There are few things more cosy than pumpkins, warm autumn spices, and the smell of homemade sourdough bread baking in the oven. This pumpkin shaped sourdough bread recipe (with pumpkin spice) combines all three! With pumpkin purée and warm spices, it's whimsical, beautiful, and tastes absolutely delicious. Perfect with some butter, honey, cinnamon and salt!

If you are new to sourdough bread, then be sure to check out my easy beginner's no-knead sourdough bread guide! This recipe for pumpkin shaped sourdough bread is basically my standard sourdough bread recipe, with the addition of homemade pumpkin purée, and warm autumn spices.

It's a beautiful variation on sourdough that's gently spiced, and slightly sweetened with pumpkin and brown sugar. Trust me, as the smell fills your kitchen when the bread is baking, you'll get that cosy, warm, fuzzy feeling inside!

Ingredients

The ingredients for this pumpkin shaped sourdough bread are just the standard sourdough bread ingredients, plus pumpkin and spices! So, as per any standard sourdough bread recipe, you'll need water, plain flour, salt, and active sourdough starter.

You'll also need some pumpkin (I use Kent/Japanese pumpkin here, but butternut would work well too). If you can find canned pumpkin purée where you live, then feel free to use that! It's hard to find here in Australia. Our pumpkin season/autumn starts in March, so we miss out on that cosy holiday baking season around Christmas-time. No matter - we are making homemade pumpkin purée for this recipe! Luckily, it's really quite easy!

For the spices, you'll need brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, and allspice. If you can find pumpkin spice, then feel free to use that instead. But again, this is non-existent in Aussie stores! And, I like being able to control the exact flavour profile and amount of spices for this pumpkin shaped sourdough bread. So homemade pumpkin spice it is!

Important note on cinnamon and clove! Both of these spices can slow down the fermentation of the sourdough. This means that your sourdough loaf may end up denser than usual, and may not rise as quickly. As well as this, since we are adding in pumpkin purée, the loaf is heavier. So, it's going to be harder for the bread to create those little gas bubbles since everything is 'weighed down'. But knowledge is power my friends, and we can avoid dense sourdough loaves! There are two main things to watch out for - the amount of spice, and the bulk fermentation time. See below!

Key Tips for this Pumpkin Shaped Sourdough Bread:

• Do not add too much cinnamon and clove - stick to the amounts in the recipe. I sometimes add more cinnamon than some recipes suggest for various desserts, but this is one I'd be careful with. You can always whip up a cinnamon butter to spread on top of the bread, if you love cinnamon!
• Be prepared to let the dough bulk ferment/rise for longer. For reference, my bulk ferment took just over 16 hours, instead of the usual 8-12. It was rising very slowly (it also happened to be a colder day, but still!). Moral of the story - look at the dough, not the clock!

How to Make Pumpkin Shaped Sourdough Bread

Make the Pumpkin Purée

To make the pumpkin purée, roast the pumpkin until it has caramelised and softened. The caramelisation brings out the natural sweetness of the pumpkin through the Maillard reaction. And this is going to add maximum flavour to your pumpkin shaped sourdough bread! Then, scoop out the flesh, and simmer in a pot until the moisture has evaporated, and voilà - pumpkin purée!

You'll notice in the ingredients list it says to use 400g-500g of pumpkin. And this might seem like a lot, given we will only need 170g of pumpkin purée. But, by the time the pumpkin roasts in the oven, and the water content evaporates during cooking, you should end up with roughly 170g of pumpkin purée. Remember, pumpkin has a lot of water content (close to 90%)! Once you've made your pumpkin purée, let it cool completely before making your sourdough bread.

Make Your Sourdough Bread

Once the pumpkin purée has completely cooled, make the sourdough bread as per normal! Add your active sourdough starter, flour, salt and water to a large bowl, along with the cooled down pumpkin purée, and all the spices. Mix, and let everything 'fermentolyse' for a little while. A traditional sourdough bread recipe will ask you to mix your flour and let it ‘autolyse’. That’s when we let the water hydrate the flour by letting it rest for about 30 minutes. I skip this and just mix everything, and let all the ingredients autolyse together. It’s an easier, faster process, and you get a head-start on fermentation (hence the name 'fermentolyse')!

Then perform a few rounds of stretch and folds - I like to do anywhere from 3-6 every 20-40 minutes. To do a stretch and fold, grab one corner of the dough. Pull and stretch it up toward you, and fold it over the rest of the dough. Turn the bowl 90° and repeat for each corner of the dough, like you’re wrapping a little parcel with four corners! One revolution of the bowl/dough is considered one round of stretch and folds. You'll notice the dough becomes harder to stretch the more rounds you do. This is because the gluten structure is developing! You might have to wiggle the dough as you pull it up, during the last round.

Then let the dough rise in a warm spot until it has doubled in size. Remember, this step might take longer than usual for this loaf. Mine took 16 hours instead of the standard 8-12!

Once it has doubled in size, shape the dough by stretching it into a long rectangle, then rolling it up into a tight log (a batard). Then place in a banneton or floured tea towel in a bowl, and pinch the ends together. Cover, and let it rise a final time for a long, slow, cold ferment. This can be done overnight (or longer - think 12-26 hours) in the fridge. The longer you leave the dough, the more tangy it will be! If you're in a rush to bake that day, let it rise in a warm spot for 2-4 hours instead. When ready to bake, it's time to create the beautiful pumpkin shape!

Create the Pumpkin Shape, and Bake

This wouldn't be a pumpkin shaped sourdough bread without the pumpkin shape! This is done by grabbing 4 pieces of string and arranging them in a star-like pattern, on some baking paper. Then, place the dough in the centre, and tie up the ends of the string into the top centre of the dough. You want the strings to be snug, but not digging in and tearing the dough. Once you've tied the strings, you should have 8 segments in the dough. Dust the top liberally with flour (this will make your scoring pattern stand out). Do any scoring pattern you like, then just bake, and enjoy!

I love having mine with some butter, honey, a dash of cinnamon and some flaky salt. There's nothing better than fresh bread out of the oven, enjoyed simply!

I truly hope you enjoy this recipe! If you tried it and loved it, I would be so grateful if you left a 5-star review and a comment to let me know how it went! xxx