Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Sourdough
A cozy pumpkin sourdough bread with a sweet cinnamon-sugar swirl and warm pumpkin spice. This sourdough pumpkin bread is soft, lightly sweet, and perfect for fall baking. I promise you will be obsessed with this recipe. I look forward to it all year.
Equipment
- Large glass or ceramic mixing bowl
- Kitchen scale
- Kitchen towel or plastic wrap
- Dough whisk or wooden spoon
- Bench scraper
- Medium-sized bowl or banneton
- Parchment paper
- Scoring tool or knife
- Dutch oven
- Cookie sheet
- Bread Knife
Ingredients
Dough
- 100 g active sourdough starter fed and bubbly
- 25 g honey or maple syrup
- 240 g room temperature filtered water
- 200 g pumpkin purée unsweetened
- 500 g bread flour or unbleached all-purpose
- 12 g salt
Cinnamon Swirl Filling
- 85 g brown sugar
- 5 g ground cinnamon
- 5 g pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Mix the Dough – In a large bowl, stir together starter, water, honey, and pumpkin purée. Add flour and salt, then mix until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest 1 hour.
- Stretch and Folds – Perform 3–4 sets of stretch and folds every 30 minutes over 2 hours. Keep covered between sets.
- Bulk Fermentation – Cover and let the dough rise at room temperature until airy and bubbly (3–12 hours depending on temperature).
- Shape + Add the Swirl – Turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently stretch it into a rectangle. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly across most of the surface, leaving a small border around the edges. Fold each long side of the dough inward toward the center, without overlapping. Sprinkle the remaining mixture evenly over the top of the folded dough. Starting at one short end, roll the dough up tightly into a log, like making cinnamon rolls, to create the swirl. Pinch the seams to seal in the filling. Shape the log into a round or oval loaf and place it seam-side up in a floured banneton. Cover and let rest for 30–60 minutes, then refrigerate for 4–24 hours.
- Score + Bake – Preheat your oven to 450°F (230°C) with the Dutch oven inside, which usually takes about 20–30 minutes. Flip the dough onto two overlapping pieces of parchment paper (this helps catch any sugar that might leak so your Dutch oven doesn’t end up coated in baked-on cinnamon sugar). Make one clean score down the middle or along the side, rather than decorative cuts, since the cinnamon sugar can liquefy and get messy. Carefully lower the dough into the hot Dutch oven, cover, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, reduce the oven temperature to 425°F (218°C), and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. I like to put a cookie sheet on the bottom rack of the oven to prevent the bottom of my loaf from burning.
- Cool + Enjoy – Let cool at least 1 hour before slicing to allow the swirl to set.