Sourdough Pumpkin Bread Loaf With Cinnamon Swirl

This easy sourdough pumpkin bread loaf is the perfect bread for the fall holiday season! It’s a beautiful, moist and tender loaf with swirls of cinnamon and pumpkin spice within.

Made with active sourdough starter and canned pumpkin puree, this pumpkin flavored sourdough bread has a golden crust and moist crumb. It’s perfect for the Thanksgiving table!

This sourdough pumpkin loaf features a light pumpkin flavor with highlights of pumpkin spice and cinnamon. It’s mildly sweet with subtle pumpkin tones, highlighted with pumpkin spice. You can find a quick sourdough discard pumpkin bread here.

I recommend adding the spices in with a lamination, which will give you swirls of spices in the final loaf. To turn this bread into a sweeter loaf you can add an optional cinnamon swirl with brown sugar with my maple pecan sourdough bread.

New to baking with sourdough? Learn how to make sourdough starter from scratch here, and learn how to feed and maintain your starter.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Simple: Like my sourdough dutch oven recipe, this artisan bread loaf is simple and straight-forward to make. You can do a simple lamination of the dough to add spices or add a pretty cinnamon swirl.
• Flexible: This bread can be baked in a Dutch oven or in a loaf pan, and you can add a cinnamon swirl or leave it out! Learn how to bake sourdough bread in a loaf pan here.
• Festive fall pumpkin flavor: Subtle fall flavors like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves, this easy to make loaf is a perfect sourdough Thanksgiving recipe. Learn how to shape this sourdough bread into a pumpkin to make it even more festive!
• Bold color + texture: This pumpkin bread has a rich orange-colored dough, making it delightful to work with- and delicious!

Ingredient Notes

See the full recipe card for full ingredients and amounts.

• Active sourdough starter: Feed your starter 4-8 hours prior to starting this bread. The active, bubbly starter will activate the loaf.
• Canned pumpkin: I recommend using Libby’s canned pumpkin. Do not use pumpkin pie filling.
• Maple syrup– use only real maple syrup for this recipe.
• Pumpkin pie spice- This recipe calls for both pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. Learn how to make easy homemade pumpkin pie spice if you don’t have any in the pantry.

Jamie’s Recipe Tips

• Fermentation time: Bulk fermentation is temperature dependent and will depend on the temperature of your home. This recipe was tested at a room temperature of 75-77 degrees F, which means the bulk ferment was complete in a short 4-5 hours. In cooler temperatures, the bulk ferment will take longer. See this post to learn about sourdough bread baking schedules.
• Use visual clues to tell you when your loaf is done fermenting: it should be just under double in size, with air pockets throughout. The dough should pull away easily from the sides of the bowl and be slightly domed in the center.
• Cinnamon swirl: Because of the high hydration of this dough it can be difficult to get a brown sugar cinnamon swirl- it tends to leak out. Because of this, I recommend laminating in the spices, which gives you ribbons of color throughout the dough, without the leakage. You can, however, try for a cinnamon swirl following my method in this maple pecan bread loaf.
• Due to moisture content in the pumpkin puree, this bread is a higher hydration loaf and will feel a little wet and sticky to work with.
• Use warm water to speed up the fermentation time. The spices in the pumpkin pie spice may inhibit the fermentation time slightly, and the warm water helps to speed it back up.
• Shape this dough as a sourdough boule or make it into a sandwich loaf- see how to bake sourdough bread in a loaf pan.

How To Make Artisan Sourdough Pumpkin Bread Loaf

Step 1: Whisk together the warm water and active sourdough starter. Then add the maple syrup, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, flour, and salt. The dough will be slightly sticky.

Mix well, then cover the dough with a damp tea towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

Step 2: Stretch and fold the dough. To do this, grab one quarter of the dough, stretch it up, then fold it over itself. Repeat for the next quarter of dough, and work your way around the dough ball until it is no longer stretchy and elastic. Cover the dough and let it rest.

Repeat two more sets of stretch and folds, spaced 20-30 minutes apart.

Step 3: Let the dough ferment at room temperature until it is almost double in size, has bubbles on the surface of the dough, and is slightly domed.

Once it is fully fermented dump the dough out on a lightly floured work surface.

Step 4: You can now either laminate the dough or add a cinnamon swirl to it. If you’d like to try adding a swirl, see the steps in my maple pecan sourdough blogpost.

To laminate, stretch the dough out into a rough rectangle shape, careful not to tear the dough.

Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and pumpkin spice, then fold the sides in. Sprinkle the folded sides with pumpkin spice and cinnamon, then fold again. Repeat until you can no longer fold the dough. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes. You can add more or less of the spices to your taste.

Step 5: Shape the dough by gently rolling it into a ball on the counter. To add tension to the dough, push the dough in one direction while gently pulling it with the other hand, so you are twirling it on the counter, repeating 5-7 times.

Set the dough in a banneton, cover with a damp cloth and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Step 6: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and place your Dutch oven in it to preheat. Set the dough on a piece of parchment paper.

You can choose to lightly flour this dough before scoring, or score without flour. Score the dough and place it in the warm Dutch oven.

If you’d like to make a pumpkin shaped sourdough bread loaf, you can shape it + score now. (Pictured above).

Bake for 25 minutes, remove the lid of the Dutch oven, then bake for an additional 25 minutes or until golden brown.

How To Store

Store uneaten bread in a breathable paper bag, linen bag, or a dry tea towel to keep the moisture intact.

To freeze, slice the bread and place wrap in plastic wrap, then place in an airtight container. Toast the bread to warm it up.

Sourdough Pumpkin Bread Loaf Faq’s

More Fall Sourdough Recipes

If you love this pumpkin loaf, you’ll also enjoy cozy sourdough discard pumpkin bars, pumpkin sourdough focaccia, and sourdough pumpkin chocolate chip bread.

If you tried this artisan sourdough pumpkin bread loaf or any other recipe on my blog please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!