Pumpkin Sourdough Bread

Fall is my favorite time of the year, and the main reason for it is because it’s a pumpkin season and i can make my favorite pumpkin sourdough bread. It brings so much comfort and brightens up my day with a beautiful orange color. And of course it’s super soft and flavorful!

Ingredients

Sourdough starter 

• 5g sourdough starter
• 35g water
• 30g all purpose flour or bread flour 
• 5g rye flour 

Dough

• 240g bread flour (80%)
• 60g stone ground whole wheat flour (20%)
• 216g water (72%)
• 60g levain (20%)
• 60g pumpkin pure (20%)
• 6g salt (2%)
• Wheat bran (for dusting)

Directions 

Starter

• 7 am add starter to the water and whisk together, add flour, mix well, cover loosely, let it sit at a room temp 74-78F for about 8-10 hours until starter reaches its peak (at least triples in volume).
• Learn how to make starter from scratch here.

Dough

• 5 pm mix water with flour and cover, let it rest 1 hour for autolyse.
• During the autolyse the flour absorbs the water, becoming fully hydrated. This will activate gluten development.
• 6 pm add sourdough starter. 
• Mix on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 min, or KitchenAid on speed 3 for 3-4 min until well incorporated. Or use rubaud method to mix the dough by hands for 3-4 minutes until we’ll incorporated.
• Cover, let rest for 30 min.
• 6:30 pm add salt and pumpkin pure. 
• Mix on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 min, or with KitchenAid on speed 3 for 5-6 min until well incorporated. 
• If mixing by hand with Rubaud method, then mix the dough until all pumpkin purée and salt will be fully incorporated ( about 3-5 min).
• We will continue gluten development and structure building by performing stretches and folds during the warm fermentation period.

• Leave to rest 30 min. At 74-78F /23-26C.
• 7 pm wet your hands and perform nice stretch and fold. 
• 7:30pm 1st coil  fold.
• 8:15 pm 2nd coil fold.
• 9:00 pm 3rd coil fold.
• 9.45 pm 4th coil fold 
• Performing stretches and folds will help with gluten development.

• Keep monitoring the dough, if it rises too fast, you can shorten the time between stretches to 40 minutes or less.
• After the final stretch let the dough proof for 30 minutes at 76-80F/ 23-26C. You should see some bubbles on the surface, the dough has to become lighter. We are looking for 50%-60% rise. If your dough didn’t reach 50% rise mark, add 1 extra stretch, it will extend time of warm fermentation, but will give you great result 

Preshaping sourdough 

• 10:15 pm Transfer the dough on to a work surface and dust its top with flour. Flip the dough over so the floured sides face down. 
• Fold the dough onto itself so the flour on the surface remains entirely on the outside of the loaf. This will become the crust. 
• Place the dough round on a work surface and let it rest for 30 minutes uncovered. 

Shaping sourdough 

• 10:45 pm Dust the dough with wheat bran. Use a dough scraper to flip it over on to a work surface so the floured sides face down.
• Starting at the side closest to you, pull the right 2 corners of the dough to the left, then fold them up into half of the dough. Repeat this action on the left side too.
• Finally, roll the dough. Shape it into a smooth, taut roll.
• Transfer the roll, seam side up, to a prepared proofing basket (loaf pan with kitchen towel)
• Cover it with plastic and return the dough to the 80F (27C) environment for 15 minutes.
• Then transfer the dough to rise for 14-24 hours in the refrigerator.

Baking

Next morning

• Preheat your oven to 500 F, place a cast iron pan with the lid inside for 45 min -1 hour.
• Remove the dough from the fridge. 
• Flip it over on a parchment paper, score it with a sharp knife or a scoring lame. 
• Transfer on to the hot cast iron pan, cover with the lid (to create steam for a beautiful and crusty crumb).
• Bake at 500F for 15 min with lid on.
• Remove the lid, lower the temperature to 450F. 
• Bake for 20 more minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy!