Posted on 17 Comments

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 

Dough

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!

17 thoughts on “Pumpkin Sourdough Bread

  1. Can the purée just be added to the starter? Or the water?
    Thanks.

    1. Sure, you can add it to the water

  2. What happens if you use regular AP flour instead?

    1. Then you should lower the total hydration. Since AP flour is weaker, then bread flour.

  3. Hi, thanks for your recipe!
    I’m wondering why when I poke the dough , at the end of bulk,is it always sticky?

    1. Hi!
      It should get less sticky by the end of warm fermentation, before preshaping

  4. Loved making this. Used AP flour and I think it still came out great!

    1. Thank you so much for sharing 🙏

  5. Hi. Could I ask a question? I have a problem with my sourdough breads. They don’t have much air holes in crumb. I’ve tried many different recipes and the result is the same. What can I do?😞

    1. Hi!
      Sorry to hear that. Work on strength of your sourdough starter.
      Then your bread will become beautiful

  6. Hello, Im a baker who is still pretty new at sourdough. I am curious would it be possible to build a levain that has a larger about of starter to achieve active peak sooner(say in 3-5 hours instead of 8-10) ? For instance 22g starter, flour,water to get the 60g of levain with enough left over to maintain your normal starter? or do you recommend a smaller seed and a longer rise for this levain?
    Thank you !

    1. Hi!
      Sure, absolutely!
      You can do 1:2:2 and it will be ready in 4 hours

      1. Amazing ! Thank you so much for the reply !

  7. Can sugar and pumpkin spice be added during lamination?

    1. Sure!
      Absolutely 👍🏼

  8. If I want to add pumpkin spice, when will be the best time to add the spice?

  9. When shaping this dough, I found it to be a bit sticky and hard to shape. Any tips for how to avoid this, or tips on methods to have more control when shaping? Thank you!! 🙌🏻

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