Pumpkin Sourdough

I don't really know how to explain this one. To be honest, I had a weird craving for something that doesn't really exist. And to justify it, I came up with a lot of reasons as to why I should do it. Reasons like, all those cans of pumpkin puree are on sale since Thanksgiving has now passed..and theoretically the bread would be orange, and we all need a little color in our lives, right? Right. Despite my efforts, I could not find a recipe for this bread. So what did I do? I made it up. All in all, it was a pretty exciting experiment. The bread itself is a little spicy and the color is delightful.

ingredients:

2 cups of proofed starter
1/2 cup of pumpkin puree
3 teaspoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of molasses
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of water (probably only needed 1/4)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
a dash of nutmeg

about 1/2 cup of wheat flour
and 3 to 4 cups of white flour

here's what I did:

I started by proofing my sourdough starter overnight. When it was good and ready this morning, I measured out 2 cups and set it aside. Then I put the pumpkin puree, olive oil, sugar, molasses, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl and added my starter and water to that. Gradually, I mixed in the wheat flour, and then the white flour until the dough started to pull together.

The dough was then kneaded for about 10 minutes until elastic and smooth and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.

Once doubled (2 hours later) I punched it down and kneaded lightly, then formed it into a loaf and placed it on a greased baking sheet to rise again until doubled.

Once doubled, I let it bake in a preheated oven to 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until delightfully browned and hollow when tapped with a wooden spoon.


My last note is that this would make amazing sandwich bread. You know you wanna.