Pumpkin Shaped Sourdough Bread Loaf
Learn how to make a pumpkin shaped sourdough bread loaf with this easy tutorial. Turn an everyday sourdough loaf into a pumpkin for fall!
Servings: 1 Loaf
Equipment
Ingredients
Instructions
- First, you're going to mix the bread dough. I use my easy sourdough bread recipe for this pumpkin shaped sourdough bread. Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix together. Let the dough rest for an hour and then do four sets of stretches and folds.Allow the dough to bulk ferment for 8-10 hours or overnight. After the bulk fermentation time is up, and the dough has doubled in size, shape the dough into a ball and put into a floured banneton basket covered with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap. Put the dough into the refrigerator for a minimum of 3 hours (or overnight) for the final proofing period.After the final proof in the refrigerator, preheat the oven to the temperature called for in the recipe (mine calls for 450 degrees F) with the Dutch oven inside the oven so that they preheat together.
- Cut 4 pieces of kitchen twine about 40" long and set aside. Cut a piece of parchment paper large enough to fit inside your Dutch oven with extra on the sides so you can easily get your bread into and out of the hot pan. Set the parchment paper aside for now.
- Remove your cold dough from the refrigerator and uncover it. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the top of the dough. Lay the pieces of string over the top of the dough and drape them over the banneton basket. The strings should be crossing each other, dividing the dough into 8 sections.
- Place a piece of parchment paper over the top of the dough and the banneton basket. Using your hand or a cutting board, flip the basket over onto the parchment paper. Carefully remove the banneton so that the dough is now on the parchment paper with the strings on the bottom.
- Flour the top of the dough (use all purpose flour or rice flour for this) and then tie the strings together at the top of the loaf. Be careful not to pull too tight on the strings, or the dough will have difficulty expanding. Trim off any extra string at the top.
- Score your dough using a razor blade or bread lame. Remove the hot Dutch oven from the oven and carefully lower your scored bread dough into the pot.
- Bake for the length of time your recipe calls for (my recipe takes about 50 minutes).
- After the cook time is up, check on your loaf of bread. It should be golden brown. If not, give it another 5-10 minutes or so without the lid. When it's done, remove the pumpkin shaped sourdough bread from the Dutch oven and transfer to a cooling rack.
- Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, and then remove the twine and add a cinnamon stick to the top for a stem.
