Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Loaf, The Best Slow Fermented Recipe

Fall in love with this slow-fermented sourdough pumpkin spice loaf. It's easy to make and packed with cozy fall flavors.

Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Loaf

This rustic fall pumpkin loaf is gorgeous on the counter, and makes an impressive gift! It's spiced with a generous amount of ground cinnamon and lightly sweetened with real maple syrup! This loaf was made with whole wheat, but can also be made with white flour.

This sourdough pumpkin spice loaf is perfect to serve on it's own with soft butter or cream cheese... And it also goes perfectly with a cozy bowl of Zuppa Toscana or crockpot potato soup!

Simple Ingredients

I did use a baking scale when creating this recipe, and you will get my exact results if you can also use one... If not, I am also including the cup measurements;)

• 480 grams, 4 cups, flour. I used fresh ground Einkorn flour, but you can use whole wheat, all purpose or bread flour.
• 136 grams, 1 cup, un-sifted bread flour.
• 183 grams, 1 cup, fed white flour sourdough starter.
• 250 grams, 1 cup, pumpkin puree. I use plain pumpkin puree here, no sugar or spices were added to it.
• 65 grams, ⅓ cup, melted butter
• 280 grams, 1cup, real maple syrup. You could also use honey here, there will be a little different flavor from the honey flavor instead of the maple flavor.
• 1 large egg.
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon powder
• 2 tablespoons oil. I used olive oil, but any light flavored oil will work.

How To Make Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Loaf

In a large mixing bowl combine: the sourdough starter, egg, pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, melted butter, and maple syrup. And whisk it together till it's all well combined.

To the wet mixture add: all the flour, salt and ground cinnamon. Use a large spoon or a Danish whisk to stir till well combined. This will make a SHAGGY dough. It will be a bit sticky, but don't worry, after fermenting it shapes up nicely!

Drizzle the top of your dough with the oil. Cover your dough in the mixing bowl with a clean towel, or plastic wrap. Let it sit on the counter at room temperature for 4-5 hours.

Start your first set of stretch and folds: To do stretch and folds, gently stretch the dough pulling one top side of your dough ball up, and folding it in half. Then rotate the bowl 90 degrees, and repeat the process on all 4 sides of your dough.

Stretch and folds is a technique used in breadmaking to develop the gluten in the dough and distribute the yeast evenly. This helps the gluten create a strong, elastic dough that will rise evenly and hold its shape!

Cover your dough again with your clean tea towel or plastic wrap, let it rise for another hour, and do another set of stretch and folds. Cover and let it rise another hour, and repeat the stretch and fold, and rising pattern 4 times.

Overnight Fermentation

Shape your pumpkin spice sourdough loaf for overnight fermentation in a banneton basket is a simple process that helps the bread develop a beautiful, rounded shape. If you don't have a banneton basket, use a large bowl with narrow sides.

1. Prep the banneton: Line the banneton basket with a clean linen cloth, and dust it with flour to prevent sticking.
2. Round the dough: After 4 sets of stretch and folds, gently flour a clean work surface. Place the dough in the center and tuck the edges underneath to form a tight ball.
3. Shape the boule: Place the rounded dough in the prepared banneton on floured towel.
4. Dust with flour: Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour.
5. Cover and refrigerate: Cover the banneton with a clean cloth or plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for overnight fermentation. You can ferment just overnight, or for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

The next morning, or the day you will bake, remove your loaf from the refrigerator.

Shape Loaf for Baking

To make this pumpkin shape, I keep the dough in the banneton basket, depress a 3-4 inch circle in the middle of the loaf, and use my fingers to poke a 2 inch deep hole into the middle of the loaf and depressed area.

Place 3 long cinnamon sticks into the hole in the middle of the loaf.

Cover with a clean towel, and let it sit at room temperature till it has risen by ⅓-1/2 it's size.

Preheat a covered dutch oven in your oven at 425 degrees F.

Place your pumpkin loaf, hole side up on parchment paper.

Score 5 semi half circle lines from top of the loaf to the bottom, around the sides of your pumpkin loaf. This creates the indentions on the sides of your "pumpkin".

Place loaf with parchment paper into hot Dutch oven. Cover with the lid and bake at 425 COVERED for 25 minutes.

Remove the dutch oven lid, and continue baking at 425 degrees F for another 20 minutes till the loaf is nice and browned.

Remove from the oven and dutch oven. Cool and enjoy!

Print the Recipe Card

If you try this recipe and like it, I'd really appreciate a star rating on it, or a review in the comments below... Thank YOU!