Pumpkin sourdough bread
These sourdough loaves are made with pumpkin puree and swirled with sweet cinnamon sugar for the perfect fall treat.
Equipment
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 2 small bowls
- Butcher's twine
- Dutch oven
Ingredients
For the sourdough
- 115 g fed and active sourdough starter
- 75 g lukewarm water
- 300 g bread flour
- 150 g canned pumpkin puree
- 8 g salt
- 8 g granulated sugar
- 1 tsp diastatic malt powder (optional)
For the cinnamon sugar (optional)
- 50 g brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp all spice
For the pumpkin stem
- 2 walnut halves
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix and stir everything together to create a shaggy dough.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 45 minutes.
- Gently slide your hand under the middle of the dough and fold it over itself twice using the coil fold method. This helps gently develop the gluten.
- Over the next 4 to 5 hours, allow the dough to rise. Every 30 to 45 minute, perform another coil fold. Be sure to do at least 3 coil folds.
- Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and all-spice.
- Line your two small bowls with floured kitchen or paper towels.
- Turn the dough onto a floured surface. Use a dough scraper to divide into 2 even pieces. Take one piece and gently pull into a flat rectangle. Sprinkle the surface with cinnamon spice sugar, making sure to leave the edges uncovered. Pinch or roll the dough together to form a ball, with the cinnamon sugar on the inside. Repeat with the second ball of dough
- Place each ball seam side up in the prepared small bowls. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours.
- When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500°F with your uncovered Dutch oven inside.
- Prepare your loaf - Cut 4 pieces of butcher's twine, long enough to wrap around your loaf. Arrange them on a piece of parchment paper so that they cross in the middle and form 8 even sections. Flour the string and parchment paper. Remove one loaf from the fridge and flour the surface of the loaf. Turn out of the ball onto the parchment paper so that where the strings cross is in the middle of the loaf. Tie each string around the loaf, leaving a little wiggle room for the loaf to expand. Gently score each eighth of the loaf with a sharp razor.
- Place the loaf in the Dutch oven and cover with the lid. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and reduce temperature to 450°F and bake for another 12 - 15 minutes until hollow when tapped and the crust is a deep brown. Remove from oven and immediately cut and peel off the butcher's twine.
- Preheat oven back to 500°F and repeat with the second loaf.
- Press a walnut half in the middle of the loaf for a stem. Let loaves cool completely (at least 2 hours) before cutting into them.