Pumpkin Sourdough with Coconut & Orange
I love pumpkin, but when my husband came home with three huge pumpkins, I worried. What am going to do with all these pumpkins, I asked. I got no reply. He had gone camping with our son and our son's friend at our farm, two hours north west of Brisbane. The caretaker's wife keeps a small patch of vegetable garden and every now and then she gives me something from her vege garden. My favorite are cherry tomatoes and silverbeets. These pumpkins are from her garden too.
It's school holiday and we were driving west, in-land, to somewhere. I was bouncing off ideas with my daughter; I said how about Pumpkin Sourdough with Roasted Pumpkin Soup, or how about Grilled Pumpkin & Chinese deep-fried Onion Sourdough. All of a sudden, my daughter said, how about Triple Pumpkin Sourdough with pumpkin seeds, pumpkin puree, and shredded raw pumpkin; she is catching on. As we were talking, my husband is mumbling, give me a gun! and my son was unavailable for comment, totally absorbed in the video that he's watching in the back seat.
My local organic shop which I visited the other day has got "coconut flour" now, a very fine desiccated coconut. I bought some without any clue how to use it because I love anything and everything to do with coconut ... hmmm ... Thai green curry with coconut cream ... yumm!
The French bread books that Flo Makanai ordered for me had arrived last week, one of which is "Le Pain, l'envers du decor," or Bread, Behind the Scenes, by Frederic Lalos who is one of the youngest bakers to have been awarded Meilleur Ouvrier of France, at the age of 26. (Sorry, my Google translator does not recognise "Meilleur Ouvrier.") On page 168 is La couronne bordelaise (the Bordeaux Crown), one of the French regional breads that are featured in the book. I find the shape really interesting, and finally a reason for my experiment on pumpkin!
Here we go.
My formula
246 g starter @75% hydration
202 g Sir Lancelot flour
60 g white flour
40 g coconut flour (or fine desiccated coconut)
77 g water
232 g cooked pumpkin puree
9 g salt
very fine zest from one medium orange
pumpkin seeds for decorating
(final dough weight 866 g and approx. dough hydration 70 - 72%)
Pumpkin Sourdough with Coconut & Orange
The crust
The crumb
The orange and coconut is a combination that I always love. The fragrance is beautiful. But I'll probably not do coconut "flour" next time; it seems to have a "punctuating" effect, like grains and seeds, on bread. I am not sure if I am using that word right, but I suspect it is making gluten network harder to form, or something like that. Instead, coconut milk (or diluted coconut cream) would be a better choice.
Shiao-Ping
Comments
Shiao-Ping, that looks so beautiful and the colour of the bread is gorgeous. You always make such attractive breads with unique combinations! I love reading your posts about your endeavours :) I know it's completely the wrong season for it, but if you have pumpkin you'd like to use, I have a delightful Pumpkin Gingerbread recipe that uses 2 cups of pumpkin. Quickbread style, but makes great mini-loaves to give away, a large bundt, or cupcakes too.
I love your pumpkin and gingerbread idea. I often use ginger in my pastry and I adore crystalized ginger (and non-crystalized version, I forget what they call it). So, thanks for your suggestion.
Shiao-Ping
p.s. I couldn't find the recipe in your blog. I think I'll just have to improvise. Thanks again.
I love your bread and the shape is so much fun. I suspect my husband would really like this one since pumpkin pie has become his primary cycling breakfast food (organic, 1/2 the sweetener Sucanat or Agave nectar). He also loves coconut so I wonder if unsweetened shredded coconut would work inside and on top with the pumpkin seeds?? Sehpiepoo - I would also love the recipe for pumpkin gingerbread!
I am still unpacking and organizing after our move so it will be another week before I dare consider baking bread. I can hardly wait! At least I will have my first passion up and running today - my quilting studio.
Thanks for sharing this one,
Melody in Santa Fe
Hi Melody, following is sephiepoo's recipe (and, sephiepoo, thanks very much for sharing):
Pumpkin Gingerbread
Oven - 350, large bundt pan (10" I believe), will take about an hour
1 c. vegetable oil
4 eggs
3 c. sugar
2/3 c. water
3 1/2 c. APF
2 ts b soda
1/2 ts b powder
1 1/2 ts salt
2 ts ginger
1 ts/cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice
2 c. pumpkin
In large bowl, mix wet (with a whisk is fine), put dry on top of wet
(APF first, then pile on the rest), stir until halfway incorporated,
add the pumpkin and stir until just uniform. Pour into well-greased
bundt pan - do not flour, since it will leave spots on your GB.
It's generally a well-behaved bread. Should take around 50-60
minutes, but you might want to rotate it after about 40 minutes or so.
It does rise (you remember how tall the piece was) so just be careful
that you don't overfill if you're not sure of the size of your pan.
You could probably bake this in a loaf pan or a baking dish though I'm
not sure how it'll act to the change since we always do it in a bundt.
I will add however that you might want to try incorporating the pumpkin puree into the wet ingredients BEFORE mixing the dry ingredients. Use the least number of strokes possible to combine all ingredients. In my experience I've found that it is OK to leave some white streaks of flour, not thoroughly mixed in, as it will be moistened once the batter is in contact with the heat and swollen. Overmixing tends to toughen the quickbread (like muffin).
Shiao-Ping
FWIW, I've always used canned pumpkin for this recipe, since I don't often have the chance to get fresh ones from the farmer's market, so you may want to drain the fresh stuff in a cheesecloth lined sieve or try to cook off the excess water :) Absolutely mix the pumpkin into the wet ingredients. For some reason, I always mixed the pumpkin in last while working at the cafe, but I can't imagine why I did that, other than that's what the exec chef wanted me to do....! This recipe's pretty forgiving and I've never managed to overmix it, but the warning is well worth it. I love that the pumpkin keeps it so nice and soft