Pumpkin & Cinnamon Sourdough Bread

Baking bread in the fall feels extra special. Maybe it’s the cooler mornings, or maybe it’s the way the house smells when the oven’s on, that mix of warmth and comfort that makes you want to slow down and stay home. This week, I decided to try something new, pumpkin and cinnamon sourdough. I’ve been meaning to make it for a while now, and honestly, I was a little nervous. I wondered if adding pumpkin purée would make the dough too wet, or if it would mess with the rise. But to my surprise, it turned out beautifully. The bread is soft, golden, and subtly sweet with its brown sugar swirl. The crust had a perfect crunch, and the crumb was a lovely shade of orange. The pumpkin didn’t overwhelm the flavor; instead, it added a gentle earthiness and made the bread tender. Sliced and topped with butter and an extra sprinkle of sugar, it tasted like autumn itself.

Of course, life never goes exactly according to plan all the time, and this was true for our weekend as well. I had planned a family trip to the pumpkin patch, but in classic “mom brain” fashion, I completely forgot to buy tickets ahead of time. By the time I checked, it was sold out. Cue the disappointed little faces and my mom guilt.

But as we’ve learned in homeschooling (and motherhood in general), sometimes the best days are the ones that don’t go according to plan. Instead of pumpkins, we ended up at the butterfly garden, watching monarchs and swallowtails flutter around us in the warm morning light. It wasn’t what I had planned, but it was still magic, delicate wings, giggling kids, and that feeling of being exactly where we were meant to be. Diana and Edmund both planted flowers in the children's garden and we learned from the caretaker that rabbits often get into the gardens and nibble on the flowers. He's bult the fence up and added netting to the bottom to keep them out but still, they find their way in eating the peppers and eggplant as he tries to shoo the rabbits away. Images of Peter Rabit popped into my head making me smile.

Ingredients:

Makes one loaf of bread

For the bread:

125g (1/2 cup) sourdough starter

300g (1 1/4 cups) water

150g (2/3 cup) pumpkin puree

525g (4 1/4 cups) flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons salt

For the swirl:

100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar

1 heaping tablespoon pumpkin spice

Link to my Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Link to my Proofing Baskets

Link to my Wooden Bowl

Method:

1. In a large bowl, mix the starter, pumpkin and water together until it looks milky. Next, add the flour and mix until the flour looks well hydrated and a shaggy dough forms. Cover and set aside for two hours.

2. Add the salt and cinnamon. Use your hands to pinch everything together and form a nice ball. Cover and allow the dough to rest for four hours or until doubled in size.

3. On a well flowered surface, turn the dough out and flatten it into a rectangle. Sprinkle over the brown sugar and spice mixture and fold one side to the middle of the rectangle. Sprinkle over more sugar on the folded side. Fold over the other side to create a letter fold.

4. Add the last of the sugar on top and roll the dough up like a jelly roll. Gently shape the loaf by pushing it away from you and pull it toward you using the palm of your hand. (Just a little bit!) Keep in mind that the sugar will make the dough easy to tear so don't shape it too much. (Watch my video to see how I do this.)

5. Place the loaf in a well-floured proofing basket and put it in the fridge for at least three hours but overnight is best.

6. Preheat the oven to 450° with the Dutch oven inside. Once the oven has reached its temperature, allow the Dutch oven to preheat for another 30 minutes. Take the loaf of bread out of the refrigerator and turn it out onto two pieces of parchment paper or if you have a silicone mat, like I do, you can use that as well. Score the top of the loaf and place it in the preheated Dutch oven along with 1/4 cup of filtered water. Put the lid back on and bake for 35 minutes.

7. Once the 35 minutes is up, take the lid off and bake the bread for another 15 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Remove from the Dutch oven and allow the pumpkin and cinnamon sourdough bread to rest on a wire rack until completely cool. Enjoy with butter and a sprinkling of sugar!

After spending the morning in the gardens, we stopped for breakfast. Egg sandwiches with home fries, almond lattes, waffles with blueberries and whipped cream, lemonade and games of eye spy made everyone's tummies full. This is the kind of meal that turns an unexpected morning into something memorable. Here’s to embracing the detours, to warm bread, butterfly wings, rabbits and sugar!

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I sure hope you give the pumpkin cinnamon sourdough bread a try this holiday season! I promise you won't regret it. If you made to the bottom of the post, I'm so happy you are here! Stay in the loop and never miss another blog post, subscribe to my email list today!

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