Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Sourdough Loaf
Sourdough Pumpkin Loaf – A Fall Favorite for Your Holiday Table
Who doesn’t love a good pumpkin loaf—especially when it’s sourdough? This sourdough pumpkin loaf is naturally leavened, long fermented, and packed with warm fall flavors. It’s soft and fluffy with just the right amount of chew, making it a perfect addition to your Thanksgiving table or any autumn meal.
Beautiful to serve and delicious to eat, this loaf brings both comfort and flavor to the season.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Pumpkin + Cinnamon Swirl Sourdough Loaf
This loaf of bread is both delicious and beautiful. A perfect piece to bring to your fall get together this season and especially a Friendsgiving dinner. I like that this loaf looks complicated, but with a couple of meaningful and simple additions, it turns into a statement loaf.
🍲 Ingredients
Sourdough Starter – The sourdough starter is the leavening agent to this loaf of bread. Feed your starter 6 – 8 hours before you want to assemble your dough, and this will ensure your bread rises and ferments appropriately. A great loaf of bread begins with a strong starter.
Flour – AP flour, or all-purpose flour, is really the only flour that I use in any of my recipes. I’ve learned over my years of baking that I don’t always have bread flour, cake flour, or even whole-wheat flour in my pantry – but I do always have AP flour on hand. So, I want to create recipes that anyone can make with what they have on hand without needing to get anything extra from the store.
Water – Filtered water is always the best for sourdough recipes!
Pumpkin Puree – Organic pumpkin puree is best, just make sure it’s not too watery or to drain the water so it doesn’t add too much to the dough.
Cinnamon – Adding to the fall flavor.
👩🍳 How to Make Pumpkin Sourdough Bread
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- During the peak baking season, I make a batch of cinnamon sugar and store it in a mason jar
- Use firm pumpkin purée (drain if watery) — too much liquid will weaken the dough.
- Tight roll = clean swirl. Dust lightly with flour before rolling to prevent sticking.
- Add-ins: Try chopped pecans, walnuts, or raisins with the swirl.
- Glaze option: Drizzle with maple glaze (powdered sugar + maple syrup + milk).
🗒 Bakers Schedule
In the morning, feed your starter.
In the evening, when your starter has peaked, assemble your dough and perform your stretch and folds.
Overnight, let your dough rest on the counter.
In the morning, divide your dough into two equal pieces, shape your dough, place it in your bannetons and let it rest + bake, or leave it in the fridge for up to 2 days.
🗒 Variations
If you have leftover pumpkin bread, this will work beautifully in a French toast casserole.
To make the pumpkin sourdough loaf into a pumpkin shape, cut 4 strings of butcher’s twine to about 18 inches. Cross them over each other, not too tight, but just so that the string fits around the loaf. Tie them at the top and cut off the access string.
Here are some other fall recipes you might like!
- Apple Crisp Sourdough Loaf – Acts Of Sourdough
- Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Bagels – Acts Of Sourdough
- Tiny Turkey Loaves – Acts Of Sourdough
- Cranberry Orange Baked Brie – Acts Of Sourdough
- Giant Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll – Acts Of Sourdough
🗒 Best Served
- with a smear of butter and more cinnamon sugar
- in a French toast casserole
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store your leftover sourdough bread in a brown paper bag either on the counter or in a bread box. Fresh sourdough bread will stay fresh for only 2 or 3 days.
🤔 Common Questions
The longer the bread stays in the fridge the more sour it will be, ideally it should stay in the fridge no more than 3 days or it will over proof.
To avoid burnt bottoms on your loaf, preheat your Dutch oven on top of a baking stone in the oven. The baking stone prevents the bottom of the bread from getting burnt.
Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Sourdough
Equipment
Ingredients
- 80 grams bubbly, active sourdough starter
- 300 grams water
- 150 grams pumpkin puree (about ½ cup)
- 525 grams all-purpose flour
- 10 grams salt
Cinnamon Sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- In the morning, feed your starter.
- 6-8 hours later, when your starter has peaked, assemble your dough.
Dough assembly
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your water, sourdough starter, and pumpkin purée until the starter and pumpkin have dissolved.
- Add in flour and salt until a shaggy dough forms. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes.
- Cover with a damp tea towel or bowl cover and let rest for 45 minutes.
- After resting, pull one side of the dough up and towards the middle, rotating the bowl and repeating each time for 30 to 60 seconds until a semi – smooth dough forms. Cover and let rest for one hour.
- Repeat the stretch and folds 3 more times every 30 minutes – 1 hour apart.
- Cover your bowl with a damp tea towel and let rest on the counter to bulk ferment for 8-10 hours.
The next morning
- The next morning, transfer your fermented dough to clean workspace.
- Slightly stretch your dough out into a rectangle shape.
- Mix together your brown sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle 3/4 of the mixture all over the top of the dough.
- Fold one of the longer sides of the rectangle up and towards the middle, do the same with the other side and meet it towards the center.
- Sprinkle the remainder of your cinnamon sugar over the fold and gently roll your dough up to form a ball.
- Be very careful not to handle the dough to much, the sugar and cinnamon will make the dough very fragile so it will easily rip.
- Use your bench scraper to transfer the dough into a floured banneton seam side up. Let rest in the banneton for 10 minutes
- After resting, stitch the center of the bread dough from the top all the way to the bottom.
- Cover, and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to 48 hours.
Baking
- When you're ready to bake, place your Dutch oven into your home oven and preheat it to 450 degrees for at least 20 minutes.
- Transfer your dough onto a piece of parchment paper. Using a bread lame, score the top of the dough into whatever design you like best.
- Carefully place the dough into a hot Dutch oven with the parchment paper. Recover with the lid and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for an additional 23 – 25 minutes, depending on how golden you like the crust.
- Remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack. Let your bread fully cool before slicing and serving with a side of soft butter or apple butter.
Notes
- Use firm pumpkin purée (drain if watery) — too much liquid will weaken the dough.
- Tight roll = clean swirl. Dust lightly with flour before rolling to prevent sticking.
- Add-ins: Try chopped pecans, walnuts, or raisins with the swirl.
- Glaze option: Drizzle with maple glaze (powdered sugar + maple syrup + milk).
