worth it – a soft, chewy bread with just the slightest hint of cinnamon spice sugar.

I absolutely love the shape of these loaves. We’ll use butcher’s twine to create the pumpkin grooves. By wrapping each loaf in twine, the dough will expand around it to make the little pumpkin section. Cute!

Some helpful tips when baking sourdough

Sourdough can be challenging, and depending on the temperature and humidity levels of your kitchen, you may have varying rise and proofing times. If you’ve never baked sourdough before, I’d recommend starting with a more basic loaf before tackling this fancier pumpkin one. It’ll also help familiarize you with some sourdough terminology.

The recipe I’m providing is a guide, but you’ll have to use your own sourdough baking instincts to know when your dough is ready to shape. Here are some things to keep in mind for this recipe:

• You need a strong, mature starter that ideally doubles in size in 4 – 8 hours. If you don’t have a starter, you can make one following this guide, but take 2 weeks to let it mature before baking. 
• This is a fairly low hydration (i.e., less water content) dough because the pumpkin puree replaces some of the water. The crumb comes out pretty close packed as a result – perfect for spreading butter and jam on!
• I use diastatic malt powder to help with the rise and color, but this is optional. I do find that diastatic malt powder gives a more round and full loaf.
• Using cinnamon sugar and shaping into pumpkins makes this recipe a little more complicated. Feel free to skip either step and still have a delicious loaf.
• Adding the cinnamon sugar during shaping will make your dough less sticky, so make sure to keep some of the edges uncovered so that your dough can stick together to form a ball.
• When shaping, be firm but gentle. The cinnamon sugar can cause the dough to tear if you are too rough.
• Make sure you use butcher’s twine, otherwise your twine may catch fire in the oven. Don’t bind the loaf too tight.
• When scoring, make sure you cut into each section at the same depth to encourage even expansion in the oven.

My process

I’m outlining my timeline here to give you an idea of when my sourdough finished each stage. As you can see, I tend to do coil folds every 30 – 45 minutes. You can expect this dough to bulk ferment for longer because of the added pumpkin.

Day 1

9:00am – Remove starter from the fridge and feed with 100g all-purpose flour + 100g lukewarm water. I probably had 50 – 100g of starter before feeding.

3:15pm – Starter has grown about 2.5x in size. I make the dough by mixing all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

4:00 – 7:30pm – 6 sets of coil folds spaced 30 to 45 minutes apart

(got distracted by dinner and watching the Great British Bake-off)

9:45pm – Freak out, remember that I left the dough on the counter. Perform seventh and final set of coil folds.

10:00pm – Cut dough in half, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and shape 2 boules. Immediately place in the fridge.

Day 2

8:45am – Pre-heat oven to 500F with uncovered Dutch oven inside. Bind and score first loaf.

9:15am – Bake for 20 minutes with lid on and then reduce to 450F and bake for 12 – 15 minutes with lid off.

3:00pm – Slice into loaf after it has thoroughly cooled.

Okay that was a lot of writing but hopefully it helps you feel EMPOWERED to tackle this recipe. 

Other bread recipes I love:

• Japanese milk bread by hand (no milk powder)
• Hedgehog bread rolls
• Honey walnut challah recipe

If you make this recipe, let me know! You can comment below or tag me on Instagram @halicopteraway or #halicopteraway.