This is the loaf that makes people put their drink down. It is a normal sourdough in every way that matters — the same starter, the same folds, the same bake — with roasted squash worked through the crumb and four lengths of kitchen string doing the clever bit.
The string is the whole trick. Tied round the shaped dough before it proves, it holds eight segments in place while the loaf rises and bakes around it. Snip it off warm, push a stub of cinnamon stick into the top, and you have a pumpkin. No carving, no moulds, no food colouring.
The squash does two jobs
Roasted purée brings colour and a soft sweetness, but it also brings water — which is why the water in this recipe is lower than in a plain loaf. Roast the squash rather than boiling it, or you will be adding a great deal of moisture you cannot measure, and the dough will slacken on you during bulk.
Let it go completely cold before it meets the starter. Warm purée will push the fermentation along faster than you expect and you will lose the shoulders on the loaf.
Use whatever is on the shelf — crown prince, kabocha and butternut all roast down well. A carving pumpkin will work but it is watery and mild, so roast it longer and expect a paler crumb.
Tying the string
Four lengths, each about 70cm, rubbed with a little oil so they release cleanly later. Lay them across each other like the spokes of a wheel, sit the shaped dough in the middle, bring the ends up over the top and tie them off.
Tie them loosely. This is the one place people go wrong. The dough has a proof and a bake still to come, and string pulled tight now will cut through the loaf rather than shape it. You want the string sitting on the dough, not biting into it — the rise does the rest of the work.
Out of the oven
Snip the string while the loaf is still warm and lift it away. If a length sticks, run a knife tip under it rather than pulling — the crust is at its most fragile in the first few minutes.
Then the stalk. A stub of cinnamon stick pushed into the centre is the tidiest option and perfumes the top of the loaf as it cools. A twist of vine, a rosemary stem or a clean twig all work if you would rather not lose a cinnamon stick to it.
The crumb comes out somewhere between gold and amber depending on your squash, soft and faintly sweet against the sourness. It makes exceptional toast, and it is very good indeed with a sharp cheese.
Haven’t got a starter going?
Ours is live and never dehydrated, so it wakes on contact with flour and water and is ready to bake with in about two hours — not the week a dried culture needs to revive. Free next-day UK delivery on orders placed by 2pm.
Notes
Allergens: contains wheat (gluten). Made in a kitchen that also handles rye.
Timing. Roast the squash the day before if that suits you better — it keeps three days covered in the fridge, and it means the bake day is just a normal bake day.
Make it darker. Swap 50g of the white flour for wholemeal. The crumb loses a little of its brightness but gains a nuttiness that suits the squash.
Ghosts, if you must. A few small rounds of the same dough, shaped into teardrops, proved alongside and baked flat on a tray, make perfectly serviceable ghosts for a table. Two currants each, pushed in before baking.
