I Tried Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Sourdough and I'm Obsessed

Okay so I have to be honest, I didn't think I was a pumpkin person. Like, pumpkin spice everything has never really been my thing, but then I was like "wait, what if we did a pumpkin cinnamon swirl in sourdough?" and I was immediately like, that actually sounds incredible.

So I decided to try it for the fall season, and let me tell you, this has been such a fun experiment. The tricky part about doing fun flavors with sourdough is that you still need to respect the fermentation process, you know? Like, you can't just throw stuff in there and expect Yeaston to be happy. My starter has opinions about what goes into the dough, and honestly, I get it.

I started playing around with the recipe a few weeks ago, and the first thing I realized is that pumpkin puree has a lot of moisture. So I had to adjust my hydration and figure out how much pumpkin I could add without messing up the gluten development during my stretch-and-folds. It took a few tries to dial it in, but that's kind of the whole point of being a baker, right? I've been baking sourdough for a little under a year now, and I'm still learning something new with every loaf.

Here's what I ended up doing: I mixed the pumpkin right into the dough, and then during shaping, I do this cinnamon sugar swirl. It's so good. The cinnamon literally spirals through the bread, and when you cut into it and see that swirl in the crumb structure, it's just satisfying in a way I can't even explain.

The bulk fermentation takes a little longer because of the added moisture. It's nice that it's cooling down now because the heat isn't as intense as it was all summer here in Las Vegas. I've been able to time my bakes a lot easier. I wake up early, get everything ready, and by the time my homeschool stuff starts, the bulk fermentation is already going. Then I do my stretch-and-folds, shape it, and let the final proof happen while I'm doing schoolwork. By evening, I'm scoring these beautiful pumpkin loaves and sliding them into my Dutch oven.

These loaves literally just came out, so I'm still waiting to see what people think. I'm pretty proud of how they turned out though, and I'm really hoping my friends and family love them as much as I do. Fingers crossed that this pumpkin cinnamon swirl sourdough becomes a thing. Who knows, maybe by next fall I'll have perfected the recipe even more.