The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Pumpkin Sourdough

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Pumpkin Sourdough

I baked this today, and it turned out great.  I forgot to add the walnuts though! :-(. The recipe contains some milk powder, sugar and a small amount of butter, and the crumb is like a brioche, very soft and with distinct sour notes.  The pumpkin accents the sour flavor, giving Your sourdough a twist.

Here’s the recipe (using a KA mixer):

2 hours before mixing your dough:  Slice the pumpkin into chunks, boil WITHOUT SALT until soft.  Use a mixer to purée and let it cool down to room temperature.  I use a pressure cooker for this and it takes 4 minutes in the pressure cooker from the moment the steam valve shows until the moment you stop the cooking altogether.

Ingredients:

  • AP Flour 1,000 gr
  • Water 600 gr
  • Salt 20 gr
  • Sugar 100gr
  • Butter 70 gr
  • Milk Powder 50 gr
  • Pumpkin Purée (Room Temp) 290 gr
  • Sourdough Culture 500 gr
  • Pumpkin seeds: 100 gr
  • Walnuts 100 gr

Instructions:

  1. All ingredients in the KA bowl EXCEPT Butter AND Seeds.
  2. Knead on #1 speed with dough hook for 2 minutes, until mixed.
  3. Increase speed to #3 for approximately 7 minutes, until you see the dough coming off the walls. Adjust water / flour as required, and don’t be shy to adjust.  If your dough is a shaggy mess after 2-3 minutes on #3, you’ll need a little more flour so it can come off the walls 3-4 minutes later.  Check gluten and knead a bit longer if needed until you have good gluten development.
  4. Fold the butter in, cut in small chunks, little by little.  Do not add more butter unless the previous batch is incorporated into the dough.
  5. Fold the nuts in.  To avoid tearing the dough, you can do this by hand on a lightly floured work surface.  Fold half of the nuts and make a letter fold. (4-sides), then the rest of the nuts and a second 4-side fold.
  6. Let it ferment at room temperature (I use a Proofer set to 25C) for one hour.  You can do one Stretch & Fold after 30 minutes being extra careful that the nuts do not tear the dough.
  7. Chill overnight.  I use a closed, oiled plastic container for this.
  8. Next morning take out from fridge, let sit (closed) at room temperature for one hour, then pre-shape.
  9. 30 minutes bench rest.
  10. Final shaping followed by final proofing for around 1-2 hours, depending on room temperature.  In my case it’s usually closer to 2 hours.
  11. Bake (Steam or Dutch Oven highly recommended) at 190C for 15 minutes and an additional 10-15 minutes at 230C.  I know the temperatures look wrong, especially the initial 190C.  These are the ones I use.  Bear in mind that the dough contains sugar and milk powder, so it can turn dark and set real fast if your temperature setting is too high.
  12. Take out from the oven and let it sit for at least one hour before consuming.

And some pictures.....  It came out really beautiful today.

I made a beautiful boule too.....

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my son does (I love it as well :-).  Stay safe all.

Comments

Benito's picture
Benito

Beautiful loaves and I love the soft brioche like crumb you achieved.  May I ask, what kind of pumpkins did you use?  Were they the sugar pumpkins?

Benny

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Hola Benito! Thanks for your kind words.

I believe they're called butternuts in the US. In any case, any type of "sweet orange" pumpkin might do. Isn't canned pumpkin pulp available in the US as well? I'd be careful with the additives there though.

The pulp is sweet and the texture once cooked is a bit softer (wetter) than baked potato. 

In any case nobody should be put off by using fresh pumpkin. If you can bake potatoes, you can bake pumpkin. I used a pressure cooker for convenience, but if you use regular cooking, I'd estimate the cooking time at around 20 minutes. Happy bakes all. 

Benito's picture
Benito

Ah yes butternut squash, we eat them often.  They obviously contributed to a nice tender looking crumb.

Benny

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Wow, that is gorgeous!

Would you mind if I featured this one on the home page for a while? If not, that is fine, but we've got a lot of new sourdough bakers here and this one is super inspiring. :)

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Floyd I'm really flattered with your request. It's huge motivation for an almost rookie baker. Please do so if possible. Thanks again for your kind offer. Antonio 

Chinkin's picture
Chinkin

I loved the bake and wanted to try it out...in the ingredients I see that you use 500 grams of sourdough culture in 1000 grams of flour +600 grams water mix...I just wanted to check to see if that was right..

thanks...will try it this weekend..

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Thanks for your message Chinkin. The ingredient list is correct and it's indeed 500 gr of 100% starter for 1,000 gr AP flour. Please don't forget the nuts as I did! They make a difference. Please let. Us know how this turns out. 

Chinkin's picture
Chinkin

Baked this a couples of weeks ago and again today.. it is delicious. My only challenge with the dough is that both the times it was extremely wet and hard to shape as well.. had to use a lot of flour...not sure if it is just me...it is a desert bread for me! Thanks

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Chinkin I'm happy that you enjoyed it! It's almost a dessert bread as you rightly say. 

Depending on what flour I'm baking with, you're right, the dough could be very wet. As suggested in #3 in the recipe, adjustments can /should be made. With the flour I'm currently using, I need around 5-7% more flour for the same amount of water.

Thanks again for reverting and glad you enjoyed it! 

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Sorry, duplicate post. 

Ade's picture
Ade

Wow, it looks gorgeous!

Any way of substituting the milk powder with actual milk? I guess that 50 gr of milk would mean -50 of the water in the dough?

Thanks!

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Thanks for your question Ade. I’ve always used milk powder for this one. Based on my experience with  a different sourdough recipe, I’d rather use evaporated milk or scalded milk (boiled and cooled down). Please let us know how it turns out.

Meat5000's picture
Meat5000 (not verified)

Yes, just adjust for the water content. Milk should always be scalded unless doing a short rise with commercial yeast.

Meat5000's picture
Meat5000 (not verified)

Looks tasty which is the tricky thing with sourdough.

This is my kind of sourdough loaf preference. Well baked!

In Uk we call it a Butternut Squash.

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Thanks a lot for your encouragement. It was 2/3 luck ,1/3 craftsmanship. I’m not at that stage where this kind of loaf can be baked consistently, but I keep trying.

iamsaraiam's picture
iamsaraiam

Amazingly beautiful loaf. I thought it was the cover picture from Tartine cookbook.

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Thanks a lot for your kind words. As, said above, it was 2/3 luck, 1/3 skills but still a huge boost to my baking ego. Safe bakes. 

Android Baker's picture
Android Baker

Beautiful bread! Your instructions say 15 minutes at 190 and 10-15 at 230. When are you removing the cover from the dutch oven?

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Thanks for your question concerning the Dutch Oven. Actually I always bake this on a baking stone with steam, which allows me to check regularly on the crust color, and eventually put a piece of foil on the loaf so it's not too dark /burned.

If I was to use a DO (I'm making this up as I write) I'd bake it @ 180-190C, lid on for 15-20 minutes and then without the lid until done. I'd still have foil on hand in case it's needed to protect the crust. Let us know how it goes. Enjoy the recipe.