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sourdough cinnamon pumpkin focaccia

Pumpkin season is here! And that means cue fall recipes 🙂 This sourdough cinnamon pumpkin focaccia bread makes the most delicious breakfast or dessert. It is flavored with pumpkin, cinnamon, and brown sugar! It has an irresistible crispy crust caramelized by butter and brown sugar, yet it is fluffy and airy inside with a hint of pumpkin. This makes it the perfect fall treat your whole family will love! 
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
12 hours
Total Time 12 hours 55 minutes
Course: bread, Breakfast, Dessert
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Dough
  • 375 grams warm filtered water
  • 100 grams active sourdough starter
  • 600 grams  bread flour
  • 10 grams salt
  • 15 grams avocado oil ( or light-flavored olive oil)
  • 200 grams pumpkin purĂ©e
  • 5 grams vanilla exract 
  • 45 grams white granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbl pumpkin spice
Toppings
  • 2 tbl melted butter
  • 2 tbl cinnamon
  • 3/4 up brown sugar
Cream cheese frosting
  • 8 oz cream cheese
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup milk

Equipment

  • Sheet pan with tall sides
  • Large mixing bowl 
  • shower cap or plastic wrap
  • danish whisk
  • Kitchen scale

Method
 

  1. Once your sourdough starter is leavened ( risen), it’s time to mix the dough. To a large bowl, add 375 grams of warm filtered water, 100 grams leavened sourdough starter, 15 grams oil, 5 grams vanilla, 200 grams pumpkin puree, 45 grams sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice. l. I use a food scale for accurate measurements. This is the one I have and love! It comes with a charger for easy charging. Mix all the ingredients using a dough whisk. 
    Then, add 600 grams of unbleached bread flour and 10 grams of fine sea salt. Mix the ingredients together to form a shaggy dough. Cover the bowl with either a shower cap or a tea towel. Recently, I started using shower caps to cover the bowls. It works so well! I just slip one over the bowl, and it stays in place. I bought a whole pack of them specifically for this, and I keep them in my proofing baskets for sourdough bread.
    Cover, then let the sourdough cinnamon pumpkin dough rest in a warm spot for 1 hour.
Stretch and fold
  1. You will do three sets of stretch and folds, with 30-minute breaks in between. It will look like this:
    Strecth and folding will help to develop gluten which will create structure. It will also introduce air into the dough, resulting in those beautiful air bubbles focaccia bread is known for! Grab an edge and pull up, Be careful because focaccia dough has more water than regular sourdough bread. Sourdough focaccia bread is lighter, and it will rip much easier. Pull upwards as much as it would let you without ripping ( keep a damp hand  to prevent them from sticking to the dough). Fold it over to the middle. Turn the bowl and do the same till all sides are folded. Cover the bowl with saran wrap or a clean shower cap
    The next day: Iine a tall sheet pan with parchment paper and drizzled 1 tbl of olive oil over it. If you have a good nonstick sheet pan you don’t need to line it with parchment paper, just drizzle it with 1 tbl of olive oil.
    Stretch and fold, cover with a shower cap, and rest for 30 minutesStretch and fold, cover with a shower cap, and rest for 30 minutesStretch and fold, cover with a shower cap, then leave it on the countertop to bulk ferment overnight (Let the dough rise for 8-10 hours or until doubled in size).
Let it rise!
  1. Once your dough is transferred into your baking vessel, gently spread the sourdough pumpkin dough to fit the pan. Try to be gentle, you don’t want to deflate it or rip it. Use your finger tips to spread it into all corners. Don’t dig your fingertips into the dough. You don’t want to disturb the bubbles inside. If the dough is too difficult to spread out, let it relax at room temperature for 20 minutes while covered with a towel, then continue.
    Once the sourdough cinnamon pumpkin focaccia dough is spread out, cover it with a tea towel and let it rise for 3-4 hours at room temperature. The dough will almost double in size. The dough should have lots of bubbles on top.
    Pre-heat your the oven to 450 F
Toppings
  1. On top of the focaccia dough, drizzle 2 tablespoons of melted butter over the top of the dough, then evenly sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cinnamon and 1 cup of brown sugar.
Make dimples
  1. To make dimples, simply place your finger tips into the well-fermented sourdough pumpkin focaccia dough until you reach the bottom of the pan. Do this all over the dough. Place the sourdough focaccia in the center rack of the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the dough temperature hits 190 degrees F in the center or until the top is a light golden brown color. If the top is burning to much, place foil on top. 
    Let the sourdough cinnamon pumpkin focaccia cool for 10 minutes in the baking dish, then remove it and let it cool on a wire rack. 
    While the sourdough pumpkin focaccia is cooling, make the cream cheese icing. Combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk in a small bowl, and whisk with a handheld mixer till the frosting is smooth. Drozzle the cream cheese over the focaccia. I hope you love this recipe as much as we do!

Notes

Baker’s schedule:

  1. 3:00pm Feed sourdough starter 50g starter, 100g water, 100g flour. Let it rise until it is ripe and leavened. 
  2. 6:00pm mix the sourdough focaccia dough – rest for 1 hour then do 3 sets of S&f’s
  3. 8:30pm cover and let it bulk ferment – first rise
  4. The  next morning: 8:00am – transfer to a baking dish to let it do a second rise
  5. 10:00am bake! 
The rise times will depend on how cold oe warm the environment is, the colder the house the slower the dough will ferment.Â