This Pumpkin Seed Bread recipe is from one of Austin's best bread bakers, David Norman. It's about 25 years old, and I wish I'd discovered it sooner. It has such and interesting texture. There's a soft crumb, crunch from cornmeal and pumpkin seeds and a very chewy crust -- just a whole lot going on with texture and flavor.
Pre-Ferment Starts Night Before
This recipe starts with a mixture of flour, yeast and water that you let stand overnight. Bread making is a very good way to practice delayed gratification. All the best recipes start with a sponge or a poolish or some pre-ferment of yeast and flour that sits overnight. I don't like having to wait, but forced myself to do the first step the night before and was rewarded on baking day with a bubbly pre-ferment. Since I knew I was going to be using a stand mixer, I used the stand mixer bowl for the pre-ferment.
Pumpkin Seeds
You might have to hit the bulk bin for a good deal on pumpkin seeds because this bread calls for a cup and a half or almost 6 oz/170 grams. Here's what they looked like toasted at 350 for about 8 minutes. All of these get folded into the dough, so you will get plenty of healthy pumpkin seeds in each bite of bread.
Dough Consistency
And here's a not-so-great photo of the dough before I added the pumpkin seeds, but I wanted to give you an idea of the texture. It was soft, but not too sticky and held its shape well enough. I used 385 grams of flour total and probably could have probably gotten away with a little more, but the loaves were great with the 385. I also used bread flour rather than all-purpose. You may need a little more flour with all-purpose.
Stand Mixer and Dutch Oven
My version of this recipe calls for a stand mixer, but Dave Norman (aka Dough Puncher) does it all by hand. He also bakes his on a pizza stone. I tend to ruin my pizza stones and now mostly use the Dutch oven method for baking. If you have an oblong Dutch oven you can easily fit two loaves. I squished two loaves into a round Dutch oven and they fused together which I expected. And I did not slash my loaves, but will next time.
Here's the recipe as I made it using medium ground Bob's Red Mill cornmeal. My husband really loved the texture which means I'll be making this again and will of course add more notes.
Recipe
Pumpkin Seed Bread
Ingredients
Overnight Mixture
- ⅛ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 cup room temperature water
- 1 ¾ cup bread flour or all-purpose (210 grams)
Baking Day Mixture
- 1 ½ cups pumpkin seeds, toasted
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- ½ cup lukewarm water, divided use
- 1 cup commeal, I used medium grind (150 grams)
- 1 ⅓ cups bread flour or all-purpose (175 grams)
- 1 ¾ teaspoons Morton Kosher Salt or 1 tablespoon Diamond
Instructions
- In a stand mixer bowl or another larger bowl, dissolve ⅛ teaspoon of the yeast in 1 cup water. Stir in 1 ¾ cups (I used 210 grams) of the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand overnight in a warm spot. For the "warm spot" I just left it on the kitchen counter.
Baking Day
- Before you get started, toast your pumpkin seeds. You can use any method. I just spread them on a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 7 minutes or until they are aromatic and start to brown a little. Let cool.
- Dissolve 1 teaspoon of yeast in ¼ cup of the water.
- Bring the other ¼ cup of water to a boil (microwave or a saucepan) and mix it with the cornmeal. It will just make the cornmeal slightly wet. Let cool. This just softens the cornmeal somewhat.
- Add the wet cornmeal and the dissolved yeast mixture to the stand mixer bowl with the overnight mixture. Give it a stir, then add 1 cup of flour (130 grams), reserving ⅓ cup (45-50 grams) for adding while kneading.
- Knead with the dough hook for about 5 to 8 minutes, adding the remaining ⅓ cup of flour gradually and scraping sides of bowl. Adjust flour and water as needed. The dough should be soft, but stiff enough to hold its shape and it should be elastic enough to snap off sides of the bowl when scraped. Add the pumpkin seeds, kneading them in gently with the hook.
- Alternatively, if you are strong and like to do things by hand, you can knead for 15 minutes using all of the flour and maybe a little more if needed.
- After kneading and adding the seeds, leave in the mixer bowl (or return to it if you kneaded by hand), then cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour.
- Turn the dough out onto a work surface and fold, press and stretch four times working it into a not too sticky ball of dough. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk for another 1 hour.
- Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide in half. Shape each half into a round loaf. Set the loaves on a piece of parchment and cover with a piece of greased plastic wrap. Let rise for another hour to hour and a half.
- Set a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees F.
- Put some water in a roasting pan and set it on the bottom rack to get the oven nice and steamy.
- When oven is hot and bread has risen, slash the loaves three times (I completely skipped this the first time) and transfer the loaves to the pizza stone. When using a stone, I do this by just sliding the parchment and the loaves onto the stone. Some people use a paddle, but I've never owned one.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 500 degrees F, then reduce heat to 450F and bake for another 20 minutes. Let cool for at least 45 minutes before serving.
Dutch Oven Method
- If you have an oblong Dutch oven you can easily fit two, but if you have a round Dutch oven the two loaves will probably fuse together, which is how I did it. You can also make one big loaf if you prefer, but you will probably have to bake a little longer. Lift parchment with loaves and plop it all into the hot Dutch oven. Close.
- Bake at 450, covered, for 25 minutes. Remove lid and bake uncovered at 400 for another 20-25 minutes or until bread looks crust and golden. Let cool for at least 45 minutes.
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